"LI  B  RAR.Y 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 
Of    ILLINOIS 


ftL  HI6T.  SURVEV 


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J    t 


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H-CCnop  »r  JP    A   C- 


THE 


BENCH   AND    BAR 


CHICAGO. 


BIOGRAPHICAL   SKETCHES. 


WITH    STEEL    ENGRAVED    PORTRAITS. 


CHICAGO: 

AMERICAN    BIOGRAPHICAL    PUBLISHING   COMPANY. 
H.  C.  COOPER.  JK..  &  CO..  PROPRIETORS. 


H.  C.  COOPER,  JR.  &  CO. 

PUBLISHERS, 

107  MADISON  STREET, 

CHICAGO. 


I     KHISHT    a  LEONARD  . 


to 

J 


INTRODUCTION. 


THE  profession  of  the  Law,  when  clothed  with  its  true  dignity  and  purity 
and  strength,  must  rank  first  among  the  callings  of  men.  Law  rules  the 
universe;  "her  seat  is  the  bosom  of  God;  her  voice  is  the  harmony  of  the  world; 
all  things  in  heaven  and  earth  do  her  homage,  the  very  least  as  feeling  her  care, 
and  the  greatest  as  not  exempt  from  her  power."  What  comprehensiveness!  If  to 
law  herself  may  be  applied  such  language,  what  may  be  said  of  that  profession 
whose  work  is  to  formulate,  to  harmonize,  to  regulate,  to  adjust,  to  administer 
those  rules  and  principles  that  underlie  and  permeate  all  government  and  society, 
and  control  the  varied  relations  of  man?  As  thus  viewed,  there  attaches  to  the 
legal  profession  a  nobleness  that  cannot  but  be  reflected  in  the  life  of  the  true 
lawyer,  who,  conscious  of  its  greatness,  and  honest  in  the  pursuit  of  his  purpose, 
embraces  the  richness  of  learning,  the  profoundness  of  wisdom,  the  firmness  of 

^    integrity  and  the  purity  of  morals,  together  with  the  graces  of  modesty,  courtesy 

>fq    and  the  general  amenities  of  life. 

To  attain  the  highest  excellence,  the  lawyer  must  possess  the  most  varied  and 
opposite  qualities,  and  know  how  and  when  to  use  them;  with  depth  and  firmness 
^  of  understanding,  there  must  combine  the  keenness  of  acute  discernment; 
learned  in  the  subtleties  of  legal  lore,  let  him  at  the  same  time  know  men,  have 
tact  to  deal  with  them,  and  be  rich  in  the  enlarged  beauties  of  classical  learning; 
besides  being  a  student,  he  must  be  able  to  leave  the  solitude  of  the  study  and 
adapt  himself  to  the  practical  affairs  and  every-day  doings  of  men.  It  is  his  to 

p>  command  the  respect  of  superiors,  and  again  appeal  to  the  weaknesses  and  infir- 
<y 

mities  of  those  less  favored  than  himself;  in  fine,  he  must  be  "  all  things  to  all 

men." 
> — O 

In  preparing  this  volume  the  publishers  have  aimed  to  fairly  and  faithfully 

:    represent  the  legal  fraternity  of  Chicago.     The.  </a/«  have  been  secured  as  far  as 

possible  by  personal  interviews  with  those  whose  biographies  are  recorded,  and 

^  i    where  these  could  not,  be  secured,  by  interviewing  friends  and  consulting  records. 


1 923 1 3 


4  INTRODUCTION. 

The  editorial  work  has  been  done  by  able  and    experienced  writers,  and  each 
sketch,  before  publication,  has  been  submitted  for  revision  and  approval. 

While  prosecuting  their  work,  the  publishers  have  been  aided  and  cheered  by 
the  interest  which  many  of  the  profession  have  shown  in  their  undertaking,  and 
thus  convinced  that  the  result  of  their  labors  cannot  but  supply  an  urgent  need. 
That  their  work  is  faultless  they  do  not  presume;  that  it  will  meet  with  unquali- 
fied approval  they  dare  not  hope;  they  have  honestly  and  conscientiously  per- 
formed their  task,  and  hope  they  have  done  it  well.  To  those  who  read  only  to 
criticise  they  have  no  apology  to  offer,  while  for  commendation  they  cheerfully 
submit  the  volume  to  the  intelligent  judgment  of  a  fair-minded,  liberal  and  gen- 
erous-hearted profession. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO. 

BIOGRAPHICAL    SKETCHES. 


HON.  THOMAS    DRUMMOND. 

ILLINOIS  has  many  sons  whose  brilliant  genius,  splendid  achievements  and 
unsullied  characters  have  rendered  her  name  illustrious.  Though  the  brain 
and  the  brawn  of  her  citizens  have  been  chiefly  employed  in  responding  to  the 
imperative  demands  of  a  new  state,  the  pursuits  of  agriculture,  manufactures  and 
commerce,  yet  their  footsteps  are  found  in  the  domain  of  statesmanship,  of  juris- 
prudence, science,  art,  theology,  oratory,  philanthropy  and  war.  In  all  these 
directions  some  of  her  children  have  achieved  eminence.  Among  the  factors 
which  enter  into  and  compose  the  state,  the  most  indispensable  to  its  growth, 
prosperity  and  permanence  is  its  jurisprudence.  This  is  the  very  corner-stone  of 
a  stable  government.  It  is  that  which  conserves  all  other  forces  of  civilization, 
and  produces  harmony  and  an  equilibrium  of  apparently  conflicting  powers. 

In  selecting  from  the  many  eminent  jurists  of  Illinois  that  one  most  illustrious, 
the  name  of  Hon.  Thomas  Drummond,  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  United 
States,  is  naturally  suggested. 

True  there  have  been  more  eloquent  advocates,  more  brilliant  orators,  more 
polished  scholars,  possibly  more  profound  students  of  some  department  of  legal 
lore;  but  in  sound  judgment,  in  patient  industry,  in  clear  conception  of  the  spirit 
and  scope  of  jurisprudence,  in  that  intuitive  perception  of  right  which  is  almost 
an  inspiration,  Judge  Drummond  has  no  superior. 

Thomas  Drummond  was  born  October  16,  1809,  at  Bristol  Mills,  Lincoln 
county,  Maine.  His  father,  Hon.  James  Drummond,  was  an  honest  farmer  of 
Scotch  descent,  highly  esteemed  for  sound  judgment.  In  the  early  part  of  his 
life  he  was  much  of  the  time  at  sea,  and  was  for  several  years  a  member  of  the 
legislature  of  Maine. 

After  having  attended  the  common  school  of  his  native  town,  the  young  man 
attended  several  academies  in  the  vicinity,  where  he  laid  a  solid  foundation  for 
an  education,  pursuing  especially  those  studies  preparatory  to  a  college  course, 
and  in  1826  entered  Bowdoin  College,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1830. 

He  immediately  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  William  T. 
Dwight,  Esq.,  a  son  of  President  Dwight,  of  Yale  College,  who  was  then  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  law  in  Philadelphia.  In  1833  he  was  admitted  to  the  bur,  and 


6  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

in  1835  removed  to  Galena,  Illinois,  where  he  entered  at  once  upon  the  practice 
of  his  profession.  At  that  time  the  bar  of  Jo  Daviess  county  comprised  some  of 
the  most  eminent  lawyers  in  the  state,  and  the  young  attorney  was  called  upon  to 
measure  swords  with  men  skilled  in  legal  contests;  but  so  closely  and  studiously 
did  he  apply  himself  to  his  profession,  that  in  a  few  years  he  was  recognized  as  a 
peer  of  the  ablest  members  "of  the  bar  of  Galena.  Candid,  cautious,  thorough  in 
his  investigation  of  facts,  exhaustive  in  his  examination  of  precedents,  clear  in 
his  analysis  of  the  principles  of  law  applicable  to  the  case  at  bar,  his  opinion  was 
eagerly  sought  and  implicitly  relied  upon  in  cases  of  importance.  He  continued 
in  successful  practice  in  Galena  for  about  nineteen  years,  during  which  period 
his  reputation  as  a  sound  jurist  extended  beyond  Illinois,  and  in  1850  President 
Taylor  appointed  him  judge  of  the  district  court  of  the  United  States,  for  the  dis- 
trict of  Illinois.  When  the  state,  in  1855,  was  divided  into  two  districts,  he 
became  judge  of  the  northern  district.  In  1854  he  removed  to  Chicago,  in  which 
city  or  its  vicinity,  he  has  since  resided. 

When  first  called  to  the  bench,  the  labors  of  his  position  were  considered 
arduous;  but  the  rapid  development  of  the  maritime  interests  of  Chicago,  the 
large  increase  in  patent  litigation,  and  the  general  expansion  of  the  commercial 
and  material  resources  of  the  state,  caused  an  immense  increase  in  the  business 
of  his  court.  In  addition  to  presiding  in  the  district  court,  however,  Judge 
Drummond  sat  as  circuit  judge  in  the  transaction  of  nearly  all  the  business  of 
that  court,  so  that  for  the  last  ten  years  of  his  occupancy  of  the  district  bench  his 
duties  were  onerous  almost  beyond  precedent. 

In  December,  1869,  he  was  appointed  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  United 
States  for  the  seventh  judicial  circuit,  comprising  the  states  of  Illinois,  Indiana 
and  Wisconsin,  which  position  he  still  continues  to  hold. 

As  circuit  judge,  he  holds  court  in  nine  places, —  three  in  Indiana,  four  in  Wis- 
consin, and  two  in  Illinois;  but  the  greater  portion  of  his  time  is  spent  in 
Chicago,  where  the  most  important  litigation  of  the  Northwest  is  concentrated. 
Since  the  remarkable  depreciation  in  the  values  of  property,  resulting  from  the 
panic  of  1873,  and  the  legislation  hostile  to  the  railroad  interests  in  several  of  the 
northwestern  states,  many  of  the  railroads  in  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Wisconsin 
have  been  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  United  States  courts,  thus  largely  increasing 
the  responsibilities  and  labors  of  the  circuit  judge. 

Since  the  financial  crisis  of  1873  there  have  been  probably  not  less  than  a 
score  of  railroads,  representing  an  indebtedness  of  more  than  one  hundred  mill- 
ions of  dollars,  in  the  hands  of  receivers  appointed  by  the  courts  over  which 
Judge  Drummond  presides.  Many  grave  questions  have  necessarily  arisen  in 
connection  with  the  administration  of  the  affairs  of  these  vast  corporations, 
through  the  machinery  of  the  courts.  But  here,  as  elsewhere,  so  great  and  uni- 
versal is  the  confidence  in  the  intelligence  and  probity  of  Judge  Drummond,  that 
no  one  has  been  found  to  utter  a  word  of  complaint. 

Politically,  Judge  Drummond  was  a  member  of  the  old  whig  party,  and  since 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  7 

the  formation  of  the  republican  party,  he  has  been  in  full  sympathy  with  its  prin- 
ciples. Although  decided  in  his  opinions,  and  at  proper  times  frank  in  their 
avowal,  he  evidently  feels  that  the  dignity  of  his  position  should  preclude  him 
from  becoming  an  active  partisan  of  any  political  creed. 

He  was  married  in  1839  to  Delia  A.  Sheldon,  daughter  of  John  P.  Sheldon, 
Esq.,  of  Willow  Springs,  Wisconsin.  Seven  children,  two  sons  and  five  daugh- 
ters, have  blessed  their  union,  all  of  whom,  save  one,  still  survive.  The  Episco- 
pal mode  of  worship  seems  preferable  to  him,  and  with  his  family  he  is  connected 
with  the  congregation  of  St.  James  Church,  in  Chicago. 

For  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century  Judge  Drummond  has  occupied  the 
responsible  position  of  judge  of  a  federal  court  in  the  great  metropolis  of  the 
Northwest.  He  has  lived,  studied  and  labored  chiefly  to  discharge  the  functions 
of  that  important  office.  Into  the  flowery  paths  of  literature,  or  the  domain  of 
science,  art  and  philosophy,  he  has  not  wandered,  except  so  far  as  it  became 
necessary  to  do  so  for  recreation,  or  to  illustrate  the  principles  of  law  and  their 
practical  application.  He  has  been  ambitious  only  to  administer  justice  with  as 
little  of  the  increment  of  error  as  possible.  Clothed  with  a  becoming  dignity, 
but  without  a  trace  of  personal  vanity;  courteous  and  gentle,  but  never  permit- 
ting undue  familiarity;  conscientious  and  painstaking  in  the  highest  degree  in 
every  official  act,  with  unswerving  fidelity  to  truth,  integrity  and  honor,  he  has 
held  aloft  the  even  scales  of  justice  —  himself  its  very  incarnation.  Who  shall 
estimate  the  value  to  a  nation  of  such  a  life  ?  Who  shall  measure  the  potency  of 
a  character  so  resplendent  ? 

To  how  many  a  young  lawyer,  struggling  with  adversity,  and  sorely  tempted 
to  descend  from  the  shining  heights  of  professional  honor  and  personal  integrity, 
to  the  shambles  where  justice  is  crucified,  and  impious  hands  cast  lots  for  her 
seamless  garments,  has  the  illustrious  example  of  Thomas  Drummond  been  at 
once  an  inspiration  to  good,  and  a  salvation  from  sin  and  shame  ! 


HON.  JOHN    M.   HARLAN. 

JOHN  MARSHALL  HARLAN,  Louisville,  Kentucky,  was  born  in  Boyle 
J  county,  near  Danville,  Kentucky,  June  i,  1833,  and  is  a  son  of  James  Harlan, 
who  was  a  prominent  lawyer  of  the  state.  He  graduated  at  Center  College, 
under  the  presidency  of  John  C.  Young,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  studied  law  with  his  father, 
graduated  in  1853  in  the  law  department  of  Transylvania  University,  at  Lexing- 
ton, under  Chief  Justice  Thomas  A.  Marshall  and  George  Robertson,  and  entered 
upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Frankfort  in  his  native  state. 

In  1858  he  was  elected  judge  of  Franklin  county  and  held  that  office  one  year. 
In  1859,  when  but  twenty-five  years  of  age,  he  was  the  whig  candidate  for  con- 
gress in  the  strongly  democratic  district  of  Ashland,  and  came  within  sixty-seven 
votes  of  an  election.  In  the  spring  of  1861  he  moved  to  Louisville,  where  he 


8  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    Of   CHICAGO. 

became  associated  with  Hon.  W.  F.  Bullock,  and  practiced  with  great  success. 
The  civil  war  breaking  out  soon  after,  he  relinquished  practice  and  recruited  and 
organized  the  loth  Kentucky  Union  regiment,  which  served  under  Gen.  Thomas. 
Having  served  for  some  length  of  time  in  command  of  a  brigade,  his  nomination 
for  brigadier-general  was  made  by  President  Lincoln,  but  at  that  auspicious 
period  in  his  military  career  the  death  of  his  venerable  father  compelled  him  to 
forego  the  flattering  promotion,  resign  his  commission  and  return  to  civil  life. 

In  the  fall  of  1863  he  was  nominated  by  the  union  party  as  their  candidate  for 
attorney-general,  was  elected  by  an  immense  majority,  and  occupied  the  office 
until  1867,  when,  as  the  candidate  of  the  same  party,  he  failed  of  an  election, 
whereupon  he  returned  to  Louisville  and  resumed  practice  with  much  success. 
In  1871  he  was  unanimously  nominated,  against  his  desire,  as  the  republican  can- 
didate for  governor,  and  although  there  had  been  considerable  falling  off  in  the 
republican  ranks  in  the  north  in  1874,  he  largely  increased  the  party  vote  over 
that  of  the  previous  election  of  chief  magistrate  of  the  state.  In  1875  he  was 
again  the  republican  candidate  for  governor.  In  1877  Col.  Harlan  was  appointed 
by  President  Hayes  one  of  the  Louisiana  commission,  on  the  part  of  the  govern- 
ment, to  bring  about  an  amicable  plan  for  adjusting  the  unfortunate  political 
status  of  that  state,  and  the  result  of  the  wise  and  temperate  course  of  the  com- 
mission was  a  matter  of  congratulation  throughout  the  country.  In  1877  he  was 
appointed  by  President  Hayes  an  associate  justice  of  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court,  which  office  he  is  still  filling.  In  this  capacity  Justice  Harlan  has  fre- 
quently held  courts  in  Illinois  as  part  of  his  circuit,  and  is  accounted  by  the  bar 
of  this  state  as  not  only  a  very  able,  but  also  an  exceedingly  impartial,  honest 
dispenser  of  justice. 

HON.   DAVID    DAVIS. 

DAVID  DAVIS,  Bloomington,  Illinois,  is  descended    from  Welsh  ancestors, 
who  had  resided  in  this  country  more  than  a  century  at  the  time  of  his  birth, 
March  19,  1815.      The   home  of  his  childhood  was   in  Cecil   county,   Maryland, 
where  he  pursued  his  early  education  until  he  went  to  an  academy  in  Delaware 
to  prepare  for  a  regular  classical  course. 

Mr.  Davis  went  from  the  academic  school  in  Delaware  to  Kenyon  College, 
Ohio,  entering  that  institution  in  the  autumn  of  1828.  Ohio  was  then  a  com- 
parative wilderness,  and  for  a  boy  student  only  thirteen  years  of  age,  without  a 
relative  to  welcome  him  the  prospect  was  lonely  and  uninviting.  But  there  was 
something  of  the  heroic  in  the  native  energy  of  character  and  firmness  of  purpose 
which  revealed  the  man  of  after  life.  In  1832,  when  seventeen,  he  graduated,  and 
soon  afterward  chose  the  law  for  his  profession.  The  advantages  for  its  study 
were  few  in  the  West  at  that  time,  and  he  started  on  a  long  and  difficult  journey 
east,  reaching  at  length  the  old  town  of  Lenox,  Massachusetts,  to  prosecute  his 
studies  in  the  office  of  the  distinguished  lawyer,  Judge  H.  W.  Bishop.  After  two 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAK   OF  CHICAGO.  I  I 

years  spent  in  that  office  he  went  to  the  law  school  at  New  Haven,  Connecticut, 
then  under  the  direction  of  Judges  Daggett  and  Hitchcock,  both  of  whom  were 
known  as  eminent  jurists.  Here  Mr.  Davis  enjoyed  the  excellent  legal  discipline 
which  had  the  effect  to  mould  his  character  into  that  of  a  lawyer  of  clear  and 
accurate  knowledge  of  legal  principles  and  precedents  which  has  since  given  him 
his  merited  prominence.  Upon  his  admission  to  practice  he  turned  his  face 
again  toward  the  Great  West,  settling  in  Pekin,  Illinois.  This  was  in  the  fall  of 
1835.  The  prevalence  of  fever  and  ague  there  compelled  him  to  leave  the  place 
at  the  end  of  a  year,  and  he  removed  to  the  town  which  is  now  the  pleasant  city 
of  Bloomington,  his  present  residence.  Here  he  began  in  earnest  to  lay  the 
foundation  of  his  future  success  by  hard  work,  which  he  ever  regarded  as  a  better 
dependence  than  genius.  Shortly  after  his  settlement  in  Bloomington  he  married 
Miss  Sarah  Walker,  of  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts,  who  died  in  November  1879. 
Mrs.  Davis  was  a  fit  companion  for  him,  and  left  many  pleasant  memories  of 
charity  and  kindness. 

The  proceeds  of  a  considerable  fortune  were  devoted  by  her  to  the  alleviation 
of  human  suffering,  and  she  contributed  very  much  to  the  success  of  her  hus- 
band's life.  Mr.  Davis  was  an  ardent  whig  of  the  Henry  Clay  school,  but  had  no 
taste  for  political  life.  Without  solicitation  he  was  nominated  for  the  legislature 
of  Illinois,  and  elected,  in  1844,  and  to  the  constitutional  convention  in  1847.  In 
both  positions,  especially  the  latter,  he  took  a  leading  part.  Upon  the  adoption 
of  the  new  constitution,  in  1848,  a  new  judiciary  had  to  be  elected  in  the  entire 
state.  The  circuit  in  which  he  lived  was  largely  democratic,  but  Mr.  Davis  was 
not  a  bitter  partisan,  and  by  the  common  consent  of  the  bar  and  people  of  his 
circuit  he  was  chosen  judge.  Abraham  Lincoln  was  then  in  the  full  tide  of  suc- 
cessful practice,  and  visited  Judge  Davis'  circuit,  forming  with  him  a  life-long 
friendship.  The  judge  saw  from  the  beginning  evidence  of  inborn  greatness  in  his 
afterward  famous  friend.  Judge  Davis'  circuit  embraced  fourteen  of  the  largest 
and  most  wealthy  counties  of  the  state.  It  was  before  the  day  of  railroads, 
yet  neither  rough  traveling  nor  bad  weather  prevented  him  from  always  being  in 
his  place  ready  to  proceed  with  the  public  business.  Soon  after  his  settlement  in 
Illinois  he  began  investing  in  prairie  lands,  and  laid  the  foundation  of  that  for- 
tune which  he  now  dispenses  in  acts  of  unostentatious  charity.  In  1858,  when 
Abraham  Lincoln  was  a  candidate  against  Stephen  A.  Douglas  for  the  United 
States  senate,  Judge  Davis  supported  Mr.  Lincoln  with  great  earnestness.  Rec- 
ognized as  Lincoln's  confidential  friend,  he  was  selected  delegate  at  large  to  the 
republican  national  convention  at  Chicago,  in  1860,  where  his  management  as  a 
leader  was  very  successful.  In  1860  and  1861  he  counseled  a  moderate  and  con- 
servative course,  in  the  hope  that  war  might  be  averted.  He  formed  one  of  the 
presidential  party  to  Washington,  but  after  the  inauguration  resumed  his  duties 
on  the  bench,  which  he  performed  until  selected  with  General  Holt  and  Mr.  Camp- 
bell, of  St.  Louis,  to  investigate  the  administration  of  the  department  of  St.  Louis, 
then  under  the  command  of  General  Fremont  and  Major  McKinstry,  during  a 


12  THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

period  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  In  the  summer  of  1862  a  vacancy  occurred  on 
the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  and  Judge  Davis  was 
selected  in  the  fall  of  1862  associate  justice.  At  that  time  Judge  Taney  was  chief- 
justice,  and  between  the  two  there  commenced  a  friendship  which  continued  until 
the  latter's  death.  Judge  Davis  served  on  the  bench  of  the  supreme  court  until 
February,  1877,  when  he  resigned  to  accept  the  office  of  United  States  senator 
from  the  state  of  Illinois. 

He  met  with  no  opposition  to  his  reelection  as  judge  of  the  state  court,  the 
bar  and  people  both  being  satisfied  with  the  prompt,  impartial  and  honest  dis- 
charge of  his  duty.  His  labors  in  the  federal  and  state  courts  extended  through 
a  period  of  twenty-nine  years,  during  which  time  he  adjudicated  questions  of  the 
highest  importance  affecting  life,  liberty  and  property.  His  opinion  in  the  cele- 
brated Milligan  case  is  regarded  by  the  profession  as  one  of  the  ablest  expositions 
of  the  rights  of  civil  liberty  ever  announced  by  a  court.  It  was  criticised  unfa- 
vorably by  some,  but  by  the  lawyer  and  the  jurist  it  will  ever  be  regarded  as  a 
sound  constitutional  recognition  of  the  personal  and  individual  rights  of  the  citi- 
zen. During  the  first  four  years  of  President  Grant's  administration  much  dis- 
satisfaction arose  in  the  republican  party,  and,  as  an  outgrowth,  the  liberal 
movement  was  organized  which  assumed  form  in  the  Cincinnati  convention.  A 
considerable  portion  of  the  democratic  party  and  a  large  number  in  the  liberal 
cause  regarded  Judge  Davis  as  a  proper  candidate  for  the  presidency,  he  having 
been  nominated  by  the  labor  reform  party  in  January  1872.  His  friends  presented 
his  name  at  Cincinnati,  but,  owing  to  certain  combinations,  he  was  defeated,  and 
Mr.  Greeley  became  the  nominee  in  the  remarkable  campaign  of  1872.  In  the 
Illinois  senatorial  campaign  of  1876  the  balance  of  power  was  with  the  indepen- 
dent party,  friendly  to  Judge  Davis;  and,  after  a  protracted  contest,  by  a  combi- 
nation of  the  democratic  party  with  the  independents  he  received  a  majority  and 
was  elected.  His  term  as  senator  commenced  March  4,  1877,  with  President 
Hayes'  administration. 

Elected  by  a  combination  of  parties,  he  has  identified  himself  with  none,  but 
has  maintained  independence,  voting  for  or  against  measures  without  reference  to 
party  lines.  On  account  of  his  ability  as  judge  he  was  selected  member  of  the 
judiciary  committee,  in  which  for  more  than  four  years  he  has  been  a  great 
worker  in  the  advancement  of  the  public  interests.  His  speech  on  the  Geneva 
Award  bill  reported  by  the  committee  was  regarded  as  a  very  able  exposition  of 
the  law  in  favor  of  the  underwriters.  Judge  Davis  is  not  a  speech  maker,  but 
does  a  great  deal  of  work  in  the  committee  room  and  in  the  business  detail  of  the 
senate.  His  disposition  is  to  deal  with  practical  questions  of  legislation,  leaving 
the  discussion  of  mere  party  politics  to  others.  Upon  the  reconstruction  of  the 
senate  at  the  inauguration  of  President  Garfield's  administration,  he  was  tendered 
the  chairmanship  of  the  judiciary  committee,  which  he  declined,  giving  his  rea- 
sons in  a  speech  worthy  the  better  days  of  the  republic.  After  the  death  of  Presi- 
dent Garfield,  Judge  Davis  was  elected  president  of  the  senate,  without  having  in 


I  :\    t  n«- 

W«tt  '"' 


i   :  ^ 


THE   KENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  13 

any  way  sought  that  high  honor.  In  accepting  it  he  informed  the  senate  that  if 
the  least  party  obligation  had  been  made  a  condition,  directly  or  indirectly,  he 
would  have  declined  the  compliment. 

Independent  in  thought  and  in  action,  Judge  Davis  has  never  favored  the  arts 
of  the  politician,  nor  sought  to  gain  any  object  by  devious  courses.  Upright  and 
straightforward,  he  has  always  moved  openly  on  a  given  line  of  conduct,  and 
boldly  proclaimed  his  convictions  on  public  questions;  hence  the  universal  confi- 
dence in  his  integrity  of  character.  Although  now  over  sixty  years  of  age,  his 
mind  and  body  are  unimpaired  in  vigor  and  health.  He  resides  on  one  of  the 
most  highly  cultivated  farms  of  the  state,  adjoining  the  city  of  Bloomington,  in  a 
mansion  of  great  elegance  and  taste.  His  life  has  been  a  great  success,  finan- 
cially and  officially. 

"  How  blest  is  he  who  crowns  in  shades  like  these, 
A  youth  of  labor  with  an  age  of  ease." 


HON.   HENRY   W.   BLODGETT. 

HENRY  WILLIAM  BLODGETT  stands  prominent  among  the  few  men 
whose  personal  and  public  history  is  inseparably  connected  with  the  juris- 
prudence of  Illinois;  his  sound  and  clear  judgment,  his  achievements,  his  upright 
character,  his  unremitting  labors  in  ascertaining  the  right  and  administering 
exact  justice  have  contributed  largely  to  the  high  reputation  which  attaches  to 
the  bench  of  the  United  States  courts  in  the  Northwest.  He  commenced  practice 
during  the  formative  period  of  the  substantial  jurisprudence  of  the  West  and 
has  been  one  of  its  most  important  factors  from  that  time  until  the  present; 
throughout  the  period  while  the  great  outlines  of  this  jurisprudence  were  being 
established  and  its  foundations  being  laid  upon  an  enduring  basis,  one  may  trace 
the  impress  of  his  mind  upon  every  important  advance  step.  Being  so  important 
a  factor  in  formulating,  and  now  in  administering,  he  deserves  the  gratitude  of 
the  public,  since  the  jurisprudence  is  an  indispensable  element  to  the  growth,  pros- 
perity and  permanence  of  the  commonwealth,  conserving  and  harmonizing  all 
other  forces  of  civilization.  Without  an  impartial  administration  of  law  and  jus- 
tice no  form  of  popular  government  can  long  survive.  Judge  Blodgett  may  be  said 
to  act  with  these  considerations  in  view.  In  the  investigation  of  the  many  impor- 
tant cases  which  come  before  him  he  is  guided  solely  by  facts  in  evidence  and  the 
law  applicable  to  them.  His  decisions  are  impartial,  simple  in  style,  lucid  and 
forcible,  never  sensational,  florid  or  highly  ornate;  he  expresses  his  thoughts  and 
opinions  in  a  clear  and  concise  manner,  not  to  be  misunderstood,  and  with  a  pleas- 
ing diction.  His  fame  rests  mainly  upon  his  scholarly  attainments  and  his  pro- 
found knowledge  of  common  and  statute  law;  his  more  important  decisions  are 
monuments  of  learning  and  research  and  have  won  for  him  the  profound  respect 
of  the  bench  and  bar.  He  is  an  indefatigable  worker  and  constant  student,  and 


14  THE    KEXCII   AND    RAK    OF   CHICAGO. 

has  great  power  of  concentration,  a  remarkable  memory  and  a  clear  and  accurate 
judgment. 

Judge  Blodgett  was  born  in  Amherst,  Massachusetts,  in  1821.  His  parents 
removed  to  Illinois  when  he  was  about  ten  years  of  age;  his  father  was  a  black- 
smith, his  mother  a  woman  of  superior  education  and  refinement.  Both  were 
sincere  and  earnest,  and  devoted  themselves  to  the  correct  development  and  train- 
ing of  their  children.  When  seventeen  years  of  age  Henry  went  to  the  Amherst 
Academy  one  year,  whence  he  returned  to  Illinois  and  engaged  in  teaching  school, 
and  subsequently  in  land  surveying  until  twenty-one  years  of  age.  In  1842  he 
commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  J.  Y.  Scammon  and  Norman  B. 
Judd,  in  Chicago,  and  three  years  later,  in  1845,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
commenced  practice  in  Waukegan,  Illinois,  where  he  still  resides.  In  1844  he 
voted  the  anti-slavery  ticket,  and  has  since  been  an  adherent  of  the  anti-slavery 
and  republican  parties,  remaining  true  to  the  principles  and  the  cause  he  then 
espoused.  In  1852  he  was  elected  to  the  general  assembly  of  Illinois,  being  the 
first  avowed  anti-slavery  member  who  ever  occupied  a  seat  in  that  body,  and  in  the 
following  year  was  elected  to  the  state  senate.  As  a  legislator  he  was  one  of  the 
ablest  and  most  useful,  and  was  largely  instrumental  in  shaping  the  legislation  of 
the  commonwealth  and  in  promoting  the  development  of  the  immense  resources 
of  Illinois  by  internal  improvements  and  otherwise.  In  1855,  and  for  a  number 
of  years  subsequently,  he  was  associated  with  the  legal  department  of  the  Chi- 
cago and  Northwestern  railway,  of  which  he  was  one  of  the  projectors.  He  was 
the  pioneer  in  the  building  of  the  then  Chicago  and  Milwaukee  railroad,  on  the 
lake  shore  from  Chicago  to  Milwaukee,  and  was  identified  with  it  in  the  several 
capacities  of  attorney,  director  and  president;  he  procured  the  charter  for  the 
road,  and  to  his  influence  and  personal  efforts  was  mainly  due  the  securing  of  the 
money  necessary  to  its  construction.  Later  he  was  solicitor  of  the  Michigan 
Southern,  Fort  Wayne,  Rock  Island  and  Northwestern  roads,  and  retired  when  the 
business  reached  such  proportions  that  it  was  impossible  for  one  man  to  attend 
to  it.  As  a  solicitor  he  was  regarded  as  the  peer — indeed  the  superior — of  anyone 
in  the  Northwest.  During  all  these  years  he  had  been  industrious  and  studious 
and  formed  habits  which  have  characterized  his  subsequent  notable  career. 

In  1870  he  was  appointed,  by  President  Grant,  judge  of  the  United  States  dis- 
trict court  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinios,  and  holds  that  position  now 
(1883),  discharging  the  duties  of  his  important  trust  with  signal  ability  and 
fidelity.  He  brought  to  the  bench  varied  legal  learning,  a  self-gained  scholar- 
ship (for  he  is  essentially  a  self-made  man),  wide  experience  and  an  eminently 
judicial  mind;  his  rulings  and  decisions  will  live  as  long  as  the  jurisprudence  of 
the  United  States  courts  exists,  and  his  history  and  name  will  outlive  him.  He  is 
a  model  of  benevolence  and  generosity  in  all  the  relations  of  life,  and  his  deport- 
ment is  characterized  by  courtesy  and  unswerving  impartiality;  magnanimous 
and  pure  in  private  and  official  life  he  is  a  worthy  citizen,  an  upright  judge  and  a 
true  man.  His  deeds  are  indelibly  written  in  the  history  of  his  time  so  plainly 


THE   BENCH  AND    fi.tK    OF   CHICAGO.  15 

that  all  may  read.  He  has  turned  his  abilities  to  good  account  in  bettering  others 
and  developing  in  himself  a  noble  manhood.  Such  is  an  outline  of  the  life  career 
of  one  who  mapped  out  his  own  course,  guided  by  the  teachings  and  admonition 
of  a  noble  mother  at  the  beginning,  and  inspired  and  impelled  by  a  noble  am- 
bition to  make  the  most  of  his  powers.  How  near  he  has  "  hewn  to  the  line  "  let 
his  life  work  tell,  for  in  this  one  may  find  the  true  measure  of  his  success. 


COL.   EDMUND  JUSSEN. 

EDMUND  JUSSEN  was  born  in  Germany  in  1830,  pursued  the  classical 
course  of  study  at  the  Jesuit  College  of  Cologne,  and  immigrated  to 
America  in  1847.  Although  he  was  an  accomplished  scholar  in  the  Latin,  Greek, 
French  and  German  languages,  he  did  not  then  understand  a  word  of  the  English 
language;  settling  at  Columbus,  Wisconsin,  he  commenced  practical  life  under 
this  disadvantage,  a,nd  by  unaided  effort  has  attained  to  his  present  rank  among 
the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Chicago  bar. 

When  he  came  to  this  country  in  1847,  he  engaged  in  whatever  he  could  find 
to  do  to  meet  his  daily  expenses,  and  during  leisure  hours  devoted  his  time  to  the 
acquirement  of  the  English  language,  and  under  these  circumstances  mastered  it, 
and  is  now  an  accomplished  English  scholar.  In  1854  he  commenced  the  study 
of  law  in  the  office  of  William  T.  Butler,  then  county  judge  of  Jefferson  county, 
Wisconsin,  and  upon  being  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1856  returned  to  Columbus 
and  engaged  in  practice.  During  this  year  he  married  Antonie  Schurz,  sister  of 
Hon.  Carl  Schurz,  and  has  an  interesting  family.  He  moved  to  Madison,  Wiscon- 
sin, in  r86o,  and  formed  a  law  partnership  with  James  Hopkins,  subsequently 
United  States  judge  for  the  eastern  district  of  Wisconsin.  In  the  fall  of  1861  he 
was  elected  to  the  legislature  from  the  Madison  district,  and  was  prominent  and 
efficient  in  that  body.  In  the  spring  of  1862  he  entered  the  army  as  major  of  the 
23d  Wis.  Vol.  Inf.,  and  took  part  in  the  battles  of  Arkansas  Post  and  Chickasaw 
Bayou,  where  he  was  promoted  to  the  lieutenant-colonelcy  of  his  regiment.  He 
soon  afterward  resigned  his  commission  on  account  of  physical  disability,  and  in 
1864  settled  in  Chicago,  and  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession.  Mr.  Jussen 
has  been  successfully  engaged  in  many  important  cases  of  special  and  public 
interest,  notably  the  so-called  "  whiskey-ring  cases,"  the  criminal  prosecution  of 
Henry  Greenebaum  for  the  alleged  embezzlement  of  the  funds  of  the  German 
Savings  and  German  National  Bank  of  Chicago,  and  others,  in  the  management 
of  which  he  won  the  highest  commendation  and  opinions  of  the  bar  and  the  gen- 
eral public. 

In  1869-71  Col.  Jussen  was  collector  of  internal  revenues  for  the  Chicago 
district,  before  the  "  rings  "  and  schemes  for  defrauding  the  government  had  been 
entered  into,  though  an  attempt  was  made  in  that  direction  upon  him.  His 
unwavering  integrity,  however,  and  the  consciousness  of  his  responsibility 


1 6  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

repulsed  all  such  advances,  and  by  reason  of  the  stand  which  he  took,  he  incurred 
the  ill  will  of  corrupt  men,  who  did  not  rest  until  they  had  secured  his  removal. 
He  was  subsequently  an  important  factor  in  securing  the  overthrow  and  downfall 
of  these  conspirators  against  the  internal  revenue,  in  doing  which  he  proved  him- 
self not  only  a  gentleman,  a  scholar,  and  an  able  lawyer,  but  also  an  honest  man, 
and  a  friend  of  his  adopted  country.  That  he  was  a  most  zealous  and  capable 
officer  no  one  will  deny;  that  he  attempted  to  perform  his  full  duty  and  protect 
the  government  against  fraud,  and  that  he  was  thwarted  in  this  honest  and 
earnest  endeavor,  subsequent  events  fully  demonstrated. 

Col.  Jussen  has  traveled  much,  and  is  a  gentleman  of  varied  culture  and 
refined  tastes,  as  well  as  an  earnest  and  forcible  advocate  and  an  able  and  success- 
ful lawyer. 

HON.   THOMAS    HOYNE,   LL.D. 

THOMAS  HOYNE,  one  of  the  foremost  lawyers  in  Chicago,  is  a  son  of 
Patrick  and  Elleanor  M.  Hoyne,  who  were  obliged  to  leave  Ireland  about 
the  year  1815,  on  account  of  troubles  in  which  the  father  became  involved  with 
the  British  government.  They  sought  an  asylum  in  the  city  of  New  York,  where 
our  subject  was  born  about  February  n,  1817.  He  was  the  eldest  of  seven  chil- 
dren, and  at  a  suitable  age  was  sent  to  St.  Peter's  Catholic  school  in  that  city, 
where  he  remained  until  the  death  of  his  parents,  that  of  his  father  occurring  in 
1829,  and  that  of  his  mother  in  1830.  He  was  left  poor  as  well  as  an  orphan  and 
unfriended.  In  the  year  1829  he  became  an  apprentice  to  a  manufacturer  of 
fancy  goods,  traveling  cases  and  pocket-books,  working  in  that  capacity  for  four 
or  five  years  in  the  city  of  New  York. 

Mr.  Hoyne  seems  to  have  early  had  a  strong  desire  for  knowledge,  and  at  that 
period,  while  still  a  mere  youth  working  under  indentures,  he  joined  what  was 
known  as  the  Literary  Association,  the  membership  of  which  included  several 
persons  who  afterward  distinguished  themselves  in  the  literary  or  political  world, 
notably  Hon.  Horace  Greeley  and  his  associate  in  the  publishing  business,  Mr. 
McElrath,  Judges  Manierre  and  Daly,  Hon.  William  B.  Maclay  and  the  Maclay 
family,  and  others.  W.  B.  Maclay  was  member  of  congress  for  several  years,  and 
his  father  founded  the  Baptist  church  on  Mulberry  street  as  early  as  1800.  It  was 
with  men  of  this  class  that  he  came  in  contact,  and  early  began  to  feel  the  bright- 
ening influence  of  their  keen  intellects.  In  that  society  Mr.  Hoyne  made  his 
debut  as  a  debater,  and  acquired  the  happy  art  of  speaking  in  public.  It  was  no 
doubt  the  turning  point  in  life,  the  first  stepping-stone  to  the  stage  on  which  he 
has  acted  a  brilliant  as  well  as  conspicuous  part. 

While  an  apprentice  young  Hoyne  also  attended  two  night  schools,  in  one  of 
which  he  made  a  specialty  of  English  grammar  and  elocution,  in  the  other,  of  the 
classics,  acquiring  a  fair  knowledge  of  Greek  as  well  as  Latin.  For  such  economy 
of  time  and  such  industry  he  has  since  reaped  a  rich  reward. 


[•>,  kv  EC  Williams    I   6ci    MY 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  1 9 

At  the  end  of  his  apprenticeship,  in  1835,  Mr.  Hoyne  accepted  a  clerkship  in  a 
large  jobbing  house  for  the  salary  it  would  afford  him  to  liquidate  and  pay  off 
the  expense  of  the  schools  he  was  attending.  In  1836  he  commenced  the  study 
of  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  John  Brinkerhoff,  and  late  in  the  summer  of  1837 
came  to  Chicago  to  join  his  old  and  esteemed  friend,  Judge  Manierre,  who  had 
preceded  him  hither  two  years  before,  and  was  serving  the  public  in  the  office  of 
clerk  of  the  circuit  court.  His  old  associate  in  the  New  York  literary  club  was 
not  slow  in  making  a  place  for  Mr.  Hoyne,  whose  compensation  for  clerical  ser- 
vices was  ten  dollars  a  week.  Mr.  Hoyne  now  found  time  to  devote  to  study.  He 
took  up  Latin  again;  commenced  the  study  of  the  French  language;  and  for  two 
years  attended  the  meetings  of  a  literary  society,  in  the  exercises  of  which  he  was 
an  active  participant.  In  the  latter  part  of  1838  he  taught  a  public  school  —  one 
of  the  first  organized  in  Chicago  —  four  months.  Soon  afterward  he  resumed  his 
legal  studies  in  the  office  of  Hon.  J.  Y.  Scammon,  who  became  his  friend  and  patron, 
and  was  admitted  to  practice  late  in  the  autumn  of  1839.  Since  that  date,  with 
the  exception  of  a  little  more  than  two  years  spent  in  Galena,  Illinois  (autumn  of 
1842  to  December,  1844),  Mr.  Hoyne  has  resided  in  Chicago,  and  has  practiced  his 
profession,  making  a  brilliant  record  at  the  Cook  county  bar,  as  well  as  appearing 
in  many  cases  in  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  at  Washington.  He  has  great  power  before  a  jury. 

In  1840  Mr.  Hoyne  was  elected  city  clerk  on  the  democratic  ticket,  and  during 
most  of  the  time  for  the  last  forty  years  he  has  taken  a  deep  interest  in  political 
matters,  sometimes  aiding  to  shape  the  policy  of  his  party,  or  furnishing  material 
for  congressional  consideration.  It  was  Mr.  Hoyne  who,  in  1841,  wrote  the 
memorial  which  was  presented  to  congress  asking  for  increased  appropriations 
for  the  improvement  of  the  Chicago  harbor.  In  1870  he  was  nominated  by  accla- 
mation for  congress  in  the  Chicago  district,  but  declined  to  run,  when  Hon.  John 
Wentworth  was  nominated  in  his  place  and  beaten  by  Hon.  C.  B.  Farvvell. 

Mr.  Hoyne  held  the  office  of  probate  justice  of  the  peace  in  1847,  1848  and 
1849  under  the  old  constitution,  the  office  which  under  the  new  constitution, 
which  went  into  effect  in  the  autumn  of  1848,  took  the  name  of  county  judge,  at 
which  time  his  court  was  suspended. 

Mr.  Hoyne  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  Mexican  war  (1846-47),  but  on  the 
passage  of  the  "  Wilmot  proviso,"  prohibiting  the  extension  of  slavery  in  any 
territory  acquired  from  Mexico,  at  the  close  of  the  war,  he  became  what  was  then 
known  as  a  "  free-soiler,"  and  supported'  Van  Buren  and  Adams  on  the  "  Buffalo 
platform  "  in  the  presidential  campaign  of  1848,  and  being  a  presidential  elector 
that  year,  "stumped  "  the  northern  half  of  Illinois.  He  had  previously,  at  a  great 
mass-meeting  held  in  Chicago,  as  chairman  of  a  committee  chosen  for  the  pur- 
pose, written  an  able  address  to  the  people  on  the  great  issues  of  the  day,  and 
that  address  had  a  very  wide  circulation.  "It  was,"*  says  one  writer,  "a  bold, 

*  See  "The  Biographical  Encyclopaedia  of  Illinois."  Philadelphia,  1875.  We  are  indebted  to 
the  same  source  for  other  data  in  this  sketch. 


2O  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

manly  and  vigorous  protest  against  the  further  encroachments  of  slavery,  and 
was  designed  to  affect  the  opinion  of  the  democratic  masses  of  the  state."  Mr. 
Hoyne  continued  his  opposition  to  the  extension  of  slavery,  yet  did  not  break 
entirely  away  from  the  democratic  party,  and  in  1853  received  from  President 
Pierce  the  appointment  of  United  States  district  attorney  for  Illinois,  which 
appointment  greatly  increased  his  business.  He  sided  with  Judge  Douglas  on 
the  Kansas  and  Nebraska  bills  and  the  bill  to  repeal  the  Missouri  compromise 
(1854),  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  field  of  debate  on  the  democratic  side  in  the 
presidential  campaign  of  1856.  Two  years  later  he  advocated  the  admission  of 
Kansas  under  the  Lecompton  constitution,  in  this  step  taking  sides  with  the 
administration  and  against  Judge  Douglas.  In  1859  Mr.  Hoyne,  without  his 
knowledge  or  consent,  was  appointed  United  States  marshal  for  the  northern 
district  of  Illinois,  taking  the  place  of  a  defaulter  (Charles  A.  Pine),  which  office 
Mr.  Hoyne  would  have  declined  at  once  had  not  Judge  Drummond,  for  the  pur- 
pose of  restoring  order  and  discipline  in  that  office,  made  a  special  request  upon 
him  to  accept  the  place  for  the  short  period  of  the  unexpired  term  of  his  prede- 
cessor. In  1860  he  superintended  the  census  for  the  northern  district,  and  was 
very  highly  complimented  by  the  superintendent  of  the  census  bureau  for  his 
faithful  services. 

In  literary  as  well  as  political  matters  Mr.  Hoyne  has  acted  a  conspicuous  and 
eminently  praiseworthy  part.  In  1850  he  was  elected  president  of  the  Chicago 
Young  Men's  Association,  and  subsequently  had  the  rare  honor  of  being  reelected. 
When  the  University  of  Chicago  was  founded,  in  1857,  Mr.  Hoyne  took  a  deep 
interest  in  the  enterprise  ;  was  elected  a  member  of  its  board  of  trustees,  and 
continues  to  act  in  that  capacity  ;  was  a  leader  and  quite  active  in  founding  the 
law  department  of  the  University,  paying  $5,000  into  the  fund  for  that  purpose, 
and  in  September,  1859,  in  recognition  of  his  valuable  services  and  generosity  in 
this  matter,  the  trustees  established  a  chair  in  the  faculty  known  as  "  The  Hoyne 
Professorship  of  International  and  Constitutional  Law."  To  Mr.  Hoyne  also 
belongs  the  credit  of  securing  the  great  Lalande  prize  telescope  for  the  Univer- 
sity, and  he  was  elected  the  first  secretary  of  the  Chicago  Astronomical  Society, 
which  position,  we  believe,  he  still  holds.  He  is  a  life  member  of  the  Mechanics' 
Institute,  the  Academy  of  Sciences  and  the  Chicago  Historical  Society,  and  has 
always  taken  a  great  interest  in  building  up  such  institutions.  His  greatest  work 
in  this  connection  has  been  in  aiding  to  found  and  in  fostering  the  Chicago  Free 
Public  Library,  of  which  he  wrote  a  long  and  valuable  historical  sketch  in  1877, 
and  which  was  published  in  a  pamphlet  of  nearly  a  hundred  pages.  That  pam- 
phlet lies  before  us,  and  contains  a  detailed  account  of  the  appeal  of  Thomas 
Hughes  and  his  associates  in  England,  made  immediately  after  the  great  fire  of 
October  9,  1871,  to  found  a  new  library  in  Chicago  ;  the  public  spirit  which  that 
appeal  stirred  up  in  the  hearts  of  the  enterprising  men  of  this  city  ;  the  frequent 
public  meetings  held  here  in  the  interest  of  that  cause  ;  the  public  address  of  Mr. 
Hoyne,  Mayor  Medill  and  others  ;  the  correspondence  which  Mr.  Hoyne  carried 


THE  BKNCir  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2  I 

on  with  the  promoters  of  this  enterprise  in  the  old  world,  etc.  Mr.  Hoyne's  con- 
nection with  that  grand  work  of  founding  a  free  public  library  in  Chicago  reflects 
the  very  highest  credit  upon  his  energy,  enterprise  and  truly  philanthropic  spirit. 
He  was  not  only  one  of  the  originators  of  this  eminently  useful  institution,  and 
presided  over  the  first  meeting  called  to  organize  it,  but  was  chosen  president  of 
its  first  board  of  directors,  and  still  holds  that  honorable  post.  He  was  also  one 
of  the  originators  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association,  and  was  its  vice-president  in 
1874,  and  one  of  the  committee  on  legal  education  in  1875.  He  has  recently  deliv- 
ered an  address  before  the  association  entitled  "The  Lawyer  as  a  Pioneer,"  in 
which  he  gives  sketches  of  the  early  Illinois  and  Chicago  bar  (1837-1840).  It  is 
to  be  published  in  book  form  by  Fergus  and  Co. 

Mr.  Hoyne  is  a  man  of  a  good  deal  of  literary  taste  as  well  as  legal  ability, 
and  his  intellectual  efforts  outside  the  bar  and  the  political  arena  have  attracted  a 
great  deal  of  attention.  An  address  which  he  delivered  before  the  graduating 
law  class  of  the  University  of  Chicago  in  1869  was  pitched  on  a  high  key  of  elo- 
quence and  a  truly  lofty  moral  tone,  and  its  stirring  appeal  to  the  young  men 
before  him  to  uphold  the  honor  and  dignity  of  their  profession  could  not  fail  of 
having  a  salutary  influence  on  all  who  heard  him.  His  Fourth  of  July  oration, 
delivered  two  years  later  at  La  Salle,  Illinois,  on  the  "  New  Departure,"  was  pro- 
nounced a  masterly  effort,  and  its  publication  and  wide  circulation  raised  Mr. 
Hoyne  in  the  estimation  of  many  as  an  orator.  As  a  forensic  speaker  he  certainly 
has  but  few  peers  at  the  bar  of  Cook  county,  which  has  from  ten  to  twelve  hun- 
dred members. 

As  already  intimated,  our  subject  took  an  early  and  deep  interest  in  politics 
and  the  welfare  of  the  country,  and  that  interest  seems  not  to  have  abated.  Dur- 
ing the  civil  war  his  patriotism  rose  to  white  heat,  and  no  man  in  Chicago  was 
more  earnest  in  trying  to  save  the  Union.  He  was  a  very  active  member  of  the 
Union  Defense  Committee,  and  wrote  the  well  known  appeal  to  the  people  of  this 
state.  He  was  on  the  committee  that  visited  Lincoln  to  urge  a  campaign  down 
the  Mississippi  river  in  1862.  During  that  long  and  trying  period  of  civil  strife 
every  emanation  from  his  pen  or  tongue  had  the  unmistakable  and  thrilling  ring 
of  a  true  and  devoted  lover  of  his  country. 

After  the  war  Mr.  Hoyne  sided  with  President  Johnson  against  congress,  and 
was  a  delegate  to  the  conservative  convention  held  at  Philadelphia  in  August, 
1866.  He  also  supported  Horace  Greeley  for  the  presidency  in  1872,  and  was  an 
elector  that  year  in  the  first  district.  Two  years  later  he  acted  with  the  opposi- 
tion, so  called,  and  aided  in  drawing  up  the  call  of  the  democratic  state  commit- 
tee, issued  in  this  city  under  the  eye  of  Mr.  Hoyne,  and  embodying  a  specie  plank, 
free  commerce,  civil  rights  and  other  live  issues,  and  which  was  received  with 
great  eclat  by  the  leading  journals  of  his  party. 

July  9,  1875,  he  delivered  an  address  before  the  Jeffersonian  Club  of  Chicago, 
of  which  he  was  then  president,  and  on  that  occasion  took  the  ground  that  "there 
is  sufficient  vital  moral  force  and  patriotism  in  the  people  to  save  their  free  insti- 


22  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

tutions."  In  that  address,  which  he  had  evidently  prepared  with  great  care,  he 
denounced  in  the  strongest  terms  the  tendency  to  corruption  among  the  politi- 
cians of  the  day,  and  clearly  announced  his  own  political  tenets,  as  embodied  in 
the  club  in  whose  interests  he  was  speaking. 

Mr.  Hoyne  has  always  been  regarded  as  one  of  the  bitterest  enemies  of  cor- 
ruptionists,  and  has  been  a  leader  in  trying  to  rout  them.  For  this  purpose  he 
was  brought  out  as  a  candidate  for  mayor  in  the  spring  of  1876,  and  was  tri- 
umphantly elected.  An  account  of  this  election  was  published  in  "The  Alliance," 
of  this  city,  in  April,  1881,  in  a  sketch  of  Mr.  Hoyne,  under  the  heading.  "The 
Men  who  have  Built  Chicago,"  and  we  reproduce  it  in  a  condensed  form: 

"  There  was  a  time  when  this  great  city,  with  all  its  unexampled  growth  and 
prosperity,  was  in  danger  of  financial  ruin  and  moral  bankruptcy.  In  1876  Chi- 
cago was  awakened  to  the  fact  that  she  had  long  been  ruled  by  an  unscrupulous 
ring  of  thieving  politicians,  which  received  its  support  from  a  class  of  the  com- 
munity not  unlike  that  which  kept  Tweed  in  power  in  New  York  city  for  so  long 
a  time,  and  saddled  that  city  with  a  financial  burden,  and  gave  its  government  a 
notoriety  that  has  passed  into  a  proverb.  We  say  that  Chicago  was  awakened  to 
her  danger,  awakened  only  just  in  time  to  avert  ruin,  awakened  mainly  by  the 
efforts  of  the  man  whose  name  stands  at  the  head  of  this  sketch. 

"  H.  D.  Colvin  was  mayor  of  the  city  at  the  time.  He  had  inherited  from 
preceding  administrations  a  bequest  of  debt  and  bad  management,  and  was 
hedged  about  by  precedents  which  he  had  not  the  wisdom  or  energy  to  set 
aside  —  precedents  involving  large  running  expenses,  extravagant  appropriations, 
and  a  reckless  financial  policy.  His  administration  began  the  system  of  meeting 
the  illegal  debt  of  the  city  by  an  equally  illegal  issue  of  scrip,  but  was  unequal  to 
the  broad  statesmanship  of  immediate  retrenchment  of  municipal  expenses  and 
refunding  the  debt  so  that  it  might  comfortably  be  carried.  Extravagance  and 
incompetence  and  rascality  threatened  the  city.  Taxation  had  become  too  heavy 
to  be  borne.  The  name  of  Chicago,  prosperous  and  lusty  as  the  city  was,  was  fast 
becoming  a  by-word  for  misrule.  It  was  a  crisis  in  her  history.  Had  the  reign- 
ing state  of  affairs  continued  there  is  no  manner  of  doubt  but  that  some  other 
city  would  have  become  the  metropolis  of  the  West.  Capital  and  enterprise  do 
not  gravitate  to  any  city  overburdened  with  taxation,  cursed  by  misrule  and 
threatened  with  financial  troubles.  There  is  always  a  man  for  every  emergency, 
and  in  Chicago's  hour  of  need  Thomas  Hoyne  came  to  the  front.  Through  his 
efforts  the  Municipal  Reform  Club  was  organized,  and  in  a  very  short  time  it 
succeeded  in  arousing  the  people  to  a  sense  of  the  dangers  which  threatened 
them.  An  American  community,  and  especially  a  Chicago  community,  engrossed 
with  their  private  business  affairs,  are  slowly  aroused  to  a  sense  of  public  danger, 
but  when  they  are  aroused  no  people  in  the  world  act  so  quickly  or  so  effectively. 
The  Reform  Club  called  a  mass-meeting  of  the  citizens  in  the  Exposition  build- 
ing. Nearly  40,000  men,  of  every  political  faith,  gathered  at  that  meeting,  which 
resolved  to  take  energetic  means  to  abate  the  growing  evil  of  municipal  misrule. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of-'  CHICAGO.  2$ 

Mr.  Hoyne  was,  at  the  meeting,  nominated  for  mayor  on  a  reform  platform,  and 
in  the  election  that  followed  was  nearly  unanimously  elected  to  the  office,  he 
receiving  a  majority  of  over  33,000,  the  largest  ever  given  a  municipal  chief 
magistrate  in  Chicago.  There  were  but  eight  hundred  votes  cast  against  him. 
Mayor  Colvin  contested  the  legality  of  the  election  and  appealed  to  the  courts. 
The  circuit  court,  which  really  had  no  jurisdiction  in  the  case,  decided  by  a  vote 
of  three  to  two  that  the  election  was  illegal.  Mr.  Hoyne  could,  with  every  pros- 
pect of  success,  have  appealed  to  the  supreme  court,  but  as  his  object  was  to 
cleanse  the  city  of  corruption,  and  not  to  secure  honor  or  place  for  himself,  and 
as  the  Colvin  administration  agreed  to  resign  if  another  election  were  permitted 
without  appeal,  Mr.  Hoyne,  for  the  sake  of  the  public  good,  assented,  and  refusing 
to  allow  the  use  of  his  name,  Monroe  Heath  was  elected  mayor  and  Mr.  Hoyne 
retired  to  private  life,  after  having  been  de  facto  mayor  for  six  weeks.  But  the 
line  of  policy  marked  out  by  his  inaugural  address  has  been  followed,  not  only 
by  his  successor  but  by  the  doughty  Harrison,  and  Chicago's  prosperity  and  place 
in  the  nation  is  doubtless  due  to  the  unselfish  and  wise  action  of  Mr.  Hoyne." 

The  wife  of  Mr.  Hoyne  was  Leonora  M.  Temple,  daughter  of  the  late  John  T. 
Temple,  M.D.,  one  of  the  pioneers  in  settling  Chicago,  their  marriage  being  dated 
September  17,  1840,  and  she  being  the  mother  of  seven  children.  The  eldest  son, 
Temple  S.,  occupies  a  chair  in  Hahnemann  Medical  College,  Chicago  ;  the  second 
son,  Thomas  M.,  is  the  junior  member  of  the  firm  of  Hoyne,  Horton  and  Hoyne, 
and  a  lawyer  of  much  promise  ;  the  third  son,  James,  is  cashier  of  the  Germania 
Savings  Bank,  and  the  fourth  son  is  employed  with  the  firm  of  Culver,  Page  and 
Hoyne,  of  Chicago.  Mrs.  Hoyne  is  also  the  granddaughter  of  the  late  Dr.  Staugh- 
ton,  the  most  eminent  Baptist  divine  of  this  century.  He  founded  Columbia 
College,  at  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  and  in  1822  delivered  the  address 
at  Castle  Garden,  New  York,  upon  the  first  visit  of  La  Fayette  to  America  after  he 
had  aided  Washington  in  accomplishing  the  success  of  the  revolution. 


GEORGE  PAYSON. 

AMONG  the  distinguished  members  of  the  Chicago  bar,  we  are  pleased  to 
record  the  name  of  George  Payson,  rich  in  scholarly  attainments,  a  true 
gentleman,  one  of  the  purest  of  men  and  one  of  the  noblest  of  the  profession. 
He  was  born  in  Portland,  Maine,  in  1824,  graduated  at  Bowdoin  College  in 
1843,  studied  law  in  New  York,  came  to  Chicago  in  1856  and  commenced  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  in  which  he  has  continued  with  unvarying  success 
until  the  present  time  (1883),  and  by  which  he  has  gained  an  eminent  and  envi- 
able reputation.  Until  1874  he  was  engaged  in  a  general  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession, but  since  that  time  has  devoted  his  whole  attention,  time  and  energy  to 
patent  law  and  patent  cases,  and  to-day  stands  second  to  no  living  man  as  a 
patent  lawyer.  Some  fifteen  or  sixteen  years  ago  an  association  was  formed  in 


24  THE   BENCH  AND   KAK   OF  CHICAGO. 

Chicago  known  as  the  Western  Railroad  Association,  which  in  1874  retained 
Mr.  Payson  as  its  counsel  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  patents  and  patent  litiga- 
tion; and  from  that  time  to  the  present  Mr.  Payson  has  continued  to  be  actively 
engaged  in  defending  the  interests  of  the  railroads  belonging  to  said  association, 
so  far  as  relates  to  that  particular  branch  of  the  law.  When  that  association  was 
formed  it  was  composed  of  fifteen  railroad  companies,  and  its  membership  has 
since  increased  until  it  now  numbers  about  eighty. 

No  client  was  ever  deceived  by  any  advice  or  counsel  given  by  Mr.  Payson. 
He  is  very  chary  in  giving  an  opinion  unless  fortified  by  principle  and  authority; 
and  he  is  well  and  thoroughly  posted  in  authorities.  Mr.  Payson  is  very  popular 
with  the  bar.  His  frank  and  gentlemanly  bearing  endear  him  to  his  professional 
brethren.  He  is  thoroughly  honest  and  conscientious  in  everything.  He  is  ex- 
ceedingly happy  in  his  presentation  of  a  case  to  court  or  jury.  With  him  there 
is  no  talk  for  buncombe;  the  facts  and  the  law  are  presented  in  his  own  inimi- 
table manner.  His  father,  Rev.  Edward  Payson,  was  one  of  the  most  eminent 
of  New  England  divines,  and  died  in  1827.  George,  the  subject  of  this  sketch, 
is  represented  to  be  very  like  his  father  except  on  the  question  of  religious  ortho- 
doxy. During  Mr.  Payson's  practice  he  has  been  a  partner  of  Isaac  N.  Arnold, 
William  H.  King  and  others. 

In  1857  he  married  Margaret  Codman,  a  daughter  of  Randolph  A.  L.  Codman, 
who,  thirty  years  ago,  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  most  brilliant  and  distin- 
guished members  of  the  Maine  bar.  Four  children  have  been  born  of  this  mar- 
riage, only  two  of  whom,  one  son  and  one  daughter,  are  now  living. 


HON.   HIRAM    H.  CODY. 

HIRAM  HITCHCOCK  CODY,  a  native  of  Vernon  Centre,  Oneida  county. 
New  York,  was  born  June  n,  1824,  the  son  of  Hiram  Cody  and  Huldah 
(Hitchcock)  Cody.  His  paternal  grandparents,  Samuel  Cody  and  Susannah  Cody, 
were  among  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Oneida  county.  The  former  was  a  soldier  in 
the  revolutionary  army;  the  latter,  with  pardonable  pride,  traced  her  lineage  to 
one  of  the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  His  maternal  grand- 
parents, David  Hitchcock  and  Mercy  Gilbert  Hitchcock,  formerly  of  Connecticut, 
but  during  many  years  residents  of  Hamilton,  Madison  county,  New  York,  were 
universally  respected  for  their  many  virtues.  For  several  generations  back  his 
ancestors  have  all  been  Christian  people,  identified  with  either  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  or  Congregational  church.  His  father  was  a  man  of  unusual  mental 
and  physical  vigor,  with  a  good  degree  of  self-culture,  and  known  for  his  frank- 
ness and  independence  in  thought  and  action.  His  mother  was  a  woman  of 
earnest,  decided  Christian  character,  superior  culture  and  refined  tastes.  Of  his 
four  sisters,  all  of  whom  were  ladies  esteemed  for  their  intelligence  and  excellent 
traits  of  character,  only  the  youngest  is  now  living.  The  eldest  and  youngest  were 


I  • 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2/ 

married  successively  to  his  wife's  eldest  brother,  Dr.  S.  P.  Sedgwick,  formerly  pro- 
fessor in  Bennett  Medical  College,  of  Chicago.  The  second  sister  was  the  wife 
of  Hon.  E.  O.  Hills,  of  Bloomingdale,  Illinois,  and  the  third  was  married  to  Mr. 
Samuel  Talcott,  of  Rockton,  Illinois. 

His  early  education  was  thorough,  and  was  conducted  with  the  design  that  he 
should  enter  the  legal  profession;  and  in  all  his  instruction  this  purpose  was  kept 
in  view,  and  being  well  known  to  him,  made  a  very  deep  impression  upon  his 
hopes  and  aspirations  for  the  future.  His  father,  however,  determined  to  remove 
with  his  family  to  the  West  when  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  about  eighteen 
years  of  age.  This  circumstance,  though  it  seemed  at  the  time  to  interfere 
seriously  with  his  plans  for  the  future,  proved  to  him  a  blessing  in  disguise,  by 
inducing  his  removal  to  the  West,  and  settlement  in  Illinois. 

In  1843,  with  his  father's  family,  he  removed  to  Lisbon,  Kendall  county,  Illi- 
nois, whither  many  of  his  old  townsmen  had  preceded  him.  One  year  later  the 
family  settled  at  Bloomingdale,  Du  Page  county. 

In  August,  1847,  Mr.  Cody  removed  to  Naperville,  having  been  elected  clerk 
of  the  county  commissioners'  court  of  Du  Page  county.  Two  years  later,  upon 
the  adoption  of  the  constitution  of  1848,  he  was  nominated  by  acclamation,  and 
in  1849  elected,  the  first  county  clerk  of  said  county,  thus  serving  as  clerk  six 
years,  during  which  time,  aside  from  his  official  duties,  he  vigorously  applied 
himself  to  the  study  of  law,  and  finally,  in  June,  1851,  realized  the  long  cherished 
hopes  of  his  earlier  years,  by  being  admitted  to  the  bar.  Upon  the  expiration  of 
his  term  of  office  he  went  before  the  convention,  and,  though  a  majority  of  the 
delegates  favored  his  renomination,  he  voluntarily  withdrew  his  name,  his  pur- 
pose being  to  retire  from  public  life  and  devote  himself  to  the  study  and  practice 
of  his  profession.  Aside  from  these  he  has  held  no  offices  by  virtue  of  a  political 
party  vote.  Politically,  his  views  were  democratic;  but  when  the  voice  of  trea- 
son was  heard,  and  efforts  were  making  to  sever  the  union  of  states,  discarding 
party  prejudices,  he  thought  only  of  his  country's  welfare.  His  earnest  efforts 
and  eloquent  appeals  in  behalf  of  the  Union  cause  will  ever  be  remembered  by 
his  fellow  citizens;  and  it  was  to  these  that  Du  Page  county  was  largely  indebted 
for  her  brilliant  record  made  during  the  war. 

In  1861,  in  a  convention  assembled  without  distinction  of  party,  he  was  nomi- 
nated, and  afterward  almost  unanimously  elected,  county  judge  of  Du  Page 
county.  In  1869,  at  a  time  when  the  citizens  of  his  county  were  nearly  equally 
divided  upon  the  question  pertaining  to  the  removal  of  the  county  seat,  he  was 
the  candidate  of  the  anti-removal  division  for  delegate  to  the  constitutional  con- 
vention, then  about  to  be  held.  The  election  of  1867  was  claimed  to  have  resulted 
in  favor  of  removal  by  a  majority  of  about  one  hundred;  yet,  notwithstanding  this, 
and  also  the  fact  that  the  vote  of  his  county  was  three-fourths  republican,  and 
the  Hon.  Thomas  B.  Bryan,  a  gentleman  well  known  in  business  circles  throughout 
the  state,  and  especially  in  Chicago,  was  the  opposing  candidate,  Judge  Cody  was 
elected  by  a  majority  of  between  one  and  two  hundred.  In  the  convention  he 


28  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

was  one  of  the  most  useful  members,  and  his  service  therein  was  exceedingly  val- 
uable and  efficient.  Feeling  bound  by  the  will  of  those  who,  irrespective  of  party, 
had'  elected  him,  no  less  than  by  his  own  inclination,  he  acted  with  the  small 
number  of  independents  who,  in  the  convention,  really  held  the  balance  of  power, 
which  they  so  used,  alternating  the  election  of  officers  between  the  two  parties, 
that  party  spirit  was  more  nearly  banished  from  that  assembly  than  from  any 
deliberative  legislative  body  that  ever  convened  in  Illinois.  In  the  convention 
he  was  chairman  of  the  important  committee  on  revision  and  adjustment,  arid 
with  characteristic  energy,  vigilance  and  foresight,  so  conducted  the  work  of  the 
committee  that  upon  the  day,  and  at  the  hour  fixed  for  final  adjournment, 
its  rep6rt  was  found  complete, —  something  new  in  the  hjstory  of  such  conven- 
tions. The  appreciation  of  the  committee's  services  was  clearly  attested  by  a 
unanimous  vote  of  thanks,  which  was  the  only  one  of  the  kind  given  to  any  com- 
mittee during  the  entire  session.  Aside  from  this,  the  record  of  the  convention, 
the  flattering  notices  of  the  Springfield  papers,  and  the  personal  testimony  of  his 
fellow-members,  furnish  abundant  evidence  of  the  ability  which  he  displayed  in 
this  responsible  and  honorable  position.  Upon  the  resignation  of  Hon.  S. 
Wilcox,  judge  of  the  fourth  judicial  circuit  of  Illinois  (composed  of  the  counties 
of  Kane,  Du  Page  and  Kendall),  in  the  fall  of  1874,  the  minds  of  his  fellow-citi- 
zens at  once  fixed  upon  Judge  Cody  as  his  successor.  ^  A  district  convention  for 
nomination  having  been  called,  a  mass  convention  was  at  once  held  in  Du  Page 
county.  About  one  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  most  substantial  men  in  the  county, 
irrespective  of  party,  composed  this  convention,  which  was  the  largest  of  its  kind 
ever  held  in  the  county.  When  from  this  body  a  delegation  comprising  men 
whose  personal  appearance,  superior  abilities,  and  genuine  merit,  made  them  a 
tower  of  strength,  were  selected  to  present  the  name  of  a  candidate  from  Du  Page 
county,  they  needed  no  formal  instructions  as  to  who  it  should  -be,  but  went  into 
the  district  convention  with  a  unanimity  and  moral  force  that  insured  success, 
and  secured  the  nomination  of  Judge  Cody,  who,  on  September  8,  was  elected  by 
the  largest  majority  ever  given  in  the  circuit;  every  town  in  his  own  county  giv- 
ing him  a  majority.  In  the  three  south  towns,  which  had  been  his  home  since 
1847,  out  of  a  total  of  ten  hundred  and  twenty-one  votes,  ten  hundred  and  seven 
were  cast  for  him,  thus  showing  that  where  he  was  best  known  his  abilities  were 
most  highly  appreciated. 

During  his  term  as  circuit  judge,  in  1877,  the  appellate  court  of  Illinois  was 
established,  and  the  counties  of  Lake,  McHenry,  De  Kalb  and  Boone  were  com- 
bined with  the  old  fourth  circuit,  forming  the  twelfth  judicial  circuit  of  the  state, 
the  law  making  this  change  providing  also  for  three  judges  in  each  of  the  thirteen 
circuits  of  the  state. 

In  1879  a  republican  convention  made  a  party  nomination  for  judges,  the  cir- 
cuit having  a  republican  majority  of  over  twelve  thousand,  which  of  course  ter- 
minated Judge  Cody's  official  service,  although  the  people  throughout  the  circuit, 
without  organization  in  his  favor,  voted  for  him  in  such  numbers  that  he  lacked 


THE   BENCH  AND   KAR   OF  CHICAGO.  29 

but  about  two  thousand  votes  of  being  reelected.  This  unexpectedly  large  volun- 
tary indorsement  of  the  people,  irrespective  of  party,  under  the  circumstances, 
gave  substantial  evidence  of  popular  appreciation. 

Judge  Cody  immediately  formed  a  business  connection^in  Chicago,  where  he 
has  since  that  time  been  practicing  law,  retaining  his  residence,  however,  at  Na- 
perville,  in  Du  Page  county.  The  firm  of  which  he  is  a  member,  Gary,  Cody 
and  Gary,  is  widely  known  and  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  the  profession. 

In  the  fall  of  1880,  the  democratic  senatorial  conventioiv  for  the  fourteenth 
district,  against  his  protest,  nominated  Judge  Cody  for  state  senator,  an  honor 
which  he  peremptorily  declined.  Soon  after  this^  in -the  same  year,  lie  was  unex- 
pectedly and  unanimously  nominated  a  candidate  for  congress  by  the  democrats 
of  the  first  congressional  district.  His  professional  engagements  compelled  him 
to  decline  this  nomination  also,  and  devote  himself  to  the  large  and  continually 
increasing  business  interests  confided  to  his  care.  For  the  same  reason,  when  the 
congressional  districts  had  been  changed,  and  in  1882  he  was  unanimously  nomi- 
nated for  the  same  position  in  the  eighth  district,  he  again  declined,  though  he 
believed  at  the  time,  and  his  friends  insist  they  now  know,  that  his  election  was 
certain.  Though  he  is  still  called  a  democrat,  he  is  thoroughly  and  absolutely 
independent  in  his  views,  taking  little  or  no  part  in  party  politics. 

As  a  judge  he  was  peculiarly  free  from  prejudices,  and  his  thorough  investiga- 
tion of  the  law,  his  clear  perception,  and  his  careful,  deliberate  and  correct  opin- 
ions have  made  for  him  a  most  enviable  reputation.  During  his  whole  term  as 
county  .judge  no  appeal  was  taken  from  his  decisions.  When  he  began  his  labors 
as  circuit  judge,  by  reason  of  the  illness  of  his  predecessor,  there  was  an  immense 
accumulation  of  unfinished  business.  He  quietly  but  persistently  discharged  his 
responsible  duties,  and  at  the  end  of  his  term  left  all  the  dockets  in  his  circuit  in 
far  better  condition  than  they  had  been  'for  many  years.  Of  the  cases  appealed 
during  his  term  more  than  eighty  per  cent  were  affirmed  by  the  supreme  court. 

As  a  lawyer,  he  has  ever  been  noted  for  his  care  and  skill,  and  faithfulness  to 
his  clients;  possessing  fine  abilities  as  a  public  speaker,  his  clear  voice,  distinct 
articulation,  well  chosen  language  and  earnest  sincerity,  rendered  him  a  popular 
and  successful  advocate.  As  a  citizen,  he  is  loyal  and  true,  and  has  been  espe- 
cially faithful  to  the  interests  of  the  community  in  which  he  lived.  As  a  man, 
Judge  Cody  possesses  most  admirable  qualities;  warm  and  sympathetic  in  his 
friendships,  courteous,  affable,  social  and  genial,  he  possesses  that  plain  style  and 
matter-of-fact  directness  of  purpose,  and  that  modest  and  unobtrusive  manner,  to 
be  expected  in  one  who  like  him  has  an  utter  contempt  for  all  shams  and  mere 
pretense.  His  aim  in  life  has  been  to  unfold  his  nobler  manhood,  and  to  make 
the  highest  use  of  his  powers  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-men,  and  this  with  an 
unselfishness  that  his  friends  are  inclined  to  consider  an  injustice  to  himself. 

He  was  married  December  31,  1846,  to  Miss  Philomela  E.  Sedgwick,  daughter 
of  Parker  Sedgwick,  M.D.,  formerly  of  Lowell,  Oneida  county,  New  York,  but 
since  1843  a  resident  of  Du  Page  county,  Illinois,  where  he  is  widely  known  as  an 


30  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

eminent  and  successful  physician.  Of  his  eight  sons  one  is  a  minister,  three  are 
lawyers,  and  four  are  physicians.  Mrs.  Cody  is  a  lady  of  intelligence  and  refine- 
ment, esteemed  for  her  earnest  piety  and  her  true  womanly  qualities,  a  devoted 
wife  and  fond  mother. 

They  have  from  early  life  been  members  of  the  Congregational  church  at  Na- 
perville,  in  which  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  the  judge  has  been  superintendent  of 
the  sabbath  school.  Their  eldest  son,  Hiram  S.,  was  admitted  to  practice  law  in 
September,  1877,  and  died  in  March,  1879,  at  the  age  of  twenty-four  years.  Dur- 
ing his  brief  practice  at  the  bar  he  gave  unmistakable  prom.ise  of  brilliant  suc- 
cess as  a  lawyer,  while  in  every  other  respect  his  future  was  equally  promising. 

There  are  remaining  three  sons  and  five  daughters,  constituting  a  family  cir- 
cle of  culture,  refinement  and  intelligence,  and  making  a  home  in  which  the  judge 
may  well  be  said  to  be  a  contented  and  happy  man. 

Such  is  a  simple  outline  of  his  life  history,  to  which  little  need  be  added.  The 
character  of  the  positions  which  he  has  held  is  a  faithful  test  of  his  ability;  this, 
and  the  substantially  unanimous  indorsement  of  an  intelligent  people  with  whom 
he  has  lived  for  over  thirty  years,  speak  of  his  genuine  merit  and  worth  in  language 
that  cannot  be  misunderstood.  In  representing  the  interests  of  others  he  has  been 
singularly  fortunate  and  happy,  and  as  a  reward  of  his  rare  honesty  of  purpose, 
his  undoubted  fairness  to  opponents,  he  is  the  favorite  of  a  whole  people.  If  we 
search  for  the  secret  of  his  success,  we  shall  find  it,  not  alone  in  his  native  abili- 
ties, but  also  in  his  sterling  integrity,  his  loyalty  to  principle,  and  his  firm  deter- 
mination to  be  absolutely  honorable  and  manly  in  all  his  endeavors. 


HON.  JOHN  A.  JAMESON. 

JOHN  A.  JAMESON,  chief-justice  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county,  was 
born  in  Irasburg,  Orleans  county,  Vermont,  January  25,  1824.  Being  now 
nearly  sixty  years  of  age,  he  is  well  preserved  and  vigorous  in  both  mind  and 
body.  His  father,  Thomas  Jameson,  was  sheriff  of  Orleans  county,  Vermont,  for 
many  years,  a  member  of  the  constitutional  convention,  and  a  prominent  man  in 
that  county.  Being  deprived  in  his  early  life  of  the  adequate  means  of  gaining  the 
education  his  ambition  coveted,  John  A.  had  to  rely  mainly  upon  his  own  efforts 
in  the  struggle  to  attain  this  object.  After  completing  the  usual  preliminary  and 
preparatory  studies  he  entered  the  Vermont  University  at  Burlington,  from  which 
he  graduated  with  high  rank  in  the  class  of  1846;  his  alma  mater  has  since  con- 
ferred upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  After  graduating  he  taught 
school  in  Canada  some  four  years,  and  was  subsequently  tutor  in  Vermont  Uni- 
versity two  years,  teaching  languages  and  mathematics.  During  all  these  years 
he  lost  no  opportunity  for  self  improvement.  He  writes  and  speaks  several  lan- 
guages, and  is  a  man  of  varied  literary  attainments.  He  attended  the  Dane  Law 
School  of  Harvard  College,  and  read  law  at  Burlington,  Vermont,  and  was  there 


TIfF.   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  31 

admitted  to  the  bar.  He  soon  afterward  removed  to  Chicago  with  his  classmate 
in  the  law  school.  Homer  N.  Hibbard,  with  whom  he  formed  a  partnership.  After 
acquiring  the  Illinois  practice  and  processes  the  firm  went  to  Freeport,  Illinois, 
and  engaged  in  practice.  A  few  years  later  Mr.  Jameson,  returning  to  Chicago, 
formed  a  new  partnership  and  continued  his  practice  until  1865,  when  he  was 
elected  to  the  bench  of  the  then  superior  court  of  Chicago,  a  court  now  having 
jurisdiction  coequal  with  the  circuit  court.  He  has  been  elected  to  three  successive 
terms  of  six  years  each  and  always  by  large  majorities,  evidencing  his  popularity 
and  the  high  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  by  all  parties  in  Chicago  and  Cook  county 
as  an  upright  and  just  judge.  As  a  lawyer  and  counsellor,  before  he  was  elected 
to  the  bench,  he  ranked  among  the  foremost  young  men,  especially  in  chancery 
practice,  and  he  now  holds  the  same  relative  position  among  the  judges  of  equal 
rank  in  this  county.  He  is  now  chief-justice  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county. 
As  a  jurist  he  is  regarded  by  the  profession  as  able  and  impartial.  He  brought  to 
the  bench  a  thorough  knowledge  of  law,  a  wide  range  of  learning  and  that  clear 
perception  of  right  and  justice  which  is  so  marked  in  all  the  walks  of  his  life. 
He  is  candid  and  cautious,  and  clear  in  his  analysis  of  the  principles  of  law  and 
equity,  with  a  broad  comprehension  of  the  spirit  and  scope  of  jurisprudence,  and 
the  independence  to  decide  according  to  his  best  judgment  of  the  law  and  the 
right.  The  following  is  the  estimate  of  him  by  a  distinguished  Chicago  lawyer: 
"  He  is  exceedingly  diligent  and  patient  in  research,  and  seldom  or  never,  per- 
haps, relies  wholly  upon  authorities  and  precedents  laid  before  his  mind  by  the 
lawyer.  The  result  of  this  habit  of  mind  is  a  great  encouragement  to  lawyers 
having  cases  before  him.  There  is  no  court  in  Chicago  where  closer  or  more 
careful  research  is  made.  He  is  an  attentive  listener,  anxious  to  hear  all  a  lawyer 
has  to  say  about  his  case,  does  not  assume  on  the  argument  or  authorities  pre- 
sented by  the  attorney  before  him,  but  knows  all  about  the  case  himself  before 
giving  a  decision;  he  is  slow  to  commit  himself,  and  does  not  jump  at  conclu- 
sions; makes  no  display  of  his  learning  on  the  bench,  and  has  no  conceited  prid^e 
of  opinion,  but  will  with  great  promptness  correct  any  errors  subsequently  dis- 
covered in  his  own  rulings,  and  will  listen  with  great  patience  to  get  the  facts  and 
law.  In  the  consideration  of  law  questions  he  is  entirely  uninfluenced  by  popu- 
lar opinion,  having  often  decided  cases  contrary  to  time  honored  decisions,  and 
has  been  sustained  by  the  higher  courts.  He  philosophizes  upon  the  law  and 
evidence,  and  eliminates  from  the  mass  of  authorities  the  real  foundation  princi- 
ples, and  decides  accordingly,  giving  due  weight  to  the  equities  of  the  case.  His 
mind  seems  to  be  organized  especially  for  the  discussion  and  consideration  of 
general  principles  of  law,  and  he  is  at  his  best  in  the  trying  and  deciding  of  nisi 
prius  cases,  which  he  can  fully  and  carefully  examine.  He  is  sympathetic  and 
kind,  and  protects  the  rights  of  the  humblest  witness  in  his  court,  and  promptly 
checks  anything  like  oppression  or  unprofessional  and  unfair  practice." 

He  has  been  assistant  editor  of  the  "American  Law  Register,"  and  since  he  has 
been  on  the  bench  has  published  one  of  the  most  valuable  works  known  to  legal 
4 


32  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHIC  AGO. 

jurisprudence,  "The  Constitutional  Convention;  Its  History,  Powers,  and  Modes 
of  Proceeding."  It  bears  the  evidence  of  great  research  and  learning,  is  a  stand- 
ard work  and  reflects  great  credit  upon  its  author.  When  a  young  man  he  was  a 
strong  and  vigorous  essayist.  He  has  in  later  years  written  and  delivered  several 
addresses  upon  different  subjects,  which  were  pronounced  by  his  hearers  and  the 
press  masterpieces  of  logic  and  learning.  He  is  still  a  student;  quiet  and  studi- 
ous in  his  demeanor  and  habits,  and  an  indefatigable  worker  on  or  off  the  bench. 
He  has  been  instrumental  in  introducing  many  reforms  in  court  practice. 

In   1855  he  married  Eliza  Denison,  daughter  of  the  late  Dr.  Joseph  A.  Deni- 
son,  Jr.,  of  Royalton,  Vermont.     He  lives  in  Hyde  Park,  a  suburb  of  Chicago. 


HON.    JOSHUA    C.    KNICKERBOCKER. 

JOSHUA  C.  KNICKERBOCKER  was  born  in  Gallatin,  Columbia  county,  in 
J  the  state  of  New  York,  September  26,  1837,  and  is  of  remote  Holland  extrac- 
tion, although  his  ancestors,  paternal  and  maternal,  were  for  several  generations 
natives  of  Columbia  and  Dutchess  counties  in  the  Empire  state. 

In  the  spring  of  the  year  1844  his  father,  David  Knickerbocker,  with  his 
family,  joined  the  tide  of  western  emigration,  and  removed  to  Alden,  in  McHenry 
county,  in  the  state  of  Illinois,  where  he  settled  upon  a  farm  which  he  continued 
to  occupy  and  cultivate  until  his  decease,  which  occurred  February  22,  1874,  his 
relict,  Susanna  Knickerbocker,  dying  August  12,  at  the  same  place  in  that  year. 
The  children  consisted  of  four  in  number,  all  of  whom  survive:  Isaac  D.  Knick- 
erbocker, who  resides  on  the  old  homestead  in  Alden,  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
Mrs.  Hannah  M.  Bowman,  wife  of  Prentice  Bowman,  of  La  Porte  city,  Iowa,  and 
John  J.  Knickerbocker,  a  well  known  member  of  the  Chicago  bar. 

Judge  Knickerbocker  was  educated  in  the  common  schools  and  at  the  acad- 
emy in  Alden.  In  the  winters  of  1856,  1858  and  1859  he  engaged  in  teaching 
district  schools  and  in  prosecuting  his  private  studies  in  the  more  advanced 
branches  of  education.  Having  determined  to  devote  himself  to  the  law,  he 
removed  to  Chicago  in  March,  1860,  and  at  once  commenced  a  course  of  study  of 
the  law.  In  March,  1862,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  by  the  supreme  court  of 
the  state,  opened  an  office  at  No.  14  Metropolitan  Block,  and  at  once  entered 
u^ion  a  remunerative  practice.  In  common  with  many  others,  he  suffered  the 
misfortune  of  having  his  office,  including  a  valuable  law  library,  burned  in  the 
great  fire  of  October  8—9,  1871.  He  was  joined  in  business  by  his  brother,  Mr. 
John  J.  Knickerbocker,  in  1867,  and  thus  was  formed  the  well  known  law  firm  of 
J.  C.  and  J.  J.  Knickerbocker,  which  continued  until  December,  1877,  when  it  was 
dissolved  by  the  election  of  the  senior  member  of  the  firm  to  the  office  of  probate 
judge  of  Cook  county.  Judge  Knickerbocker  was  elected  supervisor  of  the  first 
ward  of  Chicago  in  1864  for  one  year,  alderman  of  the  first  ward  in  1865  for  two 
years,  and  reelected  in  1867  for  a  like  term.  In  1868  he  was  nominated  for 


tu?   VyECWil'-jrs  9  P' 


7'ffE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 


35 


representative  in  the  twenty-sixth  general  assembly,  and  in  a  close  and  doubtful 
district  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  more  than  two  thousand.  In  1869  he  was 
nominated  by  acclamation  by  the  republican  county  convention  for  county 
judge,  but  owing  to  irreconcilable  complications  the  whole  ticket  suffered  defeat. 
In  1875  he  was  appointed  by  the  governor  a  member  of  the  state  board  of  educa- 
tion, to  fill  the  vacancy  occasioned  by  the  death  of  the  late  Dr.  John  H.  Foster, 
and  in  1877  was  reiippointed  for  a  term  of  six  years.  While  at  the  bar  Judge 
Knickerbocker  devoted  himself  largely  to  probate  business,  a  department  of  the 
law  to  which  he  had  devoted  much  study  and  which  was  congenial  to  him,  and 
in  October,  1877,  he  was  nominated  for  the  important  office  of  probate  judge  of 
Cook  county  with  little  effort  on  his  part,  while  a  contest  for  the  nomination  was 
made  by  several  able  competitors,  who  made  a  vigorous  and  protracted  personal 
canvass.  He  was  elected,  and  organized  the  present  probate  court  of  Cook 
county,  December  3,  1877,  under  the  act  of  the  general  assembly  passed  and 
approved  in  April  of  that  year.  In  October,  1882,  he  was  renominated  for  pro- 
bate judge  by  acclamation  and  was  reelected. 

No  man  enjoys  a  more  extensive  and  favorable  acquaintance  with  the  people 
of  Cook  county  than  Judge  Knickerbocker.  All  the  public  and  private  trusts 
committed  to  his  charge  have  been  executed  with  promptness  and  fidelity.  In 
the  councils  of  the  city  and  state  his  official  influence  and  action  have  ever  been 
in  the  interests  of  good  government. 

The  court  over  which  he  presides  has  jurisdiction  over  the  estates  of  all 
deceased  persons,  and  over  the  persons  and  estates  of  all  infants,  lunatics,  idiots, 
spendthrifts  and  drunkards  in  Cook  county,  and  adjudicates  annually  upon  more 
property  than  all  the  other  courts  of  Cook  county  combined.  To  administer  the 
delicate  and  sacred  trusts  of  such  an  office  requires  learning,  industry,  vigor  and 
patience.  We  believe  we  express  the  universal  opinion  when  we  say  these  trusts 
have  never  been  more  promptly,  impartially  and  satisfactorily  executed  than 
under  the  administration  of  Judge  Knickerbocker. 


HON.  JOSEPH   B.   LEAKE, 

"T)  REVET  brigadier-general  of  United  States  Volunteers,  lawyer  and  soldier, 
.D  was  born  April  i,  1828,  in  Deerfield,  Cumberland  county,  New  Jersey,  and 
is  of  Welsh  descent,  his  family  having  been  among  the  earliest  settlers  of  that 
colony.  His  father  removing  to  Cincinnati,  the  son  there  received  his  prepara- 
tory education,  and  subsequently  entered  Miami  University,  at  Oxford,  Ohio, 
from  which  institution  he  graduated  in  the  class  of  1846.  He  soon  after  entered 
the  law  office  of  Hon.  W.  S.  Groesbeck,  where  he  remained  until  he  was  admitted 
to  the  Ohio  bar,  January  16,  1850.  He  practiced  law  in  Cincinnati  about  six 
years,  and  removed  thence  to  Davenport,  Iowa,  where  he  opened  an  office  and 
devoted  himself  assiduously  to  building  up  a  lucrative  business.  In  1861  he  was 


2 8  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

elected  judge  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county  for  a  term  of  six  years,  which 
position  he  now  holds.  His  duties  since  that  time  have  been  of  a  very  arduous 
and  complex  nature.  He  is  a  working  judge,  attending  daily  at  his  chambers, 
with  very  rare  intermission.  His  judicial  tendencies  are  the  result  of  thorough 
training  in  the  doctrines  of  the  common  law,  as  it  was  expounded  before  the  days 
of  innovation,  and  his  great  familiarity  with  the  statutes  and  reported  jurisdiction 
of  the  federal  government  is  conceded  by  the  entire  bar.  He  possesses  that 
judicial  instinct  which  makes  its  way  quickly  through  immaterial  details  to  the 
essential  points  upon  which  the  determination  of  a  cause  must  turn.  He  there- 
fore charges  juries  with  great  distinction,  and  in  cases  which  are  decided  by  him 
places  the  results  upon  plainly  discernible  principles.  He  enjoys  the  unqualified 
confidence  and  respect  of  the  bar  and  the  people  of  the  state. 

In  politics  Judge  Smith  was  a  democrat  previous  to  the  late  war,  when  he 
became  a  staunch  Union  man,  and  since  then  has  been  a  republican. 

Judge  Smith  is  well  and  heavily  built,  having  a  handsome  physique  and  a 
powerful  brain,  is  at  heart  a  very  genial  and  kind,  prepossessing  gentleman,  who 
has  a  thousand  admirable  qualities.  He  has  made  the  law  his  greatest  ambition, 
hence  his  high  standing  as  a  jurist.  A  state  and  city  are  honored  by  keeping 
such  a  man  on  the  bench. 


HON.   LEONARD  SWETT. 

E;ONARD  SWETT  was  born  near  the  village  of  Turner,  Oxford  county, 
Maine,  on  what  was,  and  is  now,  known  as  the  Albine  Richer  farm.  His 
mother,  about  eighty-seven  years  of  age,  is  still  living  on  the  homestead.  At  the 
age  of  twelve  years,  having  previously  been  in  the  schools  of  his  neighborhood, 
he  began  the  study  of  Latin  and  Greek  with  the  Rev.  Thomas  R.  Curtis,  his 
parents  and  the  wise  ones  of  the  neighborhood  having,  as  they  supposed, 
"elected"  him  for  the  ministry.  When  fifteen  years  of  age  he  went  to  North 
Yarmouth  Academy,  where  he  remained  two  years,  and  then  entered  Waterville 
College  (now  known  as  Colby  University),  where  he  remained  three  years,  and 
left  on  account  of  some  misunderstanding  with  the  faculty;  involving,  however, 
nothing  dishonorable  on  his  part.  He  then  read  law  with  Messrs.  Howard  and 
Shepley,  of  Portland,  two  years,  when  he  left  to  take  his  chances  in  the  battle  of 
life  and  seek  his  fortune.  He  has  fought  the  battle  successfully,  and  has  gained 
a  fortune.  He  intended  to  settle  in  the  South,  but  after  traveling  through  the 
southern  states  for  a  time  he  came  west  in  1847.  At  that  time  the  war  with 
Mexico  was  raging,  and  he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  5th  Ind.  Inf.,  commanded 
Gen.  James  H.  Lane,  afterward  United  States  senator  from  Kansas.  Although 
not  commissioned  as  an  officer,  he  had  practical  command  as  captain  of  the  com- 
pany, of  which  he  was  orderly  sergeant.  Having  entered  the  city  of  Mexico 
after  its  capture,  the  company  was  detailed  to  guard  trains  from  Vera  Cruz  to 
Jalapa,  Pueblo  and  Cordova  and  return.  In  May,  1848,  he  was  taken  sick  at  Vera 


THE  BENCH  AND  B'AR   OF  CHICAGO.  39 

Cruz,  and  lay  in  hospital  one  month,  when  peace  was  made  and  he  returned  to 
the  North  with  shattered  health,  which  was  not  soon  restored.  Upon  regaining 
his  health,  in  1849  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Bloomington,  Illinois,  and  there 
began  the  practice  of  law.  He  rode  the  circuit  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  Stephen 
T.  Logan,  John  T.  Stuart,  U.  F.  Linder,  Edward  D.  Baker,  Edward  Hannagan,  and 
other  prominent  lawyers  of  that  day,  and  while  being  trained  in  that  school  was 
recognized  as  one  of  the  leaders  and  among  the  ablest.  He  spent  six  months  of 
'  the  year  in  courts  with  Lincoln  from  that  time  on  until  the  latter  was  elected 
president,  and  always  found  in  him  a  warm  friend,  a  safe  counselor  and  a  con- 
genial companion.  This  intimacy  continued  up  to  the  time  of  Mr.  Lincoln's  death. 

When  he  started  out  to  practice  law  there  were  two  men  who  took  him  by  the 
hand  and  helped  him  along  with  that  affection  and  kindness  which  marks  a 
father's  conduct  toward  a  son.  These  two  men  were  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
David  Davis,  who  remained  true  and  confidential  friends  to  the  last.  Next  to 
Judge  Davis  Mr.  Swett  was  most  influential  in  securing  the  nomination  of  Lin 
coin  for  the  presidency,  and  was  the  prime  mover  and  controlling  influence  in 
planning  and  executing  that  remarkable  campaign  which  resulted  in  the  election 
of  that  great  man.  Suffice  it  to  say  that  both  came  to  Chicago  to  secure  this 
result,  and  Judge  Davis  being  Swett's  senior  by  twelve  years,  he  was  very  natu- 
rally the  nominal  leader.  The  nomination  was  secured,  under  their  management, 
through  a  combination  of  the  Illinois,  Indiana  and  Pennsylvania  delegations,  and 
in  this  the  hand  of  Leonard  Swett  was  powerful  and  controlling. 

But  it  is  as  a  lawyer  that  he  is  best  known.  During  the  war  he  was  in  the 
employ  of  the  Quicksilver  Mining  Company,  a  corporation  owning  the  great 
Almaden  or  quicksilver  mine  in  California,  which  was  involved  in  litigation  for 
twelve  years,  the  last  four  of  which  Mr.  Swett  had  the  full  control,  which  kept  him 
in  Washington  the  greater  part  of  the  time.  As  he  did  not  want  any  office  because 
of  better  employment,  it  left  him  untrammeled,  and  insured  the  full  confidence  of. 
President  Lincoln,  and  hence  he  was  a  power  behind  the  throne  to  an  extent  of 
which  few  have  any  knowledge.  In  1865  he  came  to  Chicago  permanently.  He 
has  held  but  one  office,  that  of  state  senator  one  term,  and  has  declined  all  ten- 
ders of  office  made  to  him.  He  has  devoted  himself  assiduously  to  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  to  which  he  has  been  passionately  devoted  the  past  twenty-five 
years,  attaining  to  an  eminence  which  ranks  him  among  the  first  at  the  bar, 
especially  as  a  criminal  lawyer.  Of  the  nineteen  murder  cases  which  he  has 
defended,  he  has  lost  but  one,  and  these  cases  are  among  the  most  celebrated  in 
the  annals  of  our  courts.  He  is  a  born  orator;  has  a  fine  physique  and  command- 
ing presence;  an  attractive  delivery;  is  an  entertaining  speaker,  an  affable  and 
genial  gentleman,  and  is  esteemed  and  honored  as  a  citizen  and  a  man.  In  poli- 
tics he  is  a  republican,  and  his  voice  is  heard  in  defense  of  that  party  in  all 
important  campaigns  and  from  the  lecture  platform.  He  took  an  active  part  in 
the  effort  made  to  secure  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Grant  to  the  presidency  in  the 
Chicago  convention. 


40  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  is  still  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  is  a  noble  example  of  what  may  be  accom- 
plished by  earnest,  conscientious  and  faithful  work  in  the  direction  of  one's 
native  inclination  and  abilities.  He  is  one  of  the  conspicuous  citizens  of  Illinois, 
and  is  thoroughly  identified  with  the  history  of  the  state;  has  been  a  part  of  it, 
and  one  of  its  most  notable  and  important  factors;  at  the  bar  he  has  ably  illus- 
trated its  annals.  His  pleadings  before  the  highest  courts,  his  brilliant  efforts 
from  the  platform  as  lecturer  and  orator,  evidence  his  profound  knowledge  of 
law,  the  accuracy  of  his  judgment,  the  extent  of  his  scholarship  and  reading,  the 
force  of  his  logic  and  the  grace  of  his  diction.  He  has  varied  and  comprehen- 
sive legal  learning  and  general  accomplishments  which  have  won  for  him  the 
highest  respect  of  the  bar  as  well  as  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  general 
public;  a  man  of  spotless  integrity,  which  all  attempts  to  assail  have  been  fruit- 
less. He  is  not  a  man  of  circumstances;  he  has  made  and  controlled  them. 

When  he  settled  in  Chicago,  in  1865,  he  formed  with  Van  H.  Higgins  and 
Col.  David  Quigg  a  partnership  which  continued  for  several  years.  His  previous 
reputation  and  well  known  ability  brought  him  at  once  into  prominence,  and 
insured  him  a  lucrative  practice  which  he  has  to  this  day.  The  present  firm  is 
Swett  and  Haskell.,  He  is  retained  in  the  most  important  cases  which  have  come 
before  the  higher  courts;  he  devotes  himself  almost  exclusively  to  his  profession; 
and  while  his  comprehensive  and  well  trained  mind  and  large  experience  and 
knowledge  of  men  fit  him  for  doing  any  work  ably,  it  is  as  an  advocate  that  he 
is  most  conspicuous.  He  is  a  clear  reasoner,  and  applies  to  every  subject  he  con- 
siders strong  logical  power,  his  appeals  to  jury  or  court  often  being  masterpieces 
of  oratory. 

HON.  WILLIAM    H.   KING,    LL.D. 

ONE  of  the  best  known,  as  well  as  one  of  the  most  prominent  and  popular, 
members  of  the  Chicago  bar  is  William  H.  King.  To  those  who  know  him 
nothing  need  be  said  as  to  his  character  and  accomplishments.  To  those  who  do 
not  know  him  it  would  be  difficult  to  convey  any  just  idea  of  his  personality.  He 
belongs  to  no  class.  There  is  no  one  else  to  whom  we  can  compare  him.  His 
thoughts,  his  expressions,  his  manner  are  all  his  own.  They  are  alike  character- 
istic and  original. 

Mr.  King  was  born  in  Clifton  Park,  in  the  county  of  Saratoga  and  state  of 
New  York,  October  23,  1817.  We  have  no  account  of  his  earlier  days,  but  if  the 
child  is  father  of  the  man,  it  is  safe  to  say  that  he  must  have  been  of  a  remark- 
ably active,  wide-awake,  inquisitive  turn  of  mind;  fond  of  practical  jokes,  yet 
without  malice;  speaking  his  own  mind  freely  on  all  occasions,  with  no  great 
amount  of  reverence  for  precedent  or  tradition,  and  doing  his  own  work  in  his 
own  way  without  fear  and  without  reproach.  After  receiving  the  usual  education 
preparatory  therefor  he  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  Union  College,  where  he 
graduated  in  1846.  In  1879  his  alma  mater  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   01-    CHICAGO.  43 

LL.D.  He  commenced  his  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  John  K. 
Porter,  then  of  Waterford,  now  of  New  York;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1847, 
and  continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Waterford,  New  York,  until  1853, 
when  he  determined  to  seek  a  wider  field  of  action,  and  finally,  with  a  wise  fore- 
sight, fixed  upon  Chicago  as  his  future  home.  Here  for  nearly  thirty  years  he  has 
led  a  life  of  unusual  activity  and  usefulness.  It  is  as  a  lawyer,  of  course,  that  he 
is  here  especially  to  be  considered.  That  was  the  profession  for  which  nature 
evidently  intended  him.  He  was  a  born  lawyer.  It  is  difficult  to  think  of  him  as 
anything  else.  His  talents  and  acquirements  all  pointed  in  that  direction  —  com- 
bative, ardent,  sanguine,  quick  to  perceive  the  strong  points  in  his  own  case,  as 
well  as  the  weak  ones  in  his  adversary's;  always  ready  to  present  those  points  to 
court  or  jury  in  the  clearest  and  most  forcible  manner.  It  might  have  been 
expected  that  he  would  be  tempted  to  rely  too  much  on  his  natural  powers,  and 
to  neglect  that  preliminary  study  and  preparation  without  which  no  one,  how- 
ever gifted,  can  hope  to  succeed.  Yet  in  fact  there  never  was  a  lawyer  more  con- 
scientious and  painstaking  in  this,  the  least  inviting  but  most  important  work  of 
the  profession.  When  Mr.  King  appears  in  court  his  client  may  rest  assured  that 
he  comes  equipped  with  that  full  and  exact  knowledge  both  of  the  law  and  the 
facts  that  is  the  surest  guarantee  of  success.  Woe  then  to  his  adversary  who 
makes  a  false  step,  misstates  the  evidence,  or  wanders  outside  of  the  record!  For 
such  an  one  Mr.  King  has  no  mercy,  no  bowels  of  compassion.  The  wit  and 
humor  in  which  he  abounds  enable  him  to  show  up  the  mistakes  of  witness  or 
counsel  in  the  most  effective  light.  Yet  his  humor  leaves  no  sting.  There  is  no 
poison  in  the  wound.  Men  will  bear  from  him  what  they  would  bear  from  no  one 
else.  And  it  may  safely  be  said  that,  no  matter  how  uncurbed  his  humor  may  be, 
it  has  never  yet  lost  him  a  single  friend.  Mr.  King  is  not  an  orator  in  the  usual 
sense  of  the  term.  He  is  too  direct  and  straightforward  for  that.  But  if  to  make 
his  point  clear,  so  as  to  leave  no  possible  room  for  misunderstanding,  to  fasten  it 
so  that  it  cannot  be  forgotten,  to  fortify  it  with  the  keenest  wit  and  most  incisive 
logic,  and  finally  to  win  the  verdict  rather  than  applause;  if  this  is  to  be  an  ora- 
tor, then  there  is  no  doubt  that  he  eminently  deserves  the  appellation. 

But  it  is  not  alone  as  a  lawyer  that  Mr.  King  has  won  his  reputation.  During 
his  residence  in  Chicago  he  has  held  many  offices  of  honor,  though,  so  far  as  we 
know,  not  one  of  profit.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Chicago  Law  Insti- 
tute and  one  of  its  earliest  presidents.  The  Chicago  Bar  Association  has  honored 
him  in  the  same  way,  and  so  also  for  successive  years  has  the  Union  College 
Alumni  Association  of  the  Northwest.  For  several  years  he  was  president  of  the 
Chicago  board  of  education,  and  to-day  one  of  the  grammar  schools  is  called  by 
his  name.  For  two  years  he  was  a  leading  member  of  the  Illinois  state  legisla- 
ture, where  he  was  distinguished  for  the  same  qualities  that  have  made  him  so 
prominent  at  the  bar. 

In  his  family  relations  Mr.  King  has  been  unusually  fortunate  and  happy.  He 
is  the  father  of  two  children,  both  daughters,  one  of  whom,  Mary,  is  married  and 
5 


44  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

lives  at  Kenwood,  a  beautiful  suburb  of  Chicago,  and  the  other,  Fanny,  recently 
graduated  at  Smith  College.  Mrs.  King  is  a  lady  of  distinguished  ability  and 
accomplishments,  and  her  unaffected  kindness  and  goodness  are  recognized  by 
all  who  know  her. 

HON.    MURRAY  F.   TULEY. 

MURRAY  F.  TULEY,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county, 
is  a  native  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  was  born  March  4,  1827,  the  son  of 
Courtney  M.  Tuley,  who  died  when  the  son  was  five  years  of  age;  his  mother's 
maiden  name  was  Priscella  P.  Buckner,  a  name  known  to  the  annals  of  Kentucky. 
The  family  of  Tuleys  is  of  English  extraction  and  descended  from  the  early  set- 
tlers of  Virginia.  His  early  education  was  obtained  in  the  public  schools  of 
Louisville;  at  the  age  of  thirteen  he  left  school  and  engaged  in  clerking,  but 
improved  his  leisure  hours  in  study,  and  may  be  said  to  be  a  self-made  and 
self-taught  man.  In  1843  his  widowed  mother  married  the  late  Col.  Richard  J. 
Hamilton,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Chicago,  whither  the  family  came  to  reside. 
The  following  year  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  his  step-father's  office,  and 
continued  until  1846,  when  he  went  to  the  Louisville  Law  Institute,  where  he 
remained  one  year  under  the  tuition  of  those  learned  and  distinguished  profes- 
sors, Duncan,  Loughborough  and  Judge  Pirtle;  the  latter,  discovering  that  young 
Tuley 's  predilection  was  in  the  direction  of  chancery  practice,  and  knowing  his 
abilities,  predicted  that  he  would  some  day  become  a  chancery  law  judge.  That 
prediction  has  been  fulfilled,  as  he  is  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit  court  of 
Cook  county,  and  hears  chancery  cases  mainly,  and  is  conceded  by  the  bar  to  be 
one  of  the  ablest,  and  is  giving  general  satisfaction.  From  that,  institute  he 
returned  to  Chicago,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  immediately  enlisted  in  the  5th 
111.  Vols.,  for  services  in  the  Mexican  war;  was  elected  first  lieutenant  of  Co.  F., 
and  served  with  it  through  the  war  in  the  brigade  commanded  by  Gen.  Price 
(subsequently  Confederate  general  in  the  late  war)  with  honor  and  credit  as  a  sol- 
dier and  officer.  When  peace  was  declared  he  went  to  Santa  Fe,  New  Mexico, 
and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  doing  a  successful  business.  In 
1849  he  was  appointed  attorney  general  of  New  Mexico,  and  held  the  office  two 
years;  was  a  member  of  the  territorial  legislature  during  1863-4,  and  left  his 
mark  upon  the  legislation  and  jurisprudence  of  the  territory.  He  then  returned 
to  Chicago  and  engaged  in  practice  with  prominent  attorneys,  and  has  been  here 
since,  standing  in  the  front  rank  at  this  able  bar.  In  1869  he  was  appointed  coun- 
sel to  the  corporation  of  Chicago,  which  position  he  graced  and  filled  with  marked 
ability;  protecting  the  interests  of  the  corporation  in  a  way  which  added  to  his 
reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  as  a  citizen,  who  had  the  well  being  of  this  commu- 
nity at  heart.  He  was  the  law  officer  of  the  corporation  at  the  time  of  the  great 
fire,  and  to  his  counsel  and  energetic  action  the  people  of  Chicago  are  largely 
indebted  for  the  successful  spanning  and  bridging  of  the  legal  chaos  in  which  the 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO. 


45 


fire  left  them.  He  is  essentially  the  author  of  the  act  of  incorporation  of  cities  in 
this  state,  under  which  Chicago  is  now  acting;  he  framed  it,  and  it  was  carried 
through  the  legislature  by  his  influence  largely.  He  was  such  counsel  four  years. 
In  1873  he  resumed  practice  in  the  well  remembered  firm  of  Tuley,  Stiles  and 
Lewis,  which  was  then  organized.  In  1878  he  was  elected  alderman  of  the  first, 
the  most  important  ward  in  the  city,  and  was  a  leading  member  and  important 
factor  of  the  common  council.  In  1879  he  was  elected  to  the  bench  of  the  circuit 
court  of  Cook  county.  He  has  held  a  high  rank  at  the  bar  as  a  member  of  the 
profession,  and  has  won  a  like  position  on  the  bench,  amid  an  array  of  talent  and 
judicial  learning  and  ability.  He  seems  to  study  and  labor  to  conscientiously 
discharge  the  functions  of  his  high  office  in  the  interests  of  right,  and  administers 
justice  with  as  little  of  the  increment  of  error  as  possible.  His  decisions  are  clear, 
logical,  and  based  upon  law,  of  which  he  is  an  able  interpreter. 

As  a  judge  and  as  a  man  he  is  clothed  with  becoming  dignity,  though  courte- 
ous and  gefitle  withal,  and,  possessed  of  a  high  sense  of  honor,  is  a  fair  type  of 
true  manhood,  and  an  honor  to  the  bench.  In  his  attainments  as  a  wise  and  safe 
counselor  and  an  upright  and  just  judge,  he  well  illustrates  what  may  be  accom- 
plished by  the  persistent  and  honest  pursuit  of  an  ardent  and  determined 
purpose. 

In  1851  Judge  Tuley  was  married  to  Miss  Catherine  Edmonson,  of  Missouri,  a 
lady  of  fine  accomplishments. 

HON.  RICHARD  S.  THOMPSON. 

RICHARD  S.  THOMPSON  was  born  at  Cape  May  Court  House,  Cape  May 
county,  New  Jersey,  December  27,  1837,  and  is 'a  descendant,  on  his  father's 
side,  of  an  old  south  Jersey  family,  who  settled  there  in  1765.  His  mother's 
ancestors  also  settled  in  New  Jersey  in  1730. 

His  parents  were  Richard  and  Elizabeth  Thompson.  His  mother  was  a 
daughter  of  Major  Nathaniel  Holmes;  his  father  was  a  prominent  citizen  of  south 
Jersey,  a  member  of  the  general  assembly  in  1837,  a  large  land  owner,  and  was 
interested  in  coasting  vessels. 

At  the  age  of  thirteen  Richard  entered  the  Norristown  Seminary,  Pennsyl- 
vania, where  he  remained  three  years,  and  was  then  placed  as  a  pupil  under 
Rev.  A.  Scovel,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  of  Bordentown,  New  Jersey,  where  he 
remained  four  years.  The  next  two  years  he  continued  his  studies  with  A.  I. 
Fish,  LL.D.,  of  Philadelphia,  a  scholar  of  rare  attainments.  In  1859  he  entered 
the  law  department  of  Harvard  College,  and  graduated  in  1861.  Returning  to 
Philadelphia  he  continued  his  studies  with  his  preceptor,  Mr.  Fish,  and  early  in 
1862  was  admitted  to  the  Philadelphia  bar.  While  prosecuting  his  law  studies  he 
was  a  member  of  Capt.  Biddle's  artillery  company,  of  Philadelphia. 

In  August,  1862,  under  the  call  of  President  Lincoln,  Mr.  Thompson,  as  cap- 
tain, raised  a  company  of  volunteers  in  twelve  days,  and  reported  at  camp  with  a 


46  THE    BENCH  AKD   KAR    Of''   CHICAGO. 

full  company,  which  was  mustered  in  as  Co.  K,  in  the  i2th  regiment  N.  J.  Vols. 
The  regiment  was  shortly  afterward  stationed  at  Ellicott's  Mills,  Maryland,  and 
Mr.  Thompson  was  appointed  assistant  provost-marshal  under  General  Wool,  the 
duties  of  which  position  he  performed  until  the  regiment  was  ordered  to  the  front. 
His  regiment  joined  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  and  was  placed  in  the  second 
brigade,  second  army  corps,  occupying  a  position  on  the  Rappahannock,  three 
miles  above  Falmouth  and  Fredericksburg,  Virginia.  On  February  16,  Mr. 
Thompson  was  appointed  judge  advocate  of  a  division  court  martial. 

At  the  battle  of  Chancellorsville  he  took  an  active  part,  and  distinguished  him- 
self, contributing  largely  in  protecting  the  right  Hank  of  the  Union  troops,  when 
actively  engaged  in  a  field  in  the  rear  of  the  Chancellorsville  House. 

The  journal  accounts  of  that  battle  give  great  credit  to  Capt.  Thompson,  who, 
after  his  brigade  commander  and  staff  were  captured  by  the  enemy,  and  the 
colonel  of  his  regiment  seriously  wounded,  and  while  the  larger  portion  of  the 
brigade  was  falling  back,  in  the  face  of  a  close  and  terrific  fire,  assumed  com- 
mand, ordered  the  retiring  color  bearers  back  into  position,  reformed  the  broken 
line  on  a  changed  front  and  with  the  io8th  regiment  N.  Y.  Inf.,  the  only  other 
portion  of  the  brigade  remaining,  fought  bravely,  until  the  onslaught  on  that  posi- 
tion was  abandoned. 

His  calm  judgment  never  forsook  him  in  the  heat  of  that  terrible  battle.  The 
struggle  had  been  severe,  a  portion  of  the  time  a  hand-to-hand  fight.  One  hun- 
dred and  sixty  of  his  regiment  had  been  killed  or  wounded,  and  twenty-three 
were  missing. 

At  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  on  the  2d  and  3d  of  July,  1863,  while  Capt. 
Thompson  was  acting  as  major  of  the  regiment,  on  the  morning  of  the  2d  a  por- 
tion of  his  regiment  charged  a  stone  barn  on  the  rebel  skirmish  line,  filled  with 
rebel  sharpshooters,  and  captured  them,  taking  from  the  barn  more  prisoners 
than  there  were  men  in  the  charging  party.  During  the  night  the  rebels  regained 
possession  of  the  barn,  and  the  next  morning  Brig.  Gen.  Alexander  Hayes,  com- 
manding the  division,  ordered  a  regiment  from  another  brigade  to  charge  the 
barn.  They  advanced  until  they  came  under  fire,  when  the  storm  of  shot  was  so 
terrific  that  they  lay  down  and  failed  to  advance  further.  Thereupon  Maj. 
Thompson,  in  command  of  five  companies  from  his  regiment  (  A,  C,  D,  F  and  K). 
charged,  took  the  barn  and  captured  a  number  of  prisoners.  On  this  memorable 
day,  July  3,  the  position  of  the  izth  N.  J.  Vols.  was  in  the  second  brigade,  third 
division,  second  army  corps  (Hancock's),  which  held  the  left  center,  on  which  the 
artillery  of  Gen.  Lee  was  concentrated,  and  against  which  the  furious  charge  was 
made.  Over  eight  hundred  rebel  dead  were  buried  on  the  two  hundred  yards  of 
front  occupied  by  the  second  brigade,  and  fourteen  hundred  stand  of  arms  were 
picked  up  upon  the  same  front.  Maj.  Thompson's  behavior  on  that  day  received 
special  notice,  not  only  from  Col.  Smyth,  who  acted  as  brigadier,  but  also  from 
Gen.  Hancock.  Limited  space  prevents  the  insertion  of  the  letters  on  this  matter. 

On  August  20,  1864,  during  the  demonstration  made  under  the  command  of 


THE   BENCH  AND   HAR   OF  CHICAGO.  47 

Gen.  Hancock,  on  the  north  bank  of  the  James  river,  Col.  Thompson  was  selected, 
upon  the  recommendation  of  Gen.  Thomas  Smyth,  to  take  charge  of  the  with- 
drawal of  the  corps  pickets  and  skirmishers  —  a  matter  of  no  small  difficulty, 
from  the  fact  that  the  line  was  four  miles  long,  and  in  some  places  not  more  than 
fifty  yards  from  the  rebel  skirmishers.  The  line  had  to  be  maintained  until  the 
main  body  of  the  corps  had  recrossed  the  river.  June  n,  1864,  Col.  Thompson 
was  put  in  command  of  a  provisional  battalion  at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and 
reported  to  Gen.  Butler  at  Bermuda  Hundreds,  and  remained  in  command  at 
Point  of  Rocks,  Virginia,  on  the  Appomattox,  until  June  28,  1864,  when  he  turned 
over  his  command  at  headquarters,  army  of  Potomac,  and  rejoined  his  regiment. 

Col.  Thompson  with  his  regiment  took  part  in  seventeen  general  engagements, 
among  which  may  be  mentioned  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg,  Auburn  Mills,  Bris- 
tow  Station,  Blackburn's  Ford,  Robinson's  Tavern,  Mine  Run  and  Ream's  Station. 
In  the  last  named,  south  of  Petersburg,  Virginia,  on  August  25,  1864,  a  rebel 
column  had  broken  the  Union  line,  captured  a  battery,  and  was  using  the  railway 
as  a  breastwork.  In  answer  to  a  call  for  volunteers  to  charge  this  column,  Col. 
Thompson  volunteered  his  command,  and  with  three  other  regiments  charged 
through  a  sugar-cane  field,  drove  the  rebels  from  their  position,  and  recaptured  the 
battery.  While  leading  his  men  in  this  charge  he  was  severely  wounded  in  the  side 
and  hand  by  shells.  He  was  sent  to  Philadelphia  for  treatment,  and  was  confined 
to  his  bed  until  November.  In  December,  1864,  while  still  on  crutches,  he  was 
detailed  as  president  of  a  general  court-martial  sitting  at  Philadelphia,  on  which 
duty  he  continued  until  about  the  middle  of  February,  1865,  although  still  suffer- 
ing from  his  wounds.  He  now  tendered  his  resignation,  and  received  an  honora- 
ble discharge,  on  account  of  physical  disability,  occasioned  by  wounds  received 
in  battle. 

On  June  7,  1865,  he  married  Catherine  S.  Scovel,  daughter  of  Rev.  A.  Scovel, 
then  of  Bloomington,  Illinois,  and  in  November  entered  upon  the  practice  of  law 
in  Chicago.  In  1867  he  formed  a  law  partnership  with  Jeremiah  Learning,  which 
still  continues.  In  1869  he  was  appointed  corporation  counsel  of  the  village  of 
Hyde  Park,  a  position  which  he  held  until  1876.  In  1872  he  was  elected  on  the 
republican  ticket  to  the  Illinois  senate,  from  the  second  senatorial  district.  As  a 
member  of  the  senate  he  distinguished  himself  as  possessing  a  familiar  acquaint- 
ance with  parliamentary  law.  On  more  than  one  occasion  has  Mr.  Thompson 
manifested  his  power  in  a  manner  to  call  forth  the  encomiums  of  jurists  and  of  the 
press.  There  are  two  cases  which  may  be  specially  mentioned  in  which  the  tact 
and  skill  of  Senator  Thompson  were  very  remarkable:  one  was  the  contested 
election  case  of  Shering?^.  Marshall;  the  other  Senator  Lee's  motion  to  reconsider 
the  vote  by  which  the  senate  bill  to  regulate  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  was 
indefinitely  postponed.  The  Chicago  ''Tribune"  says:  "The  event  of  the  week 
occurred  in  the  senate.  To  the  opposition  it  was  the  signal  defeat  of  the  session. 
The  defeat  of  this  plan  for  gaining  two  votes  additional  for  the  United  States 
senatorial  contest  was  due  to  the  masterly  argument  of  Senator  Thompson,  of 


48  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Cook,  who,  in  thorough  lawyer-like  style,  analyzed  the  entire  testimony,  and  with 
logical  precision  exposed  the  utter  illegality  of  the  attempt  to  unseat  the  choice 
of  the  legal  voters  on  an  abstract  technicality.  No  speech  in  either  house  at  this 
session  has  compared  with  it  in  logical  force,  precision  of  statement,  clear  analysis 
of  premises,  and  unanswerable  deduction  from  the  facts."  The  "  Daily  Sun  " 
says:  "The  last  speech  made  by  Senator  Thompson  in  the  contested  election 
case  was  one  of  the  most  complete,  thorough  and  unanswerable  ever  delivered 
in  a  legislative  body."  The  part  taken  by  Senator  Thompson  on  Senator  Lee's 
motion  to  reconsider  the  vote  of  the  previous  day  is  thus  spoken  of  by  the 
Chicago  "  Times:  "  "  A  series  of  filibustering  motions  and  points  of  order  began, 
which,  for  brilliancy  of  thought  and  celerity  of  action,  have  never  been  surpassed 
on  the  floor  of  the  state  senate.  They  were  initiated  by  Thompson,  of  Cook,  and 
the  result  stamped  him  as  the  ablest  parliamentarian  in  the  senate."  In  1876  Col. 
Thompson  was  appointed  attorney  of  the  South  Park  commission,  and  held  that 
position  until  the  spring  of  1880.  Col.  Thompson  ranks  among  the  leading  mem- 
bers of  his  profession,  and  no  member  of  the  bar  has  had  a  larger  experience  in 
the  eminent  domain  practice. 


HOMER    N.   HIBBARD. 

HOMER  N.  HIBBARD  was  born  at  Bethel,  Windsor  county,  Vermont, 
November  7,  1824.  He  traces  his  ancestry  through  both  his  father  and 
mother  back  to  colonial  times.  He  passed  his  early  life  on  his  father's  farm, 
attending  the  common  schools  of  the  neighborhood  until  he  was  fifteen,  when  he 
commenced  attendance  at  the  academy  at  Randolph,  Vermont.  His  desire  to 
obtain  a  classical  education  was  frustrated  for  a  time  by  the  financial  embarrass- 
ment of  his  father,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  we  find  him  studying  law  in  the 
office  of  J.  C.  Dexter,  at  Rutland,  Vermont.  While  here  the  old  hunger  for  an 
education,  with  which  most  boys  who  afterward  make  their  mark  in  the  world 
are  beset,  came  upon  him,  and  had  to  be  satisfied.  He  began  to  fit  for  college 
under  the  tutelage  of  Rev.  William  Mitchell,  paying  his  way  in  the  meantime  by 
teaching.  This  preparatory  study  lasted  two  years.  Then  he  entered  Castleton 
Seminary,  and  after  completing  his  preparatory  course  there  entered  Vermont  Uni- 
versity. He  paid  his  way  through  the  academy  and  university  by  teaching,  and 
graduated  from  the  college  with  honor  in  1850.  Hon.  Edward  C.  Palmer,  judge 
of  the  supreme  court  of  Minnesota,  Z.  K.  Pangborn,  Jersey  City,  editor,  Rev. 
Theodore  A.  Hopkins  and  Rev.  William  T.  Sleeper  were  among  his  classmates. 

Upon  graduating  he  was  appointed  principal  of  the  Burlington  high  school, 
and  served  there  two  years,  having  as  associate  teachers  Henry  Buckham,  now 
principal  of  the  State  Normal  School  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  and  S.  H.  Peabody, 
subsequently  professor  of  mathematics  and  civil  engineering  at  Amherst  College, 
and  now  president  of  Illinois  State  University  at  Champaign.  Teaching,  however, 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  49 

did  not  suit  the  stirring  spirit  of  the  young  man,  and  after  he  had  accumulated 
money  sufficient  to  pay  for  his  tuition  there  he  entered  the  Dane  Law  School  of 
Harvard  College,  where  he  studied  until  the  spring  of  1853,  when  he  returned  to 
Burlington  and  for  six  months  longer  continued  his  studies  in  the  law  office  of 
Gov.  Levi  Underwood. 

He  was  then  admitted  to  the  bar,  his  examiners  being  Senator  Edmunds  and 
ex-Register  of  the  Treasury  Chittenden. 

In  the  fall  of  1853  he  removed  to  Chicago  in  company  with  his  classmate  in 
the  law  school,  John  A.  Jameson,  with  whom  he  entered  into  copartnership. 
Business  does  not  come  at  once  to  the  ablest  young  lawyer,  and  the  young  firm 
became  impatient  at  their  slow  progress  in  securing  clients,  and  in  1854  removed 
to  Freeport,  Illinois.  Two  years  later  Mr.  Jameson  returned  to  Chicago  and 
formed  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Paul  Cornell,  but  Mr.  Hibbard  remained  at  Free- 
port.  He  secured  a  paying  practice  there  in  connection  with  Hon.  Martin  P. 
Sweet,  then  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  northern  Illinois.  While  in  Freeport 
he  was  president  of  the  board  of  education,  master  in  chancery,  and  for  several 
years  city  attorney.  While  acting  in  this  latter  capacity  he  drafted  the  city 
charter,  and  revised  and  published  the  ordinances  which  form  the  basis  of  the 
city  government.  He  was  the  Lycurgus  of  Freeport,  so  to  speak.  Here,  also, 
he  married  Miss  Jane  Noble,  daughter  of  Hon.  William  Noble,  of  Burlington, 
Vermont,  a  lady  of  excellent  attainments,  who  was  associate  teacher  with  him  in 
the  high  school  in  the  old  days. 

Mr.  Hibbard  has  always  taken  a  great  interest  in  everything  pertaining  to 
schools  and  education,  and  wherever  he  has  lived  since  he  was  old  enough  to 
teach  school  he  has  been  identified  with  the  same.  He  filled  the  office  of  super- 
intendent of  public  schools  in  Burlington,  Vermont,  at  the  time  he  moved  to  Chi- 
cago, and  has  been  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  for  the  past  ten  years  in 
Hyde  Park,  where  he  now  resides,  having  been  president  of  the  same  for  several 
years.  He  is  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  Lake  Forest  University  and 
also  of  Vermont  University,  and  for  several  years  he  was  president  of  the  Alumni 
Association  of  his  alma  mater. 

In  1860,  at  the  invitation  of  Messrs.  Cornell  and  Jameson,  Mr.  Hibbard 
returned  to  Chicago,  and  with  those  gentlemen  formed  a  copartnership  under  the 
firm  name  of  Cornell,  Jameson  and  Hibbard.  This  firm  continued  until  1865,  when 
Mr.  Jameson  was  elected  to  the  bench  of  the  superior  court.  Subsequently  Mr. 
Hibbard  associated  with  himself  Messrs.  M.  B.  Rich  and  James  J.  Noble,  with 
whom  he  continued  in  business  until  1871,  under  the  firm  name  of  Hibbard,  Rich 
and  Noble.  In  January,  1870,  upon  the  nomination  of  Chief  Justice  Chase,  he  was 
appointed  by  Judge  Drummond,  of  the  United  States  district  court,  register  in 
bankruptcy  for  Chicago,  a  position  which  he  has  since  filled  to  the  entire  satisfac- 
tion of  bench,  bar  and  public. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Hibbard  has  been  eminently  successful.  He  has  filled  many 
semi-public  positions,  and  filled  them  well.  He  is  director  of  the  National  Bank 


5O  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

of  Illinois,  vice-president  of  the  American  Insurance  Company,  and  has  held 
various  other  positions  of  trust  and  public  importance.  He  is  a  ruling  elder  in 
the  Presbyterian  church. 

Though  a  decided  republican  in  political  belief  he  has  never  taken  any  active 
part  in  politics,  finding  in  his  profession  his  life's  work  and  pleasure. 


HON.    ELBERT    H.    GARY. 

OF  the  younger  class  of  lawyers  now  practicing  at  the  Chicago  bar  none 
ranks  higher  than  he  whose  name  heads  this  sketch.  As  early  as  1832  his 
father,  Erastus  Gary,  a  well  known  and  wealthy  citizen  of  Wheaton,  Illinois,  set- 
tled in  this  state,  whither  he  had  removed  from  the  town  of  Pomfret,  Connecti- 
cut. He  is  descended  from  an  old  New  England  family  who  settled  at  Roxbury, 
Massachusetts,  in  1631. 

Elbert  H.  was  born  in  1846  in  Du  Page  county,  Illinois.  As  a  boy  he  was  fond 
of  books  and  study,  and  after  completing  his  preliminary  studies  pursued  a  course 
of  study  at  Wheaton  College.  In  1863,  shortly  after  leaving  that  institution, 
having  determined  to  devote  himself  to  the  legal  profession,  he  entered  upon  a 
course  of  legal  study  and  training  in  the  office  and  under  the  tuition  and  guidance 
of  Messrs.  Vallette  and  Cody,  of  Naperville,  Illinois.  Here  he  made  good  prog- 
ress in  the  rudiments  of  the  law,  and  remained  about  one  year  and  a  half,  at  the 
expiration  of  which  time  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law  at  Chicago.  Here 
he  pursued  a  thorough  course  of  study,  and  in  June,  1867,  was  graduated  and  im- 
mediately thereafter  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois.  During  the  following  three 
years  he  acted  as  chief  deputy  clerk  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county,  and  in 
1870  began  the  active  practice  of  his  profession.  During  the  first  two  years  of 
his  practice  he  was  alone  in  business,  but  in  October,  1872,  associated  with  him- 
self his  brother  under  the  firm  name  of  E.  H.  and  N.  E.  Gary.  This  partnership 
continued  until  the  fall  of  1879,  when  Judge  Cody,  who  had  retired  from  the 
bench  and  resumed  practice,  was  admitted  as  a  partner,  and  the  firm  name 
became  Gary,  Cody  and  Gary,  now  one  of  the  leading  and  most  influential  law 
firms  of  Chicago. 

Although  a  member  of  the  bar  of  Chicago,  Judge  Gary  has  his  residence  at 
Wheaton,  and  is  closely  identified  with  every  public  interest  and  enterprise  tend- 
ing to  the  welfare  and  improvement  of  that  place.  Besides  being  connected  with 
the  bank  at  Wheaton  he  possesses  extensive  real  estate  and  building  interests 
there,  and  is  a  zealous  promoter  of  public  improvements.  He  is  now  president  of 
a  large  creamery  company  located  at  that  place.  Recognizing  not  only  his 
ability  as  a  lawyer  and  business  man,  but  also  his  uprightness,  fairness  and 
honorable  dealing,  his  fellow-citizens  have  from  time  to  time  honored  him  with 
important  offices  and  trusts.  During  the  years  1872,  1873  and  1874  he  was  presi- 
dent of  the  town  council  of  Wheaton,  and  in  the  fall  of  1882  was  elevated  to  the 
bench  of  the  county  court  of  Du  Page  county. 


HCCoupar  Jr,  4  Co 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO.  53 

In  politics  he  has  been  an  earnest  worker  in  the  republican  party. 

As  a  lawyer  he  is  conscientious,  able  and  successful,  and  has  the  unqualified 
confidence  of  all  who  know  him  or  with  whom  he  has  to  do.  Thoroughly  versed 
in  the  varied  branches  of  legal  lore,  and  possessing  a  clear  and  sound  judgment, 
and  at  the  same  time  fully  understanding  the  rules  of  practice  and  having  a 
ready  command  of  language,  he  is  at  once  a  safe,  reliable  counselor,  a  successful 
trial  lawyer  and  a  good  advocate.  During  recent  years  Judge  Gary  has  been 
retained  in  nearly  every  case  of  importance  that  has  been  tried  in  Du  Page 
county,  and  is  very  frequently  retained  as  special  counselor.  He  has  for  many 
years  been  retained  as  counsel  for  the  county  and  various  municipal  corporations. 
He  assisted  in  the  trial  of  the  Farmer  Harms  suit  against  Cook  county,  and 
secured  for  his  client  a  verdict  of  $75,000.  He  also  conducted  the  prosecution 
of  President  Blanchard,  of  Wheaton  College,  before  the  ecclesiastical  council  in 
1878.  Among  his  clients  are  some  of  the  wealthiest  individuals  and  corporations 
doing  business  in  Chicago.  Judge  Gary  was  an  intimate  friend  of  the  late  Gen. 
Sweet,  who  was  in  command  of  Camp  Douglas  at  the  time  of  the  conspiracy  to 
release  the  rebel  prisoners,  and  by  the  general's  will  was  named  as  executor  to 
settle  up  his  estate.  He  is  a  man  of  most  excellent  personal  and  social  quali- 
ties, and  by  all  is  esteemed  a  true  friend,  a  generous  companion  and  a  genial 
gentleman. 


CHARLES   C.   BONNEY. 

/CHARLES  CARROLL  BONNEY  has  been  prominently  before  the  public 
V^^  in  various  honorable  positions  for  many  years.  He  is  a  native  of  Hamilton, 
New  York,  which  is  widely  known  as  the  seat  of  Madison  University,  and  as  the 
most  beautiful  village  in  the  Chenango  Valley.  His  father,  Jethro  May  Bonney, 
was  a  farmer.  The  farm  was  on  Bonney  Hill,  in  the  vicinity,  and  embraced  a 
charming  variety  of  woodland,  field  and  meadow.  Here  the  son  was  born,  Sep- 
tember 4,  1831.  His  mother  was  Jane  C.  Lawton,  daughter  of  George  Lawton, 
whose  "old  mansion  among  the  poplars,"  on  another  hill  to  the  eastward,  was 
long  one  of  the  stateliest  landmarks  of  pioneer  life  in  that  part  of  central  New 
York.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  had  two  brothers,  and  one  sister.  The  most 
eminent  scholars,  divines  and  politicians  of  the  locality,  were  visitors  at  his 
father's  house,  and  the  conversations  he  heard  there  powerfully  stimulated  his 
efforts  and  ambition.  The  father  afterward  removed  to  Hamilton  village. 

During  his  boyhood  and  youth  the  son  worked  upon  the  farm,  and  attended 
the  district  school,  Hamilton  Academy,  and  lectures  at  Madison  University;  but, 
though  offered  the  full  university  course,  and  enjoying  friendly  relations  with 
many  of  the  faculty  and  students,  he  declined  it,  feeling  that  he  could  not  afford 
the  time  required  for  the  classical  course,  and  that  teaching  and  private  study 
must  suffice.  He  then  taught  common  and  academic  schools  in  New  York  and 


54  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Illinois  until  he  was  twenty-one.  He  also  began  the  study  of  law  while  teaching^ 
and  was  ready  for  admission  to  the  bar  before  attaining  his  majority. 

Though  a  non-graduate,  he  freely  acknowledges  that  he  is  under  very  great 
obligations  to  the  university,  and  regards  its  influence  and  associations  as  potent 
in  determining  his  course  in  life. 

He  came  to  Illinois,  September  28,  1850  ;  located  at  Peoria,  October  15,  of 
that  year;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  September  23,  1852,  and  to  that  of 
the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  January  5,  1866.  September  12,  1860,  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  ever  since  resided. 

From  1850  to  1854  he  took  an  active  part  in  establishing  the  present  educa- 
tional system  of  Illinois,  delivering  a  large  number  of  addresses,  and  partici- 
pating in  the  proceedings  of  more  than  twenty  educational  conventions  and 
societies.  During  a  part  of  this  time  he  was  employed  by  the  authorities  of 
Peoria  county  as  public  lecturer  on  education,  and  in  this  connection  advocated 
free  schools,  school  district  libraries,  teachers'  institutes,  normal  schools,  state 
and  county  superintendents,  and  an  enlarged  course  of  study  for  the  common 
schools.  The  first  state  educational  convention  was  called  through  his  instru- 
mentality. He  was  also  one  of  the  officers  of  a  State  Teachers'  Institute,  and 
for  some  years  a  frequent  writer  on  educational  topics.  But  a  constantly  increas- 
ing love  of  the  legal  profession  drew  him  irresistibly  to  its  service,  and  deter- 
mined his  future  career. 

Already  known  throughout  the  state,  from  educational  correspondence  and 
addresses,  he  entered  on  his  admission  to  the  bar  into  a  successful  and  lucrative 
practice,  which  has  continued  and  extended  to  the  present  time.  His  reputation 
and  practice  are  not  confined  to  his  own  state,  but  extend  to  other  parts  of  the 
Union.  His  practice  has  embraced  an  active  and  varied  experience  in  almost 
every  department  of  law,  and  includes  many  cases  of  great  importance,  particu- 
larly in  equity  and  in  the  law  of  corporations,  patents,  wills,  commercial  transac- 
tions and  the  administration  of  estates. 

Among  the  more  interesting  cases  in  which  he  has  been  engaged  may  be  men- 
tioned: The  People  vs.  Fash,  habeas  corpus,  involving  the  liberty  of  the  press; 
Johnson  vs.  Stark  County,  municipal  subscription  to  build  railroad;  the  Sherman 
House  cases,  negotiable  instruments  and  a  wide  range  of  technical  defenses; 
Miller  vs.  Wells,  inter-state  laws  of  administration;  The  People  vs.  Church,  right  of 
the  general  government  to  tax  process  of  state  courts;  Gage  et  al.  vs.  Derby,  the  law 
of  government  contracts  and  the  doctrine  of  seals;  the  Huston  Administrations, 
liens  on  estates  of  deceased  persons;  the  Schenck  Sewing  Machine  cases,  infringe- 
ment and  trial  by  jury;  the  Bishop  Hill  Colony  case,  corporations  and  trusts;  the 
Fuller  and  Barnum  Tuck-creaser  Patent  cases;  the  Yerby's  Subdivision  Land  cases; 
the  Allaire  Will  case;  the  West  Chicago  Park  case,  executive  power;  the  case  of 
the  State  Savings  Institution,  equity  administration  of  corporate  assets;  Ely  vs. 
Douglas  County,  state  power  relating  to  equitable  remedies  in  the  national  courts; 
Ligare  vs.  Semple,  securities  conditioned  on  removing  objections  to  title;  Fuller 


THE   KENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  55 

vs.  Hunt,  custom  and  usage  in  commercial  transactions;  and  the  Auditor  vs.  Chi- 
cago Life  Insurance  Company,  state  supervision  and  control  of  corporations. 

This  brief  list  includes  cases  in  the  courts  of  Illinois,  Michigan,  Nebraska, 
New  York,  and  New  Jersey,  and  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 

Mr.  Bonney  was  elected  president  of  the  Illinois  State  Bar  Association,  in  Janu- 
ary 1882.  This  high  honor  was  conferred  while  he  was  absent  from  the  associa- 
tion and  engaged  in  the  trial  of  an  important  cause. 

In  the  August  following,  Mr.  Bonney  was  elected  vice-president  of  the  Ameri- 
can Bar  Association  for  Illinois,  succeeding  David  Davis  in  that  honorable 
position.  A  few  days  later  he  presented  to  the  American  Bankers'  Association,  in 
session  at  Saratoga,  a  proposal  for  an  act  of  Congress  to  secure  uniformity  of 
commercial  paper  throughout  the  United  States.  This  proposal  was  received 
with  decided  favor,  and  means  were  taken  to  favor  its  adoption. 

Mr.  Bonney's  character  and  reputation  as  a  lawyer  may  be  gathered  from 
comments  made  during  his  professional  career  by  the  public  press  on  numerous 
occasions.  The  newspapers  of  his  own  and  of  other  states  speak  of  him  as  hav- 
ing "acquired  a  brilliant  reputation  as  a  lawyer;  as  one  who  could  take  any 
given  subject  and  present  all  its  salient  points  in  a  condensed,  methodical  and 
lucid  manner;  as  well  and  favorably  known  throughout  the  entire  Northwest  as  a 
lawyer  of  large  experience,  systematic,  thorough  and  reliable;  as  one  who  holds 
an  enviable  position  among  the  leading  lawyers  of  the  West,  a  gentleman  of  high 
culture,  polished  manners,  and  deeply  devoted  to  the  duties  of  his  profession;  as 
favorably  known,  and  highly  esteemed  for  promptitude,  dispatch  and  integrity  in 
attention  to  legal  business,  winning  confidence  and  patronage  by  his  talents, 
assiduity  and  uprightness;  as  one  of  our  most  eminent  lawyers;  as  one  of  the 
most  distinguished  members  of  the  Chicago  bar,  and  a  writer  on  political  and 
legal  subjects  of  wide  reputation;  as  a  profound  and  accomplished  lawyer,  and 
one  of  the  most  eloquent  and  effective  speakers  in  the  state;  and  as  a  lawyer  who 
stands  at  the  head  of  his  honorable  calling,  not  only  as  respects  all  professional 
attainments,  but  as  a  citizen,  a  scholar  and  a  gentleman,  whose  influential  voice 
and  pen  are  devoted  to  every  good  word  and  work  in  his  city." 

"  It  was  he  who  first  raised  and  argued  the  constitutionality  of  the  excise  tax 
on  judicial  process  and  other  state  proceedings.  He  was  also  the  first  who  stated 
the  powers  of  the  courts  under  the  suspension  of  the  habeas  corpus, — which 
was  reproduced  two  years  later  by  Mr.  Binney,  the  eminent  Philadelphia  lawyer; 
and  he  anticipated  by  more  than  a  year  Mr.  David  Dudley  Fields'  exposition  of 
the  modern  humbug  of  emotional  insanity." 

The  foregoing  expressions  of  public  esteem  are  selected  from  a  large  number 
of  similar  notices. 

From  his  earlier  years  Mr.  Bonney  has  found  in  authorship  a  charm  which  has 
made  it  the  unfailing  recreation  of  a  severe  professional  life.  Besides  a  great 
number  of  other  contributions  of  a  legal,  political,  financial  or  literary  nature,  he 
is  also  the  author  of  a  treatise  on  "The  Law  of  Railway  Carriers,"  and  of  another 


56  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

on  "  The  Law  of  Insurance  ";  also  of  essays  on  "  The  Powers  of  Non-resident  Guar- 
dians and  Executors,"  "The  Rights  of  Married  Women  to  Hold  Personal  Proper- 
ty," "The  Doctrine  of  Insanity  in  the  Criminal  Law,"  "The  Powers  of  Courts 
and  Legislatures  over  the  Railway  Question,"  "The  Administration  of  Justice," 
"The  Characteristics  of  a  Great  Lawyer,"  "Government  Reform,"  "Judicial  Pro- 
ceedings without  Personal  Service,"  "The  True  Province  of  the  Government," 
"National  Regulation  of  Inter-state  Commerce,"  "An  Equity  Bankruptcy  Law," 
"Practical  Law  Reform,"  and  "The  Future  of  the  Legal  Profession."  He  also 
edited,  in  a  very  finished  and  scholarly  manner,  the  poetical  works  of  the  late 
Judge  Arrington.  His  books  on  railway  and  insurance  law,  though  small  and 
unpretentious,  and  designed  for  business  men  rather  than  the  legal  profession, 
were  highly  commended  by  eminent  authorities  as  also  of  great  value  to  the 
bench  and  the  bar.  Those  books  are  now  out  of  print,  the  plates  having  been 
destroyed  in  the  Chicago  fire.  His  eldest  son,  Charles  L.  Bonney,  has  supplied 
the  place  of  the  treatise  on  railway  carriers  by  an  admirable  summary  of  the 
law  relating  to  the  subject,  entitled  "Railway  Law  for  Railway  Men."  Mr.  Bon- 
ney's  efforts  in  the  field  of  authorship  have  been  received  by  the  public  with 
decided  approbation,  as  the  product  of  an  able  and  scholarly  writer,  whose  mate- 
rial is  full  of  sound  sense  and  practical  value,  and  arranged  in  a  manner  intelligible, 
accurate  and  comprehensive. 

Though  Mr.  Bonney  has  never  held  or  been  a  candidate  for  any  political  office, 
he  has  taken  an  active  part  in  public  affairs  from  1852  to  the  present  time;  was  a 
party  democrat  until  1860,  a  war  democrat  during  the  rebellion,  and  has  been  an 
independent  democrat  since  that  time.  He  was  one  of  the  leaders  of  the  move- 
ment to  defeat  the  effort  of  a  private  corporation  to  obtain  control  of  the  Illinois 
river;  was  a  special  commissioner  from  Peoria  to  St.  Louis  in  that  connection, 
and  as  such  delivered  an  elaborate  argument  to  the  city  government  of  the  latter, 
which  was  highly  commended.  He  was  one  of  the  original  advocates  of  the  con- 
stitutional prohibition  of  special  legislation,  also  of  a  national  currency  under  a 
national  law,  with  a  prohibition  of  state  issues,  also  of  national  regulation  of  inter- 
state commerce  and  corporations,  also  of  largely  extending  the  jurisdiction  and 
practice  in  equity,  also  of  state  commissioners  to  represent  the  people  in  their  re- 
lations with  railway  and  other  corporations,  and  of  more  careful  and  thorough 
legislation,  suggesting  that  the  houses  of  representatives  be  popular  bodies  to 
express  the  public  will,  and  the  senates  legislating  jurists  to  frame  and  perfect  the 
laws,  holding  terms  of  office  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  the  judges.  He  has  also 
publicly  advocated  many  other  reforms  in  the  various  departments  of  government 
in  a  series  of  papers  under  the  title  of  "Government  Reform." 

That  Mr.  Bonney  is  a  political  orator  of  no  mean  rank  is  abundantly  demon- 
strated in  the  newspaper  notices  of  the  day,  which  characterize  him  as  a  profound 
and  accomplished  speaker,  combining  sound  argumentative  powers  and  a  quiet 
earnestness  of  manner  with  a  precision  of  rhetoric  and  an  oratorical  ability  rarely 
exceeded  by  any  public  speaker.  One  such  notice  says:  "His  style  of  address  is 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  57 

peculiar,  and  highly  gentlemanly  in  tone.  We  have  heard  the  best  speakers  of 
the  old  world  and  the  new,  but  this  is  the  first  instance  wherein  we  have  observed 
the  entire  triumph  of  a  speaker  securing  the  close  attention  of  his  audience  in  a 
subdued  tone  of  voice."  Another  that  "His  speech  in  reply  to  Senator  Trumbull 
[at  Peoria  in  1858],  as  a  whole  and  in  all  its  parts,  compares  favorably  with  any- 
thing we  have  heretofore  heard  as  a  calm,  conservative  and  eloquent  argument. 
In  addition  to  this  he  demonstrated  himself  to  be  the  almoner  of  an  imperial  ora- 
tory, which  held  the  large  audience  in  attendance  for  nearly  four  hours  willing 
and  eager  listeners."  Another  that  "It  may  be  said  of  Mr.  Bonney  that,  although 
he  is  far  from  being  devoid  of  humor,  he  depends  more  for  effect  upon  other  than 
the  feelings.  His  discourses  are  of  a  kind  —  rarely  attained  —  that  read  as  well 
months  after  as  they  sounded  at  the  time  of  their  delivery.  They  are  in  no  sense 
ephemeral  in  their  character,  and  although  they  may  be  given  before  the  limited 
audience  of  a  country  town  they  are  as  carefully  prepared,  are  as  full  of  informa- 
tion and  instruction,  and  as  deserving  of  preservation,  as  if  they  were  state  papers 
to  be  read  by  both  hemispheres.  His  effort  at  Waukegan  [in  1880]  might  have 
been  without  any  discredit  delivered  before  the  British  parliament,  or  any  other 
body  of  statesmen  and  politicians  in  the  world."  And  another  that  "In  style  Mr. 
Bonney  is  precise,  incisive  and  clear,  and  withal  a  ready  if  not  a  redundant  speaker, 
writer  and  conversationalist.  His  political  speeches  demonstrated  the  possession 
of  an  impassioned  oratory,  based  upon  a  clear  and  comprehensive  knowledge  of 
the  issues  involved  and  their  germane  facts.  In  the  character  of  a  politician  no 
speaker  with  whom  he  came  in  contact  was  more  popular  or  more  influential,  and 
had  he  devoted  himself  to  this  department  of  effort  he  might  have  attained  almost 
anything  within  the  gift  of  the  people." 

Though  never  entering  the  lecture-field  except  at  occasional  intervals  between 
professional  engagements,  his  list  of  lectures  embraces  many  subjects  of  general 
importance,  such  as  "  Why  Ninety-seven  Merchants  in  a  Hundred  Fail,"  "  Gov- 
ernment Reform,"  "The  Government  of  Cities,"  and  "The  Relation  of  Religion 
to  the  Government." 

Mr.  Bonney  was  at  one  time  president  of  the  Chicago  Library  Association,  and 
was  the  author  of  the  agitation  that  finally  resulted  in  the  Chicago  Free  Public 
Library.  He  was  for  several  years  one  of  the  managers  of  the  Chicago  Athenaeum, 
and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Chicago  Literary  Club.  In  1872-3  he  held  the 
chair  of  lecturer  on  medical  jurisprudence  at  Hahnemann  Medical  College,  Chi- 
cago, and  since  its  organization  in  1876  has  been  a  member  of  the  board  of  coun- 
selors of  the  Chicago  Homoeopathic  College. 

Mr.  Bonney  has  also  been  for  some  years  an  active  member  and  officer  of  the 
Citizens'  League  to  enforce  the  laws  forbidding  the  sale  of  liquor  to  minors,  and 
has  also  taken  an  active  part  in  other  departments  of  temperance  work,  though 
not  a  member  of  any  prohibitory  or  total  abstinence  association. 

In  religious  faith  Mr.  Bonney  is  a  New  Churchman,  or  Swedenborgian,  in 
which  church  he  has  been  active  as  a  Bible  class  teacher  and  as  president  of  the 


58  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

State  Sunday  School  Association.  His  ancestors  on  the  father's  side  were  Baptists, 
and  upon  the  mother's  side  they  were  Friends.  In  his  youth  he  read  extensively 
upon  the  various  systems  of  religion,  and  although  a  firm  adherent  of  his  own 
church  has  always  cultivated  the  most  friendly  relations  with  all  other  religious 
denominations,  being  a  vigorous  opponent  of  sectarianism  and  bigotry. 

He  was  married  August  16,  1855,  at  Troy,  New  York,  to  Miss  Lydia  Pratt,  by 
whom  he  has  had  two  sons  and  three  daughters,  all  of  whom,  except  the  youngest 
daughter,  who  died  in  infancy,  still  survive.  The  family  home  is  a  handsome  resi- 
dence on  Fulton  street,  near  Union  Park,  and  is  a  well  known  social  and  literary 
center. 

Mr.  Bonney  is  domestic  in  his  habits,  and  likes  to  gather  about  his  fireside  a 
congenial  company  for  the  elaboration  of  literary  ideas  and  the  more  graceful  of 
the  social  qualities.  Enjoying  an  enviable  position  as  lawyer  and  author  and 
litterateur,  he  has  before  him  a  future  which  promises  still  more  flattering  and 
enviable  results. 

The  facts  of  the  foregoing  sketch  have  been  gathered  from  the  books  men- 
tioned and  from  a  large  collection  of  law  cases,  pamphlets,  magazines  and  news- 
paper publications,  and  in  part  from  biographical  notices  in  "Wilkie's  Chicago 
Bar,"  "The  Biographical  Encyclopaedia  of  Illinois,"  and  in  "The  United  States 
Biographical  Dictionary." 

JOHN    L.    KING. 

JOHN  LYLE  KING  was  born,  1825,  in  Madison,  Indiana,  and  is  a  son  of 
the  late  Victor  King,  a  merchant  of  that  city,  who  was  one  of  the  pioneer 
settlers  of  that  section,  and  for  fifty  years  actively  identified  with  the  growth 
and  interests  of  Madison.  He  was  also  one  of  the  founders  and  most  liberal 
patrons  of  Hanover  College  and  of  the  Presbyterian  Theological  Seminary, 
now  the  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Northwest,  at  Chicago. 

John  Lyle  King  was  a  graduate  of  Hanover  College  when  that  institution  was 
under  the  presidency  of  Rev.  Dr.  E.  D.  MacMaster.  From  his  relationship  it  was 
almost  a  matter  of  course  that  he  should  prepare  for  the  legal  profession.  One 
uncle,  Joseph  G.  Lyle,  of  Georgetown,  Kentucky,  and  another  uncle,  Wilberforce 
Lyle,  of  Madison,  Indiana,  were  eminent  lawyers,  while  Joseph  G.  Marshall,  also 
of  the  latter  city,  who  was  the  leader  of  the  bar  and  of  the  whig  party  of  Indiana, 
was  a  near  relative.  He  accordingly  entered  the  office  of  Wilberforce  Lyle  as  a 
student,  and  shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  his  uncle  and  preceptor  died. 
In  the  following  year  Mr.  King  was  admitted  as  an  attorney  of  the  supreme  court 
of  the  state.  He  afterward  formed  a  partnership  with  S.  C.  Stevens,  a  former 
judge  of  the  supreme  court,  and  one  of  the  noted  early  abolitionists  and  free- 
soilers  of  the  West,  and  this  connection  lasted  for  several  years.  In  1852  he  was 
elected  a  representative  in  the  legislature  which  was  the  first  under  the  new  con- 
stitution of  Indiana.  The  session  lasted  nearly  six  months,  during  which  the 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  59 

whole  statute  law  was  revised,  and  the  code  of  practice  was  also  adopted.  He 
was  one  of  the  frequent  and  leading  debaters  in  the  discussions  of  the  house,  and 
a  warm  advocate  of  reform  in  the  law  and  practice.  He  was  a  great  admirer  of 
Kossuth,  and  introduced  into  the  house  the  joint  resolutions  of  honor  and  hom- 
age to  the  great  Magyar  orator  and  patriot  which  were  passed,  and  in  the  ovation 
tendered  the  exile  Mr.  King  was  chairman  of  the  committee  which  presented  the 
Hungarian  to  the  legislature.  At  a  meeting  of  citizens  of  the  capital  he  made  a 
Kossuth  speech  which  gave  him  great  eclat.  He  was  a  whig  in  politics,  though 
his  party  in  the  legislature  was  in  a  powerless  minority.  In  a  daily  journal  of 
his  native  city,  of  which  Owen  Stuart,  afterward  colonel  of  a  Chicago  Irish  regi- 
ment in  the  war,  was  part  proprietor,  and  to  whose  columns  he  was  a  constant 
editorial  contributor,  he  fulminated  the  first  and  most  vigorous  anti-Nebraska 
articles  in  the  state. 

In  the  beginning  of  1856  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  formed  a  copartnership 
with  Joshua  L.  Marsh,  then  city  attorney,  and  mainly  managed  the  law  busi- 
ness of  the  city  in  the  courts  of  record.  He  himself,  in  1860,  was  elected  (on  the 
John  Wentworth  ticket  for  mayor)  city  attorney,  over  the  late  Col.  James  A. 
Mulligan.  Without  any  assistance,  and  relying  on  his  own  knowledge,  industry 
and  vigor,  he  conducted  the  city's  whole  law  business  during  his  term  of  office. 
He  subsequently  acquired  a  large  general  practice,  both  civil  and  criminal,  to 
which  he  has  since  exclusively  devoted  himself.  A  very  large  share  of  his  prac- 
tice has  been  in  jury  trials,  in  which  his  resources,  readiness  and  powers  of  advo- 
cacy have  won  him  much  success  and  distinction.  In  a  celebrated  libel  suit,  in 
1869,  against  the  Chicago  "Tribune,"  he  particularly  evinced  his  special  powers, 
and  his  speech,  together  with  that  of  E.  W.  Evans,  his  associate  counsel,  was  pub- 
lished and  had  a  wide  circulation.  He  has  from  time  to  time  contributed  numer- 
ous editorial  and  other  articles,  chiefly  on  legal  subjects  and  favoring  law  reform, 
to  Chicago  journals.  During  his  professional  life  his  pen  has  been  prolific.  On 
his  motion,  the  Chicago  Law  Institute  in  1872  adopted  a  resolution  in  favor  of  a 
change  in  the  mode  of  reporting  and  publishing  the  decisions  of  the  supreme 
court,  so  as  to  secure  their  speedier  and  cheaper  appearance.  As  chairman  of  the 
institute  committee  he  prepared  the  "Address  of  the  Chicago  Law  Institute  to 
the  Bar  and  Press  of  the  State,"  a  pamphlet  of  unusual  force  and  brilliancy. 

This  biographical  sketch  would  be  incomplete  without  some  reference  to  his 
merits  and  qualities  as  a  lawyer  and  man.  His  sterling  merits  are  appreciated  by 
all  who  know  him  personally.  He  has  a  high  sense  of  honor  and  principle,  which 
places  him  beyond  suspicion  of  craft  and  trick  in  his  profession.  He  is  a  true 
and  genial  friend,  and  of  noted  and  unswerving  fidelity  to  his  clients  and  of 
untiring  zeal  for  their  interests,  and  is  courteous  and  affable  with  his  brother 
members  of  the  bar.  He  has  a  keen  sense  of  professional  rectitude,  and  is  zealous 
only  for  just  and  rightful  success,  and  commands  the  respect  and  attention  of  the 
court  for  his  law  and  logic,  while  before  a  jury  he  is  ranked  among  the  foremost 
of  advocates.  His  briefs  in  the  supreme  and  appellate  courts  are  concise  and 


60  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

models  of  logic  and  legal  acumen,  and  may  be  read  as  exceptional  specimens  of 
legal  ability,  industry  and  research,  frequently  relieved  by  allusions  and  illustra- 
tions which  show  the  breadth,  richness  and  variety  of  an  extensive  and  liberal 
culture.  His  attainments  in  general  literature,  aside  from  his  professional  ones, 
which  are  of  the  first  order,  are  of  no  common  kind,  as  is  manifest  from  his  written 
compositions  and  in  his  forensic  efforts.  Shakspeare  has  evidently  been  much 
studied  by  him,  and  an  occasional  felicitous  phrase  or  quotation  from  the  great 
dramatist  has  well  served  him  to  illustrate  a  position,  or  to  point  or  impress  an 
appeal. 

In  1878  he  made  a  venture  into  the  field  of  authorship,  in  the  publication  of 
an  elegant  volume  entitled  "Trouting  on  the  Brule  River,  or  Summer  Wayfaring 
in  the  Northern  Wilderness."  The  volume  relates  the  experiences  of  the  author 
and  his  party  of  professional  companions  in  the  woods  and  on  the  waters  of  the 
northern  wildernesses  of  Wisconsin  and  Michigan,  while  tenting  and  trouting  on 
the  Brule  river  their  summer  vacations  away.  It  is  written  in  a  charming  and 
attractive  style,  with  the  enthusiasm  of  a  lover  of  books  and  of  the  great  book  of 
nature  —  a  style  always  flowing  and  vigorous,  often  graphic  and  brilliant,  with  a 
delicate  and  subtle  vein  of  humor  and  pleasantry,  abounding  in  happy  allusions, 
with  passages  bordering  on  poetry,  and  occasional  graceful  professional  turns  of 
thought,  just  enough  to  remind  us  it  is  a  lawyer  writing  of  lawyers  in  their 
holiday  freedom  and  play.  This  book  has  passed  into  a  second  edition. 

Mr.  King  is  still  an  active  practitioner  at  the  Chicago  bar,  and  is  enjoying  the 
full  fruition  of  an  honorable  and  successful  professional  career. 


HON.   LEWIS    H.   BISBEE. 

E^WIS  H.  BISBEE  was  born  in  the  town  of  Derby,  Orleans  county,  Vermont, 
March  28,  1839.  His  father,  David  Bisbee,  was  a  farmer.  His  education 
was  acquired  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  town  up  to  the  time  his  ambition 
for  a  higher  education  led  him  to  seek  the  means  to  obtain  it.  He  worked  on  a 
farm  summers,  attending  school  winters,  until  about  sixteen  years  of  age,  when 
he  fell  back  upon  his  own  resources  to  make  a  further  advance  in  the  direction  of 
accomplishing  the  designs  he  had  formed  for  his  future.  He  had  the  courage, 
the  ambition,  the  energy  and  the  tenacity  of  purpose  to  overcome  material  obsta- 
cles. Prepared  for  college  in  the  academies  at  Glover,  Derby  and  Morrisville,  in 
northern  Vermont,  and  entered  St.  Hyacinth  College,  near  Montreal,  Canada, 
when  but  nineteen  years  of  age,  graduating  when  twenty-one.  The  course  there 
being  conducted  in  the  French  language  he  mastered  it,  and  is  now  a  proficient 
French  scholar.  He  subsequently  read  law  with  J.  L.  Edwards,  a  prominent  prac- 
titioner at  Derby,  paying  his  way  mainly  by  teaching  French,  and  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  June  1862.  This  course  and  outcome  is  a  forcible  illustration  of  the 
power  and  conquering  force  of  mind  and  well  directed  will  power  in  overcoming 


H  I-'.  Conprr    Jr  *.   I'll 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  63 

obstacles  which  appear  to  those  of  less  vigorous  intellect  and  decided  purpose 
insurmountable.  The  same  month  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  he  enlisted  as  a 
private  in  Co.  E,  gth  Vt.  Inf.,  and  was  afterward  promoted  to  the  captaincy  of  Co. 
H  of  the  same  regiment,  and  served  with  decided  credit  through  all  the  hardships 
and  severe  service  which  that  excellent  regiment  passed,  and  was  always  found  at 
the  front,  in  the  thickest  of  whatever  battle  or  service  it  was  engaged  in,  which 
were  many  and  often  severe.  He  was  captured  at  Harper's  Ferry,  released  on 
parole  and  sent  to  Camp  Douglas,  Chicago,  where  he  remained  until  exchanged, 
when  he  rejoined  his  regiment  and  remained  with  it  until  1864,  when  he  resigned 
on  account  of  sickness  and  returned  to  Newport,  Vermont,  and  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  law,  soon  building  up  an  extensive  and  lucrative  business. 

About  this  time  he  married  Miss  Jane  E.  Hinman,  the  accomplished  daughter 
of  Aaron  Hinman,  of  Derby,  one  of  the  first  families  in  Vermont,  and  of  that  good 
old  New  England  stock,  the  virtues  and  morals  of  which  have  spread  through  the 
West,  permeating  and  elevating  the  tone  and  character  of  the  people  wherever 
they  find  lodgment.  Mrs.  Bisbee  is  an  estimable,  amiable  and  interesting  woman, 
who  presides  with  dignity  over  a  home  of  attractive  and  pleasant  surroundings. 
The  elegant  and  costly  residence  which  Mr.  Bisbee  has  recently  built  in  the  beau- 
tiful suburban  town  of  Hyde  Park  would  grace  and  ornament  the  choicest  resi- 
dence streets  of  Chicago  or  any  other  city.  The  hospitality  and  good  cheer  met 
with  there  are  in  keeping  with  the  elegant  home,  whose  hosts  are  esteemed  by 
their  friends  and  in  social  circles.  They  have  an  interesting  and  pleasant  family, 
which  makes  the  otherwise  attractive  home  the  more  attractive. 

In  1865  Mr.  Bisbee  was  elected  states  attorney  of  Orleans  county,  where  he 
lived,  and  was  reelected  in  1867,  but  soon  resigned  to  accept  the  position  of 
deputy  collector  of  customs,  which  office  he  filled  until  1869,  when  he  was  elected 
to  the  legislature.  He  was  reelected  in  1870.  He  was  an  active  and  prominent 
member  of  that  body,  being  a  member  of  the  most  important  committees,  and 
was  the  leader  of  his  party  in  debates,  contested  legislation  and  was  acknowledged 
to  be  the  best,  most  vigorous  and  effective  speaker  on  the  floor  in  extempore 
debate.  He  made  his  mark  there  and  also  his  impress  upon  the  acts  of  that  body 
of  men.  From  1865  to  1870  he  was  United  States  commissioner  from  Newport 
under  the  extradition  treaty. 

In  May,  1871,  he  moved  to  Chicago,  and  had  hardly  become  rooted  in  business 
when  occurred  the  great  fire.  In  the  reorganization,  rebuilding  and  reestablishing 
of  order  out  of  the  confusion  and  chaotic  condition  in  which  the  fire  left  every- 
thing he  came  to  the  front  by  virtue  of  his  superior  intelligence,  tact,  energy  and 
judgment.  Old  established  lines  of  prejudices  and  ruts  of  business  were  partially 
obliterated  by  the  fire,  and  Lewis  H.  Bisbee  saw  his  opportunity  to  enter  an  open 
field  for  a  free  and  equal  contest  for  a  high  position,  in  which  the  bravest  and 
best  were  sure  to  win.  He  had  unwavering  faith  in  the  future  of  Chicago,  seized 
the  opportunity  and  has  won. 

He  has  been  associated  with  different  persons  in  his  practice,  but  much  of  the 
7 


64  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

time  alone.  He  has  been  and  is  one  of  the  most  successful  jury  and  chancery 
lawyers  in  the  Northwest.  He  enjoys  a  large  and  lucrative  practice  of  the  higher 
order.  His  conduct  of  the  case  known  as  the  B.  F.  Allen  Blanket-mortgage 
case,  for  Hoyt  Sherman,  especially,  was  conducted  with  great  ability  and  tact, 
and  he  was  highly  complimented  by  courts  and  bar ;  also,  the  noted  Sturges 
case  and  many  others  could  be  enumerated,  for  the  management  of  which  he  has 
won  signal  credit.  Few  attorneys  have  attained  to  such  high  position  at  the  bar 
in  .so  short  a  time. 

In  1878  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature  of  Illinois,  receiving  nearly  the  unani- 
mous vote  of  his  district,  one  of  the  most  populous  and  wealthy  in  this  state.  In 
this  body,  which  counts  among  its  members  some  of  the  ablest  men  in  the  state, 
he  at  once  took  a  leading  position  as  a  ready  and  able  debater  and  an  influential 
and  judicious  legislator,  originating  and  championing  some  of  the  most  important 
measures.  He  nominated  John  A.  Logan  for  United  States  senator  in  a  speech 
the  eloquence  and  force  of  which  did  much  to  secure  his  election,  which  followed. 
He  is  a  natural  orator,  a  clean-cut,  incisive  and  logical  thinker  and  reasoner,  a 
man  of  fine  figure  and  physique  and  of  commanding  presence,  which,  with  his 
attractive  delivery,  makes  him  an  effective  and  interesting,  a  graceful  and  forcible 
speaker  before  a  jury  or  a  promiscuous  audience.  He  is  an  ardent  republican, 
and  his  voice  and  eloquence  are  heard  in  the  important  campaigns  when  the  prin- 
ciples of  the  party  are  at  stake.  He  is  an  affable,  genial  and  generously  endowed 
gentleman  under  all  circumstances.  Clothed  with  becoming  dignity  he  is  still 
without  vanity  ;  courteous  and  obliging,  but  permitting  no  undue  familiarity  ; 
painstaking  and  earnest  in  the  interests  of  his  clients,  with  fidelity  to  integrity 
and  honor  ;  gifted  by  nature  with  the  sturdy  qualities  of  mind,  heart  and  body 
so  characteristic  of  the  best  New  England  stock,  he  has  developed  and  improved 
them.  He  is  a  successful  man  as  a  lawyer,  and  a  good  citizen, —  a  man  of  exem- 
plary habits.  He  is  a  self-made  man  in  the  fullest  sense,  and  being  in  the  prime 
of  life  there  is  a  future  of  promise  before  him.  He  has  already  illustrated  the 
annals  of  this  state  at  the  bar,  in  the  legislature  and  in  shaping  public  opinion 
and  sentiment :  a  man  of  force  and  character,  he  is  liable  to  make  a  still  further 
impress  on  the  history  of  his  time. 


HUNTINGTON  W.  JACKSON. 

HUNTINGTON    WOLCOTT   JACKSON    was    born    January   28,    1841,   at 
Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  is  the  son  of  John  P.  Jackson  and  Elizabeth 
(Wolcott)  Jackson.     His  father,  who  was  an  eminent  lawyer  in  New  Jersey,  died 
December  10,  1861,  and  in  a  memorial  is  spoken  of  as  follows: 

"Mr.  Jackson  was  born  at  Aquackanock,  New  Jersey,  in  the  year  1805,  and 
graduated  at  Princeton  College  at  an  early  age,  taking  the  highest  honor.  He 
immediately  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  law,  pursuing  his  studies  at  the  old 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  65 

Litchfield  Law  School.  In  the  spring  of  1827  he  was  admitted  to  practice  at  the 
bar.  Few  men  in  the  state  have  filled  larger  spheres  of  usefulness  than  Mr.  Jack- 
son. His  father  was  the  late  Peter  Jackson,  who  was  known  in  former  times, 
both  in  New  York  and  New  Jersey,  as  a  successful  merchant.  The  Jackson 
family  are  of  Scotch-Irish  descent.  Its  first  emigrant  to  this  country  was  James 
Jackson,  who  settled  on  the  banks  of  the  Hudson.  The  maternal  ancestors  of  Mr. 
Jackson  were  Dutch,  and  the  names  of  Brinckerhoff,  Schuyler  and  Van-Der-Linde, 
borne  by  the  highly  respectable  and  pious  Hollanders  who  emigrated  hither  are 
found  in  his  direct  lineage,  within  the  third  degree  upward." 

The  following  also  is  an  extract  from  a  memorial  of  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Wolcott 
Jackson,  who  died  October  15,  1875: 

"  Mrs.  Jackson  was  a  native  of  Litchfield,  Connecticut,  a  village  long  since 
distinguished  for  its  social,  educational  and  religious  advantages.  The  great 
grandfather  of  Mrs.  Jackson,  Maj-Gen.  Roger  Wolcott,  was  the  first  governor 
of  Connecticut.  Her  grandfather  was  Oliver  Wolcott,  Sr.,  a  signer  of  the  Decla- 
ration of  Independence.  Her  uncle,  Oliver  Wolcott,  Jr.,  was  secretary  of  the 
treasury  under  Gen.  Washington.  Her  father  was  Frederick  Wolcott,  who  occu- 
pied judicial  positions  for  forty  years  in  his  native  state.  Her  mother  was  a 
Huntington  and  a  member  of  that  branch  of  the  family  distinguished  in  Con- 
necticut during  the  revolution." 

Mr.  H.  W.  Jackson  prepared  for  college  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  entered  Princeton  College  in  1859.  At  the  close  of  his  junior 
year  he  left  college  and  went  into  the  army,  serving  in  various  grades,  and  in  1865 
was  brevetted  lieutenant-colonel.  He  was  appointed  aide-de-camp  upon  the  staff  of 
Maj-Gen.  John  Newton,  commanding  the  first  army  corps,  and  participated  in  the 
battles  of  Fredericksburg,  Chancellorsville,  Gettysburg  and  other  engagements 
of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  and  was  with  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  in  Sher- 
man's campaign  from  Chattanooga  to  Atlanta.  He  was  wounded  at  Kenesaw 
Mountain,  and  was  present  at  the  fall  of  Atlanta.  A  sketch  of  Mr.  Jackson's  mil- 
itary record  is  given  in  "  Foster's  New  Jersey  and  the  Rebellion,"  page  761. 

Upon  returning  to  civil  life  he  entered  Harvard  Law  School  and  remained  one 
year,  when  he  went  abroad.  After  traveling  in  Europe  for  about  a  year  he 
returned  to  his  home  and  resumed  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  his  brother, 
the  late  John  P.  Jackson,  Jr.,  of  Newark,  New  Jersey.  In  the  fall  of  1867  he 
entered  the  office  of  Messrs.  Waite  and  Clarke,  of  Chicago,  where  he  completed 
his  studies,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  spring  of  1868.  He  at  once  com- 
menced practice,  forming  a  partnership  with  Mr.  D.  B.  Lyman,  July  i,  1868, 
which  partnership  still  continues.  In  politics  Mr.  Jackson  is  a  republican.  He 
was  elected  supervisor  of  South  Chicago,  and  continued  the  reforms  instituted  by 
his  predecessors,  Robert  T.  Lincoln  and  Edward  G.  Mason.  He  was  appointed 
by  the  Hon.  John  J.  Knox,  comptroller  of  the  currency,  receiver  and  attorney  of 
the  Third  National  Bank  of  Chicago,  and  his  management  of  the  affairs  of  that 
institution  has  received  high  commendation  both  from  official  and  public  sources. 


66  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  his  professional  character  Mr.  Jackson  combines  native  ability,  the  rich- 
ness of  a  varied  experience,  and  profound  learning.  To  the  polish  and  culture  of 
the  scholar  is  added  the  strength  and  vigor  of  a  clear,  practical  judgment.  Care- 
ful and  conscientious,  he  never  hazards  an  opinion,  and  gives  his  counsels  only  as 
the  result  of  convincing  research.  As  an  advocate  he  is  earnest,  concise,  and 
convincing.  His  professional  career  has  been  characterized  by  a  marked  success, 
and  he  is  esteemed,  both  by  his  legal  brethren  and  all  with  whom  he  has  to  do,  as 
an  able,  dignified,  and  high-minded  lawyer. 


W.  IRVING  CULVER. 

WASHINGTON  IRVING  CULVER,  of  the  firm  of  McCagg  and  Culver,  is  a 
New  Hampshire  man,  who  was  born  at  New  Market,  Rockingham  county, 
July  19,  1844.  His  father  is  Adna  Bryant  Culver,  a  retired  railroad  contractor 
and  superintendent,  now  residing  in  Boston.  His  mother  was  Hannah  H.  San- 
born,  a  member  of  an  old  New  Hampshire  family,  for  which  the  town  of  Sanborn- 
ton  was  named  more  than  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  paternal  grandfather  of 
our  subject,  John  Culver,  was  a  farmer  in  northern  Vermont. 

In  1852  Adna  B.  Culver  removed  to  the  West  with  his  family.  After  complet- 
ing his  literary  education  at  the  Tippecanoe  Battle  Ground  Academy,  near  La- 
fayette, Indiana,  Irving  taught  school  one  winter,  being  then  seventeen  years  of 
age.  He  also  worked  for  a  brief  time  at  railroading,  and  was  subsequently  in  the 
general  ticket  office  at  New  Albany,  Indiana. 

In  January,  1862,  he  commenced  reading  law  in  the  office  of  Messrs.  Scammon, 
McCagg  and  Fuller,  of  Chicago;  was  admitted  to  practice  in  September,  1866,  and 
has  always  remained  with  Mr.  McCagg,  into  whose  partnership  he  was  taken  in 
1870.  Their  practice  is  exclusively  civil.  Mr.  Culver  is  extremely  careful  in  the 
examination  of  his  cases,  and  is  noted  for  the  perspicuity  and  decision,  and  at 
the  same  time  gentleness,  with  which  he  presses  them.  Unwearied  and  pains- 
taking in  his  researches,  he  is  always  prepared  to  meet  his  adversary,  and  to 
anticipate  the  arguments  which  that  adversary  will  present.  The  perfect  sincer- 
ity and  modesty  of  Mr.  Culver  command  the  respect  of  the  court,  so  that,  in 
presenting  his  case,  he  has  the  closest  attention. 

Mr.  Culver  has  been  for  several  years  treasurer  of  the  Illinois  Charitable  Eye 
and  Ear  Infirmary,  and  librarian  of  the  Chicago  Law  Institute,  and  was  at  one 
time  vice-president,  and  is  now  attorney  and  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  North- 
western Masonic  Aid  Association.  He  is  past  master  of  Landmark  Lodge,  No. 
422,  of  that  order,  a  knight  templar,  and  a  member  of  Fairview  Chapter,  No.  161, 
and  of  Apollo  Commandery,  No.  i. 

In  political  sentiment  Mr.  Culver  is  a  republican,  but  his  love  for  his  profes- 
sional work  prevents  his  taking  any  active  part  in  political  affairs.  His  leisure 
time  is  given  almost  entirely  to  reading,  and  to  literary  as  well  as  legal  study,  he 


KCConiMr    Jr    S  C. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  67 

having  always  had  a  great  love  for  books.  In  addition  to  the  excellent  law 
library  of  the  firm,  amounting  to  about  4,000  volumes,  Mr.  Culver  has  a  well 
selected  library  of  miscellaneous  books,  to  which  he  is  adding  from  year  to  year. 
He  has  written  and  lectured  some,  particularly  on  masonic  matters,  and  among 
his  lectures  on  that  subject,  delivered  before  Landmark  Lodge,  and  published 
in  the  "  Voice  of  Masonry,"  was  one  that  was  republished  in  the  "  Masonic 
Magazine,"  London,  England. 

With  his  natural  fondness  for  study,  his  untiring  industry,  and  his  careful  and 
methodical  division  of  labor,  Mr.  Culver  cannot  fail  of  success  either  in  his  pro- 
fession or  literary  pursuits. 

He  was  married  on  February  24,  1869,  to  Miss  Sarah  T.  Barnes,  a  daughter  of 
Samuel  Barnes,  who,  in  his  life-time  was  a  prosperous  farmer  at  Battle  Ground, 
Indiana. 

LUTHER    LAFLIN    MILLS. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography,  although  one  of  the  younger  members  of  the 
Chicago  bar,  is  one  of  its  brightest  lights,  who,  by  native  fitness  for  his 
profession,  and  brilliancy  of  talent,  has  gained  an  eminence  attained  but  by  few. 
Descending  from  pure  New  England  ancestry,  he  traces  his  lineage  back  to  the 
Plymouth  colony  of  1620. 

He  was  born  in  North  Adams,  Massachusetts,  September  3,  1848,  the  son  of 
Walter  N.  Mills,  and  Caroline  (Smith)  Mills,  his  mother  being  the  youngest 
daughter  of  Alpheus  Smith,  of  that  place.  When  Luther  was  about  a  year  old 
his  father  moved  to  Chicago  and  opened  a  dry  goods  house  which  for  many 
years  subsequently  flourished  under  the  name  of  Mills  and  Co.  Here  he  received 
his  early  education  in  the  public  schools,  and  later  attended  the  Michigan  State 
University,  which  institution  he  left  in  1868,  in  the  junior  year  of  his  college 
course.  He  subsequently  studied  law  with  Homer  N.  Hibbard,  of  Chicago,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  when  but  twenty-one  years  of  age.  In  school  and  in  his 
legal  studies  he  was  an  apt  and  bright  student,  and  came  out  with  high  honors, 
leaving  the  impression  among  his  teachers  and  classmates  that  he  must  rise  above 
the  average  of  men  in  his  chosen  profession,  and  take  a  stand  "  higher  up,"  where 
Daniel  Webster  said  there  is  always  "  plenty  of  room,"  predictions  which  have 
been  fully  realized.  Selecting  his  profession,  he  set  his  standard  high,  worked 
assiduously  to  attain  it  and  has  already  reached  a  distinction  which  cannot  but 
command  admiration  and  incite  to  emulation. 

At  the  outset  of  his  professional  career  his  talents  and  attainments  soon  com- 
manded public  attention,  and  in  1876,  when  but  twenty-eight  years  of  age,  he 
was  nominated  on  the  republican  ticket,  and  elected  to  the  office  of  states  attor- 
ney of  Cook  county,  running  four  thousand  votes  ahead  of  his  ticket.  At  the 
expiration  of  his  term  of  office,  in  1880,  he  was  reelected  by  a  still  larger  major- 
ity, thus  evidencing  his  increased  popularity,  and  the  general  satisfaction  which 


68  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO. 

his  conduct  of  his  office  had  given.  A  brilliant  orator,  a  logical  and  rapid 
thinker,  a  clear-headed  lawyer,  a  genial  gentleman  and  an  honest  and  just  man, 
he  has,  during  his  official  career,  been  a  bulwark  against  the  flood  of  criminality 
in  Chicago. 

Mr.  Mills  is  a  Royal  Arch  Mason,  and  a  member  of  Apollo  Commandery;  and 
while  in.  college,  became  a  member  of  the  Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity.  He  is  a  man  of 
sterling  social  qualities,  courteous  and  generous,  and  the  center  of  a  wide  range 
of  warm  personal  friends. 

He  was  married  November  15,  1876,  to  Miss  Ella  J.  Boies,  an  accomplished 
daughter  of  Joseph  M.  Boies,  of  Saugerties,  New  York.  They  have  four  chil- 
dren, and  live  surrounded  by  the  pleasures  and  comforts  of  a  happy  home. 


EDWARD   ROBY. 

EDWARD  ROBY  was  born  August  31,  1840,  at  Brockport,  New  York,  of  New 
England  parents,  who,  about  1820,  had  moved  into  the  then  extreme  West. 
His  descent  being  from  the  earliest  settlers  at  Boston,  and  collaterally  from  Miles 
Standish,  John  Alden,  and  Peregrine  White,  he  was  of  course  connected  by  blood 
with  the  best  of  New  England,  but,  as  his  father  died  in  1847  and  his  life  was 
soon  after  turned  to  that  of  a  student,  he  never  came  in  contact  with  his  eastern 
kin.  Similarity  to  them  in  modes  of  thought  appears  as  a  matter  of  race,  not  of 
association;  yet  those  modes  of  thought  have  made  whatever  of  success  at  the 
bar  he  has  achieved.  Mr.  Roby  settled  in  Chicago  in  1865,  after  the  close  of  the 
war,  and  at  once  took  an  office  alone  and  commenced  practice.  He  was  married 
in  1876,  to  Mrs.  Lelia  P.  Magoun,  who  was  born  in  Boston  of  the  same  pilgrim 
ancestry;  a  lady  rarely  combining  a  thorough  acquaintance  with  all  domestic 
duties  with  education  and  intellectual  attainments  of  the  highest  order;  unex- 
celled in  needlework  and  in  every  detail  of  a  home,  she  is  as  well  a  connoisseur  in 
architecture  and  in  art;  having  an  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  languages, 
and  with  scientific  and  general  literature,  it  would  not  be  strange  if  the  lawyer's 
briefs  should  shine  with  a  borrowed  luster.  And  yet  she  is  thoroughly  a  woman, 
filling  the  high  mission  of  mother  and  wife  as  first  of  all.  Two  stalwart  boys,  of 
strong  muscles  and  large  brains,  promise  at  the  proper  time  to  take  up  their 
share  of  the  world's  work,  perhaps  as  lawyers,  though  it  is  yet  too  soon  to  tell. 

Mr.  Roby's  first  two  cases  in  the  supreme  court  were  in  1868,  and  were  both 
successful.  From  that  time  forward  he  has  exerted  a  greater  influence  on  public 
affairs  by  litigation  than  any  man  in  the  state.  Before  the  constitution  of  1870, 
abuses  of  the  power  of  eminent  domain  caused  him  to  assail  the  provisions  of  the 
charter  of  Chicago  vesting  the  board  of  public  works  and  common  council  with 
power  to  determine  the  amount  of  compensation  to  be  given,  and  the  system  of 
exerting  the  power  of  eminent  domain  which  had  been  in  use  for  twenty  years 
went  down  before  the  assault. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO.  69 

The  old  constitution  had  been  frittered  away  by  judicial  construction  in  many 
of  its  most  important  provisions.  Legal  opinions  were  given  that  the  provisions 
of  the  constitution  of  1870  as  to  collecting  revenue  were  a  dead  letter,  and  would 
not  take  effect  until  enforced  by  legislation.  The  city  government  of  Chicago 
acted  on  this  view,  prevented  legislation  and  attempted  the  collection  of  the  taxes 
and  assessments  of  1870,  as  if  the  new  constitution  did  not  exist.  The  superior 
court  by  its  judgments  sustained  the  city's  action.  Mr.  Roby  took  the  questions 
to  the  supreme  court,  and  on  January  22,  1872,  that  court  delivered  its  opinion  in 
the  case  of  Webster  vs.  the  City  of  Chicago,  and  one  hundred  and  twenty-two  other 
cases  taken  by  him  to  that  court,  declaring  the  constitution  effectual  as  a  living 
law,  and  annulling  more  than  half  a  million  dollars  of  tax  sales.  Petition  for 
rehearing  was  made  by  eminent  counsel,  but  in  April  the  court  delivered  a  second 
opinion  on  the  subject  in  the  case  of  Hills,  and  the  motion  for  rehearing  was 
never  called  up. 

In  1873  a  special  statute  had  been  obtained  by  Chicago  to  keep  up  the  special 
city  offices  for  assessment  and  collection  of  the  city  revenue,  though  the  constitu- 
tion required  general  laws  for  city  government,  and  this  law  made  an  exception 
of  any  city  from  the  operation  of  the  general  laws.  The  city  taxes  were  assessed 
under  the  special  law,  but  were  in  part  defeated  because  there  seemed  to  be  some 
defect  of  details.  The  constitutional  question  was  ignored  by  the  court,  and  the 
city  obtained  an  amendment  to  the  statute  to  cover  the  defect  as  to  details;  the 
taxes  of  1874  were  levied  under  the  amended  statute.  A  special  charter  was  also 
obtained  to  be  adopted  by  any  city  in  lieu  of  the  general  city  incorporation  law  of 
the  state.  It 'was  adopted  by  a  vote  of  the  people  of  Chicago,  and  Thomas  Hoyne 
was  elected  mayor  under  it.  It  was  known  as  the  charter  of  1875.  The  tax  stat- 
ute was  known  as  bill  300.  Upon  the  application  for  judgment  for  the  tax  of 
1874  Mr.  Roby  forced  the  fight  on  the  constitutional  ground  from  the  outset, 
obtaining  the  first  place  on  the  calendar  and  making  the  single  objection  to  the 
constitutionality  of  the  law.  The  county  court,  Gen.  M.  R.  M.  Wallace  presid- 
ing, held  the  law  unconstitutional,  and  the  city  appealed.  In  the  supreme  court 
Mr.  Roby  alone  argued  the  constitutional  question,  saying  to  the  court  that  a  mil- 
lion and  three-quarters  of  city  taxes  were  represented  in  the  record,  and  if  the 
question  was  not  then  decided  the  next  year  the  whole  tax  levy  would  come  'up. 
The  result  was  a  victory  for  the  constitution,  and  the  special  charter  and  special 
tax  law  fell  together.  The  decision  was  made  in  the  case  of  City  of  Chicago  vs. 
Cooper. 

From  1870  to  1875  Chicago  expended  $12,500,000  more  than  its  entire  rev- 
enues, and  under  a  system  of  temporary  loans  was  pushing  rapidly  into  bank- 
ruptcy. Its  revenues  were  about  $6,000,000  a  year,  while  it  spent  $8,500,000.  The 
tax  contests  culminating  in  1876  cut  off  many  extravagances,  and  taught  the  offi- 
cers that  the  city  could  be  carried  on  for  much  less  than  had  been  levied,  still  it 
was  found  very  easy  to  obtain  money  on  temporary  loans,  and  the  most  economi- 
cal mayor  and  aldermen  could  not  resist  the  pressure  of  the  various  officers  for 


JO  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

extravagance.  In  1875  a  pamphlet,  written  by  the  comptroller  and  corporation 
counsel  and  endorsed  by  fifteen  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  Chicago,  was  issued, 
asserting  the  legality  of  the  temporary  loans,  notwithstanding  the  constitutional 
prohibition,  and  used  to  float  $4,500,000  of  scrip.  In  March,  1877,  Mr.  Roby  filed 
a  bill  in  the  name  of  Judge  Henry  Fuller,  plaintiff,  praying  an  injunction  against 
the  payment  of  any  of  this  scrip.  It  was  not  intended  to  destroy  the  integrity  of 
Chicago,  nor  to  injure  any  one  who  in  good  faith  had  loaned  money;  but  it  oper- 
ated to  bring  such  a  pressure  that  the  city  officers  curtailed  expenses  to  the 
utmost,  and  by  the  time  the  supreme  court  had  decided  the  case,  and  that  the 
injunction  should  be  issued,  every  dollar  of  the  illegal  scrip  had  been  paid.'  It 
had  been  demonstrated  that  the  city  could  be  sustained  on  $4,000,000  a  year,  with- 
out going  in  debt;  and  the  present  excellent  condition  of  low  taxation  and  free- 
dom from  debt,  is  directly  traceable  to  these  contests. 

Mr.  Roby  is  mainly  devoted  to  real  estate  law  and  to  equity  cases,  being  called 
into  many  cases  as  counsel  by  other  lawyers,  and  having  considerable  reputation 
for  learning  concerning  real  estate  titles.  Occasionally  he  goes  into  common 
law  cases  not  connected  with  real  estate,  to  show  that  his  education  on  that 
branch  was  not  neglected,  and  to  keep  up  his  acquaintance  with  it. 

He  is  a  true  gentleman  and  bears  the  impress  of  culture  and  refinement; 
urbane  in  his  manner,  kind  and  courteous,  he  is  yet  firm,  and  has  in  his  character 
many  elements  of  popularity.  He  possesses  one  of  the  finest  law  libraries  in 
Chicago,  and  being  a  close  and  careful  student,  and  a  clear  thinker,  has  gained  a 
high  reputation  as  a  lawyer  of  sound  judicial  mind,  especially  able  and  reliable 
in  questions  and  matters  involving  constitutional  law,  and  the  graver  subjects  of 
his  profession. 


HON.   LESTER    L.   BOND. 

OF  the  many  able  lawyers  in  the  Northwest  who  make  a  specialty  of  patent 
law  and  patent  causes,  Hon.  Lester  L.  Bond  has  no  superior.  Endowed  by 
nature  with  a  comprehensive  mind,  and  great  mechanical  ingenuity,  he  has 
attained  great  proficiency  in  the  arts  and  sciences  especially  applicable  to  that 
branch  of  his  profession  to  which  he  has  given  particular  attention.  He  is 
learned  not  only  in  mechanics,  but  also  in  chemistry  and  natural  philosophy;  he 
has,  also,  a  thorough  knowledge  of  law,  and  the  general  practice,  being  a  good 
special  pleader,  conversant  with  all  of  the  rules  of  practice  in  both  the  state  and 
United  States  courts.  He  is  thoroughly  posted  in  all  of  the  decisions  of  the 
courts  in  Europe  and  America  bearing  upon  patent  litigation.  He  is  a  very  able 
trial  lawyer,  a  logical  reasoner,  and  an  excellent  advocate. 

The  practice  of  his  firm  extends  from  Portland,  Maine,  to  San  Francisco,  Cal- 
ifornia. Mr.  Bond  is  often  called  into  the  courts  in  the  eastern  cities,  where  he 
has  measured  lances  with  many  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  America,  and  on  such 


HCCo.pn-Jri   Co 


Enq   liy  i  C'AY, !,.-,»,'.  a-.VI 


!  !  V 


THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 


73 


occasions,  has  received  high  encomiums  from  both  bench  and  bar,  for  his  skill, 
profound  knowledge  of  the  law  and  depth  of  reason  in  his  arguments. 

In  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  at  Washington,  where  he  tries  a  large 
number  of  cases  every  year,  he  stands  very  high,  having  in  addition  to  great  legal 
lore,  and  ability  in  his  profession,  a  keen  sense  of  justice,  the  principles  of  which 
he  is  ever  ready  to  uphold  with  a  zeal  that  reflects  credit  upon  himself,  and  sus- 
tains the  dignity  and  honor  of  his  profession.  Mr.  Bond  is  a  gentleman  of  fine 
presence,  weighing  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  is  over  six  feet  high  and 
is  easy  and  graceful  in  his  movements.  He  is  affable  in  his  manner  and  secures 
the  friendship  of  all  who  are  favored  with  his  acquaintance. 

Lester  Legrand  Bond  is  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  a  son  of  Jonas  Bond,  of 
Ravenna,  where  our  subject  was  born,  October  27,  1829.  His  father  removed 
from  Connecticut  and  settled  in  Ohio  in  1824.  His  mother,  before  marriage,  was 
Miss  Elizabeth  Story,  a  relative  of  the  celebrated  jurist  and  legal  author,  the  late 
Judge  Story,  of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court. 

Lester  L.  attended  select  school  in  his  native  town  four  years,  and  afterward 
entered  Ellsworth  Academy.  Leaving  there  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  he  assisted 
his  father  in  farming  and  manufacturing  in  the  summer,  and  attended  school 
during  the  winter  months.  During  this  period  he  acquired  a  taste  for  mechan- 
ics, which  in  later  years  asserted  itself  in  his  profession  as  a  lawyer.  In  1850  he 
commenced  the  study  of  the  law  with  Francis  W.  Tappen  in  Ravenna,  and  after- 
ward continued  his  studies  with  Messrs.  Bierce  and  Jefferies,  the  senior  partner  of 
which  firm,  Gen.  Bierce,  was  considered  one  of  the  ablest  criminal  lawyers  in 
northeastern  Ohio  ;  after  completing  his  studies  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at 
Akron,  in  October  1853.  In  October,  1854,  he  settled  in  Chicago  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  the  law.  His  means  were  limited  and  he  had  but  two 
acquaintances  in  the  city.  His  business,  therefore,  was  for  some  time  necessarily 
small,  and  in  the  hope  of  bettering  his  circumstances  he  joined  his  name  with 
that  of  a  young  man  in  the  commission  business.  His  partner  absconded,  leav- 
ing him  to  settle  the  debts  of  the  firm.  This  occurrence  was  very  embarrassing, 
but  he  struggled  through  it,  and  discharged  all  of  his  obligations. 

About  the  year  1859  some  parties,  knowing  the  natural  taste  of  Mr.  Bond  for 
mechanical  studies,  employed  him  to  take  charge  of  their  patent  interests,  as  well 
as  to  procure  other  patents  for  their  inventions.  This  soon  led  to  considerable 
business,  which  continued  to  increase  until  1869,  when  he  concluded  to  withdraw 
from  the  general  practice  of  the  profession,  and  devote  himself  exclusively  to 
patent  business,  since  which  time  the  marvelous  growth  of  manufactures,  and  the 
steadily  increasing  reputation  of  Mr.  Bond  as  a  patent  lawyer,  had  a  tendency  to 
fill  his  office  with  business,  and  in  1864  he  became  associated  with  the  law  firm  of 
West,  Bond  and  Driscoll,  he  himself  taking  charge  of  the  business  pertaining  to 
patents.  The  following  year  Mr.  Driscoll  was  elected  city  attorney,  which  made 
it  necessary  for  him  to  withdraw  from  the  firm,  and  the  business  was  continued 
under  the  name  of  West  and  Bond, 


74  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

On  account  of  the  large  experience  acquired  by  Mr.  Bond  in  patent  cases,  and 
also  his  familiarity  with  mechanics,  he  has  been  intrusted  with  very  important 
cases,  and  at  an  early  period  in  his  practice  was  frequently  called  upon  as  an 
expert  in  important  trials,  in  matters  relating  to  patents.  Among  the  cases  in 
which  he  has  been  engaged  as  counselor,  may  be  mentioned  those  of  the  Bab- 
cock  Fire  Extinguisher,  the  Evarts  Shingle  Mill,  the  Tubular  Lantern,  the  Marsh 
Harvester,  the  Keystone  Corn  Planter,  the  Kenyon  Cultivator  and  numerous 
other  cultivator  cases.  He  defended  the  Moline  Plow  Company  in  its  numerous 
contested  cases,  also  the  Furst  and  Bradley  Manufacturing  Company,  was  con- 
nected with  the  Barbed  Wire  Fence  cases,  and  was  on  one  side  or  the  other, 
usually  on  the  defense,  in  nearly  all  of  the  agricultural  implement  cases  that  have 
been  tried  in  the  seventh  United  States  circuit. 

His  skill,  which  was.  so  evidently  manifested  in  these  and  other  cases,  has 
placed  him  at  the  head  of  his  profession  in  this  department. 

In  politics  he  has  been  a  republican  since  he  has  had  a  vote,  his  father  having 
joined  the  free-soil  party  in  1844.  His  first  experience  of  political  position  was 
in  1852,  when  he  was  sent  as  a  town  delegate  to  the  Pittsburgh  convention, 
which  nominated  John  P.  Hale  for  president. 

In  1863  he  was  elected  alderman  from  the  eleventh  ward  of  the  city  of  Chi- 
cago, and  was  in  1864  reelected  for  two  years,  and  at  the  expiration  of  his  term 
was  again  tendered  the  office  from  both  parties,  but  on  account  of  the  pressure  of 
his  business,  was  compelled  to  decline. 

In  1867  he  was  elected  to  the  state  legislature,  and  reelected  in  1869.  During 
this  session  he  was  chairman  of  the  judiciary  committee,  the  most  important  in 
the  house.  In  his  first  term  he  was  a  member  of  the  committee  on  internal 
improvements,  and  aided  largely  in  procuring  the  passage  of  the  act  for  the 
improvement  of  the  Illinois  River. 

Contrary  to  his  wishes,  in  1871,  just  after  the  great  fire,  he  was  placed  on  the 
ticket  for  alderman  of  the  tenth  ward,  and  was  elected. 

In  1873  Hon.  Joseph  Medill  obtained  leave  of  absence  for  the  remainder  of  his 
term  as  mayor,  on  account  of  ill  health,  and  Mr.  Bond  was  elected  by  the  council 
to  fill  the  place  for  the  remainder  of  the  term.  The  following  November  he  was 
nominated  for  mayor  for  two  years,  and  although  he  received  the  large  number 
of  eighteen  thousand  five  hundred  votes,  was  defeated  by  Mr.  Colvin.  During 
Mr.  Bond's  short  term  of  the  office  of  mayor  the  panic  occurred,  and  he,  with 
others,  taking  a  decided  stand  against  the  issue  of  scrip,  the  credit  of  the  city 
was  maintained.  He  also  reorganized  the  fire  department  so  satisfactorily  that 
the  organization  was  not  afterward  disturbed,  and  settled  the  long  standing 
claims  of  the  gas  companies  on  a  basis  that  has  since  been  followed. 

Mr.  Bond  was  for  four  years  a  member  of  the  board  of  education,  and  in  1872 
was  presidential  elector  for  the  second  congressional  district  of  Illinois.  In  all 
these  various  positions  he  has  distinguished  himself  for  his  energy,  prudence  and 
faithfulness. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 


75 


He  was  married  October  12,  1856,  to  Miss  Amie  Scott  AspinwaH,  daughter  of 
Rev.  Nathaniel  W.  Aspinwall,  of  Peacham,  Vermont,  a  lady  of  excellent  womanly 
qualities,  and  an  affectionate  wife.  They  have  one  daughter.  They  are  both 
members  of  the  Centenary  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  of  Chicago. 


AUGUSTUS   VAN    BUREN. 

A  UGUSTUS  VAN  BUREN  was  born  in  Penn  Van,  Yates  county,  New 
r\.  York,  in  the  year  1832.  He  was  educated  at  Kinderhook,  and  at  the  age  of 
sixteen,  entered  his  father's  office  at  Penn  Yan,  and  commenced  the  study  of  law. 
While  yet  under  age  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Rochester,  New  York,  with 
leave  to  practice  after  attaining  his  majority. 

In  1850  he  went  to  California  where  he  dug  gold,  kept  store  and  practiced 
law.  His  first  law  case  was  the  defense  of  an  Indian  for  murder,  before  the 
mayor  of  the  city  of  Stockton.  His  defense  was  eminently  successful,  as  there 
was  no  one  to  prosecute  the  case.  The  Indian  agreed  to  give  him  a  fee  of  $800, 
which  he  had  buried,  but  was  killed  before  obtaining  it,  so  "Gus,"  as  he  is 
familiarly  called  by  his  legal  associates,  never  received  a  cent. 

This  was  good  encouragement  for  a  lawyer  just  commencing  to  practice,  but 
the  legal  bent  was  in  the  young  man's  mind,  and  after  remaining  a  little  over  a 
year  in  California,  he  returned  to  Penn  Yan  for  a  short  time,  and  then  removed 
to  St.  Clair,  Michigan.  While  at  St.  Clair  he  was  nominated  for  district  attorney 
of  the  county,  but  being  a  democrat,  was  not  elected. 

In  1858  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  his  father,  which 
still  exists.  His  practice  met  with  encouragement  almost  from  the  first,  and 
to-day  Mr.  Van  Buren  is  acknowledged  to  be  one  of  the  most  successful  criminal 
lawyers  in  the  city.  It  might  almost  be  said  of  him  as  the  pirate  said  of  Rufus 
Choate,  that  he  felt  that  the  great  advocate  would  clear  him  if  he  were  found 
with  the  victim's  money  in  his  boots.  But  the  pirate  did  not  recognize  the  fact 
that  Mr.  Choate,  in  order  to  win  a  cause,  had  to  believe  in  his  client's  innocence, 
a  fact  which  is  true  of  Mr.  Van  Buren. 

That  he  has  saved  from  the  gallows  some  criminals  who  ought  to  have  "  felt 
the  halter  draw,"  is  undoubtedly  true,  but  in  a  great  majority  of  the  cases,  over 
one  hundred  in  number,  in  which  the  public  has  had  an  interest,  which  he  has 
tried,  and  not  one  of  which  he  has  finally  lost,  it  is  fair  to  assume  that  the  victims 
of  circumstantial  evidence  have  been  saved  from  undeserved  death  by  the 
shrewdness  and  eloquence  of  this  advocate. 

Mr.  Van  Buren  has  probably  been  engaged  in  as  many  important  criminal 
cases  as  any  lawyer  in  the  Northwest.  One,  of  marked  notoriety,  was  that  of 
Joseph  Crawford,  who  was  tried  for  the  murder  of  William  Shanley,  one  of  the 
most  brutal  murders  ever  committed.  Mr.  Van  Buren,  with  great  industry  and 
perseverance,  saved  him  from  the  scaffold. 


76  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

The  most  important  trial,  however,  and  one  which  became  widely  known,  was 
that  of  Joseph  St.  Peter  and  Mrs.  Clarke,  tried  for  the  murder  of  Alviro  Clarke, 
the  husband  of  Mrs.  Annie  Clarke.  John  Van  Arnam  was  employed  to  assist 
the  states  attorney.  Mr.  Van  Buren  was  the  leading  counselor  for  the  defense, 
and  acquired  a  great  reputation  for  his  skillful  management  of  the  case.  Both 
defendants  were  acquitted. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Van  Buren  is  characterized  by  persistence,  watchfulness,  readi- 
ness to  take  advantage  of  any  weakness  in  favor  of  his  clients,  together  with  a 
keen  appreciation  of  the  intricacies  of  the  law, —  qualities  in  an  adversary  which 
are  difficult  to  overcome,  and  it  is  doubtful  if  in  the  history  of  jurisprudence  in 
Illinois  Mr.  Van  Buren's  uniform  success  can  be  matched.  His  firm  has  a  large 
practice,  Judge  E.  Van  Buren,  his  father,  being  associated  with  him.  Personally 
he  is  very  popular,  and  as  a  lawyer  possesses  high  legal  attainments. 


HON.   HORACE   F.  WAITE. 

HORACE  F.  WAITE  was  born  in  Lyme,  New  London  county,  Connecticut, 
March  15,  1824.  His  parents  were  Horace  Waite  and  Martha  (Raymond) 
Waite.  His  uncle,  Henry  M.  Waite,  father  of  the  present  chief-justice  of  the 
United  States  Supreme  Court,  was  at  one  time  chief-justice  of  the  supreme  court 
of  Connecticut.  The  family  has  produced  many  successful  lawyers,  and  its  vari- 
ous members  are  well  known  in  New  England.  As  early  as  1648  Thomas  Wayte 
(the  name  being  then  spelled  with  a  "  y  ")  acted  as  one  of  the  judges  of  King 
Charles  I,  and  his  signature  appears  on  the  famous  warrant  for  the  execution  of 
that  misguided  and  unfortunate  monarch.  A  facsimile  of  this  document  may  be 
seen  in  Smollett's  "  History  of  England,"  in  the  London  edition  of  1754.  Mr. 
Waite's  immediate  connections  begin  with  Thomas  Waite,  who  settled  in  Lyme, 
Connecticut,  in  1677,  where  portions  of  the  family  have  ever  since  continued  to 
reside,  and  which  they  look  upon  as  their  family  home.  His  parents  having 
removed  to  Lucas  county,  Ohio,  his  earlier  and  preparatory  education  was 
received  at  Marietta  College,  whence  he  went  to  the  Ohio  University,  where  he 
became  noted  for  his  acumen  and  power  of  grasping  both  detail  and  generali- 
zation. Uopn  the  completion  of  his  collegiate  course,  having  decided  to  devote 
himself  to  the  legal  profession,  he  entered  the  office  of  his  cousin,  the  present 
Chief  Justice  Waite,  and  under  his  supervision  and  able  guidance  was  prepared 
for  admission  to  the  bar.  Soon  after  being  admitted  to  practice,  in  December, 
1851,  he  removed  to  Chicago.  He  became  primarily  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of 
Shumway,  Waite  and  Towne,  and  successively  of  the  firms  of  Waite  and  Towne  and 
Waite,  Towne  and  Clarke,  now  Waite  and  Clarke.  He  has  a  very  extensive  law 
practice  in  the  different  branches  of  his  profession;  is  a  valued  member  of  the  bar 
association,  and  stands  high  in  the  estimation  of  his  colleagues  and  fellow  citi- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  77 

zens.  In  1870,  immediately  on  his  return  from  Europe,  he  was  nominated  as  a 
candidate  of  the  republican  party  for  the  state  legislature,  elected,  and  served  as 
a  member  of  the  twenty-seventh  general  assembly,  and  served  on  the  judiciary 
committee  and  on  the  committee  on  railroads;  he  also  officiated  as  chairman  of  the 
committee  on  municipalities,  and  in  that  capacity  conducted  himself  with  marked 
ability  and  unerring  judgment.  In  the  twenty-eighth  general  assembly  he  was 
chairman,  and  an  influential  member  of  the  committee  for  county  and  township 
organization.  In  1872  he  was  elected  to  the  state  senate  from  the  sixth  Illinois 
district  for  the  term  of  four  years.  His  record  as  a  legislator  is  above  taint  or 
suspicion,  and  in  the  fulfillment  of  the  many  important  duties  assigned  to  him  he 
has  left  no  room  for  cavil  or  reproach.  He  has  a  keen  perception  of  the  legisla- 
tion needed  to  subserve  the  best  interests  of  the  state  and  his  constituents,  and 
gives  to  this  character  of  legislation  his  warmest  support.  As  in  the  court-room 
and  counselor's  office,  so  also  in  the  halls  of  the  legislature  he  takes  a  prominent 
position  among  the  leading  spirits,  and  by  his  scholarly  attainments  and  strength 
of  character  adds  daily  to  the  luster  of  his  reputation  as  a  law-maker  and  law- 
expounder.  He  was  married  February  14,  1853,  to  Miss  Jane  E.  Garfield,  formerly 
a  resident  of  Lee,  Massachusetts. 


CHARLES  A.   DUPEE. 

/CHARLES  ANALOG  DUPEE  was  born  in  West  Brookfield,  Massachusetts, 
V_x  May  22,  1831.  His  parents  were  Jacob  Dupee  and  Lydia  A.  (Wetherbee) 
Dupee,  his  father  being  descended  from  a  French  Huguenot,  who  emigrated  to 
Boston  about  the  year  1685. 

He  began  his  preliminary  education  at  an  academy  in  the  town  of  Monson, 
and  afterward  continued  it  at  the  Williston  Seminary  at  East  Hampton,  Massa- 
chusetts. In  1850  he  entered  Yale  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1854,  with  the 
degree  of  A.B.  In  November  of  the  latter  year  he  removed  to  Chicago  and 
became  the  principal  of  a  private  school  known  as  Edwards'  Academy.  He 
remained  in  this  position  for  six  months,  after  which  he  spent  some  time  in  trav- 
eling. Toward  the  close  of  the  year  1855  he  returned,  and  was  appointed  princi- 
pal of  one  of  the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  a  position  which  he  held  one  year. 

At  this  time  the  high  school  of  Chicago  was  being  organized,  and  Mr.  Dupee 
was  selected  for  its  principal.  The  task  of  forming  and  developing  the  system 
of  this  school  fell  mainly  upon  him,  and  the  form  and  shape  which  he  impressed 
upon  it  still  remain,  and  have  been  copied  in  the  systems  of  other  high  schools. 

During  the  time  of  his  filling  this  position  he  was  the  editor  of  the  "  Illinois 
Teacher,"  a  monthly  magazine  published  in  Chicago,  principally  for  the  use  of 
school  teachers. 

He  had  also  been  pursuing  for  some  years,  though  in  a  somewhat  desultory 
manner,  the  study  of  law;  but  in  1860  he  resigned  his  position  of  principal  and 


78  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

began  a  systematic  course  of  law  study,  first  in  the  law  school  of  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  and  afterward  in  the  office  of  Gallup  and  Hitchcock,  in  Chicago. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  in  1861.  About  this 
time  he  was  offered  the  presidency  of  the  State  Normal  School  of  Illinois,  and 
also  the  Latin  professorship  in  the  Chicago  University,  both  of  which  proposals 
he  declined. 

After  admission  to  the  bar  he  commenced  the  practice  of  the  profession  in 
Chicago  under  his  own  name,  and  continued  so  for  about  one  year,  when  he 
entered  into  partnership  with  Mr.  Jacob  A.  Cram,  under  the  style  of  Dupee 
and  Cram.  In  1863  Mr.  Dupee  was  married  to  Miss  Jennie  Wells,  daughter  of 
Henry  G.  Wells,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago.  In  1864  the  firm  of  Dupee 
and  Cram  was  dissolved  and  Mr.  Dupee  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Hitch- 
cock, Dupee  and  Evarts,  which  continued  until  1872,  when,  by  the  retirement  of 
Mr.  Evarts,  the  firm  became  Hitchcock  and  Dupee.  In  1876  the  firm  of  Hitch- 
cock, Dupee  and  Judah  was  organized  by  the  admission  of  Abel  B.  Judah.  On 
January  22,  1881,  Mr.  Dupee  was  bereft  of  his  wife,  and  later,  May  6,  1882,  of 
his  friend  and  partner,  Mr.  Hitchcock,  who  had  for  so  many  years  been  associated 
with  him.  By  the  death  of  Mr.  Hitchcock  the  firm  became  Dupee  and  Judah, 
which  again  changed  in  1882  by  the  admission  of  Mr.  M.  L.  Willard.  Mr.  Dupee 
is  a  man  of  marked  ability,  and  his  success  is  the  result  of  steady  application  to 
his  profession  and  unswerving  integrity.  He  does  not  aspire  to  political  distinc- 
tion, but  devotes  his  life  to  his  profession. 


HON.    JOHN    G.    ROGERS. 

ArtONG  our  Chicago  men  who  have  achieved  eminence  solely  by  excellence  of 
character,  without  any  of  the  modern  appliances  by  which  unworthy  per- 
sons seek  an  undeserved  and  transient  popularity,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  occu- 
pies a  conspicuous  place.  Modest  and  unassuming  in  disposition,  courteous  and 
suave  in  manners,  self-poised  and  dignified  in  demeanor,  thoughtful  of  the  feel- 
ings and  respectful  toward  the  opinions  of  others,  honorable  in  the  highest  and 
best  sense,  possessing  those  delicate  instincts  which  characterize  the  true  gentle- 
man, he  affords  a  fine  example  of  a  successful  career,  as  deserved  as  it  is 
conspicuous. 

Judge  Rogers  was  born  at  Glasgow,  Kentucky,  December  28,  1818.  He  is 
descended  from  an  old  Virginia  family  whose  ancestry  left  England  about  two 
hundred  years  ago.  His  father,  Dr.  George  Rogers,  was  a  physician  of  eminence, 
and  was  widely  and  very  favorably  known.  Judge  Rogers  acquired  his  education 
in  the  schools  of  his  native  country,  and  graduated  as  bachelor  of  laws  from 
Transylvania  University,  Kentucky,  in  1841.  Commencing  immediately  his  pro- 
fessional career  in  his  native  town,  he  soon  acquired  a  large  and  lucrative  prac- 
tice, and  won  an  honorable  place  in  his  profession. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  79 

Desiring  a  wider  field  of  influence  he  removed  in  1857  to  Chicago,  where  he 
continued  the  practice  of  law,  and  was  at  once  accorded  a  prominent  position 
among  the  ablest  lawyers  of  this  city.  In  July,  1870,  he  was  elected  judge  of  the 
circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  and  in  the  general  election  of  1873  was  reelected 
for  six  years,  and  in  1879  was  again  reelected. 

While  not  a  violent  partisan,  Mr.  Rogers  has  decided  political  views.  In 
early  life  he  affiliated  with  the  whigs  of  the  old  time,  but  since  1860  he  has  iden- 
tified himself  with  the  democratic  party. 

In  1849  he  joined  Glasgow  Lodge,  No.  65,  Independent  Order  of  Odd-Fel- 
lows, and  on  his  removal  to  Chicago  connected  himself  with  Excelsior  Lodge, 
No.  22.  After  having  represented  that  body  in  the  grand  lodge  for  several  years, 
he  was  in  1863  elected  grand  master  of  Illinois,  and  in  1869  was  chosen  grand 
representative  to  the  grand  lodge  of  the  United  States.  In  1871  he  was  selected 
as  one  of  the  Chicago  relief  committee,  Independent  Order  of  Odd-Fellows,  and 
was  made  its  treasurer,  and  in  this  capacity  received  and  dispensed  not  less 
than  $125,000.  That  committee  received  the  highest  commendations,  not  only 
from  the  fraternitv,  the  almoner  of  whose  bounty  it  was,  but  also  from  the  public 
cognizant  of  its  acts,  and  its  admirable  conduct  of  the  delicate  work  assigned  to 
it  shed  new  luster  upon  the  name  of  the  beneficent  order. 

In  1844  Mr.  Rogers  was  married  to  Arabelle  E.  Crenshaw,  the  eldest  daughter 
of  B.  Mills  Crenshaw,  a  former  chief-justice  of  Kentucky.  Mrs.  Rogers  is  an 
amiable  and  accomplished  lady,  gentle  and  refined  in  her  manners.  Two  sons 
and  two  daughters  have  blessed  their  union,  all  of  whom  have  come  to  manhood 
and  womanhood.  Having  amassed  a  competence  by  the  exercise  of  a  sagacious 
foresight  and  the  practice  of  a  wise  economy,  surrounded  by  the  comforts  of  an 
elegant  but  not  extravagant  home,  Judge  Rogers  lives  chiefly  in  his  official  duties 
and  in  the  charms  of  a  home  life.  He  meets  the  requirements  of  society  with 
which  he  mingles,  but  finds  his  greatest  solace  and  comfort  in  his  library  and  the 
companionship  of  his  family. 

Nature  designed  him  for  a  judge.  His  mind  is  of  the  judicial  order,  and  he 
would  in  any  place  have  been  certain  to  have  been  sought  out  and  placed  upon 
the  bench.  The  high  esteem  which  he  unquestionably  possesses  as  a  jurist 
among  the  entire  profession  is  the  result  of  a  rare  combination  of  fine  legal 
ability  and  culture  and  incorruptible  integrity  with  that  dignified  presence  and 
graceful  urbanity  which  characterizes  all  his  official  acts. 

Like  the  poet,  the  judge  is  born,  not  made.  To  wear  the  ermine  worthily,  it 
is  not  enough  that  one  possesses  legal  acumen,  be  learned  in  the  principles  of 
jurisprudence,  familiar  with  precedents  and  thoroughly  honest.  Most  men  are 
unable  wholly  to  divest  themselves  of  prejudice  even  when  acting  uprightly,  and 
are  unconsciously  warped  in  their  judgments  by  their  own  mental  characteristics 
or  the  peculiarities  of  their  education.  This  unconscious  influence  is  a  disturb- 
ing force,  a  variable  factor,  which  more  or  less  enters  into  the  final  judgments  of 
all  men.  In  the  ideal  jurist  this  factor  becoming  so  small  as  not  to  be  discrimin- 


8o  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

able  in  the  result,  the  disturbing  force  practically  ceases.  There  has  never  been 
on  the  bench  in  Chicago  a  man  better  adapted  in  this  respect  to  adorn  and  dig- 
nify this  high  and  responsible  place  than  Judge  John  G.  Rogers. 


HON.  ELIJAH    B.   SHERMAN. 

OF  Mr.  Sherman  it  may  be  truthfully  said  that  he  belongs  to  that  class  of 
self-made  men  to  whom  Chicago  owes  so  much  of  its  prosperity.  He  is  of 
Anglo-Welsh  ancestry,  his  father  being  Elias  H.,  and  his  mother  Clarissa  Wil- 
marth,  Sherman,  who  were  residents  of  Fairfield,  Vermont,  where  he  was  born 
June  13,  1832.  He  remained  upon  the  ancestral  farm  engaged  in  farm  avocations 
during  the  summer  months,  and  in  attending  school  and  teaching  during  the 
winter  until  about  twenty-two  years  of  age.  In  1854  he  removed  to  Brandon, 
Vermont,  where  he  was  for  a  time  employed  as  a  clerk  in  a  drug  store.  During 
the  following  year  he  entered  the  academy  at  Manchester,  where  he  began  a 
course  of  study  preparatory  to  entering  college.  Upon  leaving  the  academy  he 
entered  Middlebury  College  at  Middlebury,  Vermont,  where  he  completed  the 
full  college  course,  graduating  in  1860.  From  the  first  he  took  high  rank  in 
college,  and  was  selected  as  poet  for  the  junior  exhibition  as  well  as  for  the 
graduating  exercises  of  his  class.  Since  graduation  he  has  been  twice  invited  to 
address  the  associated  alumni  of  his  college. 

After  graduation  Mr.  Sherman  spent  a  year  in  teaching  at  South  Woodstock, 
Vermont,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  he  took  charge  of  the  Brandon  Semin- 
ary, where  he  continued  until  May  1862.  He  then  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  gth 
Vt.  Inf.,  and  was  soon  after  elected  lieutenant  of  Co.  C.  He  served  with  his  regi- 
ment until  January,  1863,  when  he  resigned,  his  regiment  then  being  on  duty  at 
Camp  Douglas,  Chicago.  He  immediately  entered  upon  the  study  of  law,  and 
attended  the  full  course  of  lectures  at  the  law  department  of  the  University  of 
Chicago,  graduating  in  1864.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  upon  graduation,  and 
at  once  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Chicago,  and  has  been  in 
continuous  and  successful  practice  from  that  time.  He  has  for  several  years  been 
the  solicitor  for  the  state  auditor,  and  in  that  capacity  has  had  charge  of  many 
important  litigations.  As  such  solicitor  he  instituted  the  proceedings  for  closing 
the  affairs  of  the  Republic  Life  Insurance  Company,  the  Chicago  Life  Insurance 
Company  and  the  Protection  Life  Insurance  Company,  in  all  of  which  cases  con- 
stitutional questions  of  the  first  importance  were  involved.  Mr.  Sherman's  inter- 
pretations of  the  general  insurance  laws  under  which  these  companies  are  being 
wound  up  have  been  sustained  by  the  highest  courts,  and  have  thus  become  pre- 
cedents .for  guidance  in  future  cases.  One  of  these  cases  is  now  pending  in  the 
Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  involving  the  entire  question  of  legislative 
control  over  corporations,  and  the  extent  to  which  such  control  may  be  exercised 
without  impairing  the  obligation  of  the  charter  contract.  The  decision  of  this 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  83 

question  will  make  this  litigation  the  most  important  as  regards  the  law  of  cor- 
porations since  the  historic  Dartmouth  College  case.  He  has  also  prosecuted 
other  important  cases  involving  kindred  questions,  among  the  more  notable  of 
which  is  the  case  of  Eames  vs.  The  State  Savings  Institution,  in  which  the  largest 
savings  bank  in  the  West  was  taken  from  a  voluntary  assignee  and  placed  under 
the  management  of  a  receiver  upon  a  bill  filed  by  Mr.  Sherman,  assisted  by  other 
eminent  lawyers,  in  behalf  of  all  the  depositors  and  creditors  of  the  bank. 

In  1876  he  accepted  the  republican  nomination  for  the  Illinois  house  of  repre- 
sentatives for  the  then  fourth  senatorial  district.  He  was  elected  by  a  flattering 
majority,  and  was  reelected  in  1878.  His  thorough  training  and  ripe  scholarship, 
coupled  with  his  experience  at  the  bar  and  his  profound  knowledge  of  the  law,  at 
once  gave  him  high  rank  as  a  legislator,  and  his  name  is  identified  with  all  the 
more  important  legislation  of  those  years.  He  served  as  chairman  of  the  commit- 
tee on  judicial  department,  and  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  formulating  the  law 
establishing  the  system  of  appellate  courts  which  are  now  a  part  of  the  judicial 
system  of  Illinois.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the  committee  on  corporations  and  a 
member  of  the  judiciary  committee,  as  well  as  of  the  military  committee  which 
prepared  the  military  code  now  in  force.  As  a  legislator  he  was  uniformly  arrayed 
against  all  jobbing  schemes,  and  proved  himself  an  earnest  and  eloquent  cham- 
pion of  the  rights  of  the  people.  His  long  experience  in  the  trial  of  causes  at  the 
bar  gave  him  a  quickness  and  readiness  in  debate  which  placed  him  in  the  front 
rank  as  a  debater,  and  his  services  as  a  legislator  constitute  one  of  the  most  satis- 
factory features  of  his  successful  career. 

In  1879  Mr.  Sherman  was  appointed  one  of  the  masters  in  chancery  of  the 
United  States  circuit  court  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois  by  Judges  Harlan, 
Drummond  and  Blodgett.  The  appointment  was  made  at  the  request  of  the  lead- 
ing members  of  the  bar  of  the  city  and  state,  and,  as  the  result  has  shown,  was  in 
every  respect  a  most  fitting  one.  His  long  and  successful  practice  in  chancery 
causes,  his  thorough  familiarity  both  with  the  principles  and  procedure  of  courts 
of  chancery,  coupled  with  unusual  habits  of  industry,  application  and  accuracy, 
have  enabled  him  to  discharge  the  duties  of  this  important  office  to  the  complete 
satisfaction  of  the  bench  and  bar,  while  he  has  at  the  same  time  continued  in  the 
successful  practice  of  his  profession.  His  name  has  frequently  been  mentioned 
for  higher  office  upon  the  bench  and  elsewhere  for  which  his  experience  and 
abilities  have  well  qualified  him,  but  he  has  thus  far  preferred  to  retain  the  very 
satisfactory  position  which  he  now  occupies  in  his  profession. 

Mr.  Sherman  has  served  as  grand  master  of  the  grand  lodge  of  the  order  of 
Odd-Fellows,  and  was  its  representative  for  two  years  to  the  sovereign  grand 
lodge.  He  is  an  active  member  of  the  Chicago  Philosophical  Society,  of  the 
Chicago  Bar  Association  and  of  the  Chicago  Law  Institute.  He  is  a  member 
of  the  State  Bar  Association,  of  which  he  has  been  president,  and  he  delivered  the 
annual  address  before  that  body  at  its  association  in  January  1882.  This  address 
was  published  by  the  association  and  was  largely  circulated,  attracting  much 
9 


84  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

attention,  not  only  for  its  merit  as  a  brilliant  literary  production,  but  because  of 
its  keen,  incisive  and  well  aimed  blows  at  the  existing  faults  in  our  jurisprudence, 
coupled  with  some  admirable  suggestions  for  their  reform.  He  is  also  a  member 
of  the  American  Bar  Association,  and  a  member  of  the  General  Council,  and  has 
been  prominently  identified  with  various  other  societies  and  organizations  of  a 
public  and  philanthropic  character. 

In  private  and  in  social  life  he  is  one  of  the  most  agreeable  of  gentlemen. 
Well  read  in  the  literature  of  the  times,  a  close  and  accurate  thinker,  a  brilliant 
conversationalist,  courteous,  charitable  and  considerate  to  all,  he  combines  in  an 
eminent  degree  the  qualities  essential  to  a  cultivated  gentleman,  in  the  best  sense 
of  that  much  abused  term. 

In  1866  he  was  married  to  Hattie  G.  Levering,  daughter  of  Mr.  S.  M.  Lover- 
ing,  of  Iowa  Falls,  Iowa,  a  lady  of  most  estimable  character,  and  possessing  in  a 
marked  degree  the  solid  accomplishments  and  womanly  devotion  which  render 
home  and  home  life  restful  and  happy. 


HON.   JAMES    R.    DOOLITTLE. 

THE  public  career  of  James  R.  Doolittle,  as  a  lawyer,  jurist  and  statesman,  is 
a  notable  one.  He  is  a  son  of  Reuben  and  Sarah  (Rood)  Doolittle.  He 
was  born  in  Hampton,  Washington  county,  New  York,  January  3,  1815.  Now 
past  sixty-seven  years  of  age,  he  is  well  preserved,  and  possesses  the  vigor,  strength 
and  force,  physically  and  mentally,  which  he  has  possessed  from  childhood.  His 
father  was  a  farmer  and  mill  owner,  and  engaged  in  other  enterprises;  the  found- 
er of  a  school  and  church,  and  was  a  man  of  beneficent  and  generous  impulses, 
prominently  identified  with  whatever  movement  was  made  in  the  direction 
of  promoting  the  general  welfare  of  the  people  in  his  neighborhood;  qualities 
which  James  R.  inherited  and  has  put  into  practice  during  his  long  and  eventful 
life.  After  going  through  the  ordinary  course  of  preliminary  and  preparatory 
education,  he  entered  Geneva  College,  in  western  New  York,  and  graduated  in 
1835,  taking  the  highest  honors  of  his  class  for  scholarship.  He  then  studied  law 
in  Rochester,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1837  by  the  supreme  court  of  New 
York,  and,  moving  to  Wyoming  county,  engaged  in  practice  and  was  successful. 
He  was,  though  a  democrat,  successively  elected  district  attorney  in  a  whig 
county,  and  served  to  the  satisfaction  of  all  parties.  He  took  an  active  part  in 
politics  in  those  days.  He  was  an  anti-slavery  democrat,  and  in  1848  introduced 
in  a  democratic  convention  resolutions  which  constituted  the  initiative  and  origin 
of  the  free-soil  party.  He  was  and  has  since  been  a  conscientious  opponent  of 
the  extension  of  slavery,  and  was  in  favor  of  stamping  out  the  institution  by  con- 
stitutional means. 

In  1851  he  removed  to  Racine,  Wisconsin,  and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession.     His  decided  abilities  and  excellent  qualities  were  soon  discovered 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  85 

and  recognized,  and  he  at  once  entered  upon  a  notable,  eventful,  useful  and 
successful  career.  He  ranked  among  the  ablest  and  best  lawyers  at  the  able 
bar  of  that  state.  He  was  retained  by  Gov.  Farwell  in  important  cases  involving 
the  interests  of  the  commonwealth,  and  in  other  equally  important  litigations, 
in  which  he  successfully  competed  in  the  courts  with  older  attorneys,  and  held 
his  own  amid  that  sea  of  matured  intellect  at  the  bar  for  which  Wisconsin 
was  somewhat  noted  at  that  time.  In  1853,  after  a  residence  in  the  state  of  but 
two  years,  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  first  judicial  circuit,  then  the  most  populous 
judicial  district  in  the  state.  As  a  jurist  he  was  ranked  among  the  most  impartial 
and  ablest  in  the  Northwest.  He  brought  to  the  bench  a  thorough  knowledge  of 
law,  varied  learning,  and  that  clear  perception  of  right  and  justice  which  is  so 
marked  in  all  the  walks  of  his  life.  He  was  candid,  cautious,  thorough  in  the 
study  of  facts  and  precedents,  clear  in  his  analysis  of  the  principles  of  law,  and 
while  on  the  bench  illustrated  the  formative  jurisprudence  of  that  young  state,  as 
he  subsequently  did  its  political  history  as  a  statesman,  having  been  one  of  the 
most  important  factors  in  both  connections.  In  March,  1856,  he  resigned  the 
judgeship.  In  January,  1857,  he  was  elected  by  the  legislature  to  represent  the 
state  in  the  United  States  senate.  During  these  politically  exciting  and  stormy 
years  he  was  a  conspicuous  figure  in  the  senate  and  before  the  country.  He  was 
a  hard  and  effective  worker,  serving  on  several  committees:  foreign  affairs, 
military  affairs,  and  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  Indian  affairs.  In  1861 
he  was  a  member  of  the  committee  of  thirteen  distinguished  senators  to  con- 
fer with  a  like  committee  of  the  house  to  devise  some  plan  to  settle  the  threatened 
disruption  without  resort  to  arms;  not  that  he  was  not  a  decided  friend  of  the 
Union  as  it  was,  or  that  he  had  an  iota  of  sympathy  for  the  South  in  its  rebel- 
lion, but  that  he  was  a  friend  of  the  Union  and  aimed  to  save  it  by  an  honorable 
compromise,  and  avert  the  horrible  and  devastating  effects  of  a  fratricidal  war  on 
a  gigantic  scale,  the  ruin  that  might  be  wrought,  and  the  danger  that,  whatever 
might  be  the  issue,  threatened  constitutional  liberty.  No  matter  what  may  have 
been  thought  of  the  move,  the  spirit  which  he  evidenced  was  commendable  and 
creditable  to  him.  When  this  and  all  other  expedients  had  failed,  he  was  enthu- 
siastic and  earnest  in  his  efforts  to  secure  enlistment,  and  by  word  and  deed  did 
much  to  that  end.  His  eloquent  and  forcible  speeches  in  defense  of  the  govern- 
ment aroused  the  people  to  a  sense  of  their  danger  and  to  action  in  defense  of 
their  firesides.  He  was  a  patriot-statesman  then,  and  is  to  this  day. 

His  moderation,  urbanity,  dignity  of  manner  and  personal  character  won  him 
the  esteem  of  his  political  opponents,  who  recognized  in  him  an  antagonist  that 
always  fought  fairly,  that  never  lost  his  temper,  and  never  struck  a  foul  blow; 
and  his  earnest  and  logical  presentation  of  facts,  his  manly  appeals  to  their  better 
judgment,  often  carried  more  weight  than  the  most  fiery  and  vehement  eloquence 
could  have  done;  and  as  he  would  not  condescend  to  tricks  in  debate,  so  he 
earnestly  opposed  all  irregular  strategy  in  party  action.  Being  a  man  of  remark- 
able simplicity  and  frankness  of  character,  wholly  free  from  affectation  or  insin- 


86  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

cerity,  he  had  the  thorough  confidence  of  all  who  knew  him.  Spotless  integrity, 
and  an  independence  and  straightforwardness  that  despised  all  subterfuges, 
finesse  and  crooked  ways,  to  ends  however  desirable,  marked  his  course  in  the 
senate  during  these  trying  years  —  indeed,  have  marked  his  entire  career,  profes- 
sional, political  and  social.  His  calm,  steady  mind  stood  like  a  rock  amid  the 
storm.  The  possession  of  these  traits  was  candidly  admitted  by  his  political 
opponents,  who  have  often  paid  manly  tribute  to  his  moral  worth.  As  to  his 
incorruptible  integrity  and  abhorrence  of  anything  of  the  nature  of  a  bribe  while 
in  public  life  and  acting  for  the  people  and  representing  the  interests  of  a  con- 
stituency, no  better  proof  can  be  had  than  the  fact  that  any  attempts  to  besmirch 
him  for  political  or  other  ends  have  utterly  failed,  and  the  plague-spot  of  corrup- 
tion has  never  been  detected  on  his  reputation.  He  has  conquered,  risen  above 
and  put  to  shame  any  and  all  calumnies  against  him  by  his  magnanimity  and 
purity  of  private  and  public  life. 

In  1863  he  was  reelected  to  the  United  States  senate  without  party  opposition. 
He  continued  to  support  the  government  in  a  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war  up 
to  the  time  of  peace,  when  the  great  work  of  reinstating  the  seceded  states  in  the 
Union  commenced.  He  was  an  advocate  of  restoration  rather  than  reconstruc- 
tion in  the  way  proposed,  and  differed  somewhat  from  his  party  friends.  The 
supremacy  of  the  Union  had  been  established  by  arms,  and  next  arose  the  ques- 
tion as  to  the  terms  upon  which  it  should  be  reconstituted.  The  passage  of  what 
President  Johnson  considered  unconstitutional  measures  brought  out  his  veto, 
which  caused  bitterness  of  feeling  and  his  resultant  impeachment.  This  Mr. 
Doolittle  opposed  on  principle,  and  incurred  the  displeasure  of  his  party  and 
became  a  martyr  to  his  honest  convictions  and  opinions.  His  course,  when 
looked  upon  in  the  light  of  after  years,  is  generally  conceded  to  have  been 
prompted  by  the  highest  motives  and  sincere  conviction  of  right.  It  was  not  the 
outgrowth  of  a  factious  temper,  motives  of  gain  in  any  sense,  nor  a  partisan 
spirit.  Though  a  party  man,  he  was  not  a  partisan.  He  entered  the  senate  with 
one  leading  and  overshadowing  idea;  one  polar  star  of  intent;  which  every  vote 
cast,  every  word  uttered  by  him  in  his  senatorial  service,  served  to  discover:  it 
was,  first,  to  preserve  the  Union  as  made  under  the  constitution;  and  second, 
after  it  had  been  saved  from  destruction,  to  restore  that  Union  in  reality  to  its 
primal  status,  and  to  bind  the  hearts  of  his  countrymen  in  the  common  cause  of 
national  pride,  honor  and  welfare.  To  this  end,  during  his  last  years  in  the  sen- 
ate, he  denounced  and  opposed  everything  tainted  with  sectional  animosity,  or 
tending  to  the  injury  or  estrangement  of  the  Union.  His  guide,  no  matter  with 
what  party  he  acted,  has  been  the  constitution,  and  the  equality  of  each  and 
every  member  of  the  great  family  of  states  and  their  inhabitants.  His  thought- 
ful face  and  incisive  address  were  sharpened  and  intensified  by  the  conscious- 
ness that  he  had  been  misunderstood  or  misrepresented,  and  made  to  suffer 
unworthily  in  that  cause  for  opinion's  sake.  All  through  the  period  of  his  sena- 
torial career,  from  1857  to  1869,  he  never  ceased  to  denounce  what  he  found  to 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  87 

be  contrary  to  the  principles  he  held  and  subversive  of  that  constitution 
of  which  he  was  then,  had  been  before,  and  has  been  since,  a  conspicuous 
supporter  and  defender  against  its  domestic  enemies,  the  only  enemies  that 
have  seriously  tried  to  overturn  it.  He  has  had  no  time  to  take  off  his 
armor  and  rest  from  such  efforts.  His  acumen,  his  logic,  his  learning  in  consti- 
tutional law,  his  intrepidity  in  debate,  all  availed  him  to  stand  in  the  breach  and 
defend  that  fundamental  instrument.  He  did  yeoman's  service  in  those  years  in 
averting  and  checking  radical  and  desperate  partyism,  in  bringing  it  to  its  senses, 
and  in  awakening  the  whole  country  to  its  fatal  designs.  This  is  true,  notwith- 
standing the  ill-advised  and  unscrupulous  may  for  a  purpose  say  otherwise,  and 
attempt  to  misstate  history,  mislead  the  public  mind,  and  create  unworthy  preju- 
dice. All  his  work  in  public  life  was  well  done;  done  cleanly,  thoroughly  and 
intelligently.  His  political  consistency  is  not  simply  the  result  of  early  associa- 
tion and  inherited  principles,  but  it  is  a  consistency  such  as  comes  from  ripe 
reflection  and  matured  patience  in  thought;  an  educated,  logical  consistency, 
which  defies  antagonism  because  it  is  fully  conscious  that  it  fights  in  armor  of 
proof  and  with  tempered  weapons.  He  is  bound  to  be  right  in  his  own  mind, 
whether  his  party  be  right  or  wrong.  In  short,  while  in  the  national  counsels  he 
was  a  statesman  rather  than  a  partisan. 

During  the  summer  recess  of  1865,  as  a  member  of  a  joint  committee  of  both 
houses,  of  which  he  was  chairman,  he  visited  Kansas,  Colorado  and  New  Mexico 
to  inquire  into  the  condition  of  the  Indians  west  of  the  Mississippi,  and  reported 
upon  their  condition  and  wants,  suggesting  reforms  in  their  management,  and 
gained  much  information  which  aided  him  in  future  legislation.  The  inquiry 
and  investigation  were  thorough,  and  the  results  were  published  in  a  volume 
which  contained  more  information  about  the  Indians  than  was  ever  embodied  in 
any  publication  before  or  since. 

In  1866,  he  was  president  of  the  national  union  convention  held  in  Philadel- 
phia, and  took  an  active  and  prominent  part  in  its  proceedings.  It  was  the  first 
national  convention  held  after  the  war,  and  was  a  veritable  reunion  of  the  North 
and  South,  and  was  called  for  the  purpose  of  restoring  fraternal  feeling  between 
the  two  sections.  He  suggested  the  convention,  and  framed  the  call  for  it,  which 
was  pronounced  a  sagacious  and  timely  manifesto.  In  1871  he  was  nominated  by 
the  democratic  party  for  governor  of  Wisconsin. 

After  his  retirement  from  the  senate,  in  1869,  he  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  Chicago  (retaining  his  residence  in  Racine,  Wisconsin),  in  partner- 
ship with  the  late  Jesse  O.  Norton.  After  the  fire  of  1871  the  firm  was  dissolved, 
and  he  formed  a  new  partnership  with  his  son,  James  R.  Doolittle,  Jr.,  and  in 
1876  Henry  McKey  came  into  the  firm,  under  the  firm  name  of  Doolittle  and 
McKey,  which  continues  to  this  day,  and  is  one  of  the  strong,  first-class  law 
firms  in  Chicago. 

James  R.  Doolittle  was  one  of  the  distinguished  visitors  to  Louisiana  in  1876, 
to  consider  the  interests  of  the  democratic  party  in  the  political  controversy  in 


88  THE   BENCH  AND   RAR   OF   CHICAGO. 

connection  with  the  presidential  election.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the  board 
of  trustees  of  the  University  of  Chicago  since  its  foundation,  and  lectures  upon 
equity  and  jurisprudence  in  Chicago  Union  College  of  Law.  He  is  a  conscien- 
tious, independent  and  profound  lawyer,  and  under  all  circumstances  faithful 
alike  to  his  profession  and  his  clients.  As  a  citizen  he  is  public-spirited,  and  lends 
a  helping  hand  to  whatever  tends  to  promote  the  public  welfare.  As  an  orator,  a 
statesman,  a  lawyer  he  has  few  peers.  He  is  clothed  with  becoming  dignity, 
though  courteous  and  kind,  painstaking  and  laborious  in  the  interests  of  those 
who  entrust  their  business  to  him.  Faithful,  upright  and  honorable,  he  is  a 
counselor  whose  services  are  sought  by  the  better  class  of  clients. 


JAMES    R.    DOOLITTLE,    JR. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Warsaw,  Wyoming  county,  New  York, 
and  was  born  April  2,  1845,  and  is  son  of  Hon.  James  R.  Doolittle,  of  Wis- 
consin, ex-United  States  senator  and  ex-judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  the  first  district 
of  Wisconsin,  and  Mary  L.  (Cutting)  Doolittle.  His  parents  removed  to  Racine, 
Wisconsin,  when  he  was  six  years  of  age.  There  young  Doolittle  attended  the 
common  schools,  and  afterward  entered  Racine  College  under  Dr.  Roswell  Park 
and  Rev.  James  De  Koven.  When  about  sixteen  years  of  age  he  left  college,  and 
during  the  winters  of  the  two  following  years  spent  his  time  in  Washington,  Dis- 
trict of  Columbia,  with  his  father,  who  was  then  United  States  senator  from  Wis- 
consin. This  was  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  afforded  him  an  oppor- 
tunity of  meeting  nearly  all  of  the  public  men  of  those  memorable  times,  and 
although  but  a  boy,  he  was  quick  to  observe  the  peculiarities,  tastes  and  manners 
of  each  as  he  moved  in  life's  grand  drama.  In  1863  he  entered  Rochester  Univer- 
sity, under  the  presidency  of  Martin  B.  Anderson,  and  graduated  therefrom  at  the 
age  of  twenty  years,  winning  the  first  honors  for  excellence  in  literary  composi- 
tion. During  the  same  year  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  law,  and  attended 
the  law  department  of  Harvard  University  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  about  a 
year,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Wisconsin  in  1866.  He  then  removed  to  the 
city  of  New  York,  and  practiced  law  until  November  1870.  His  father  having 
left  the  United  States  senate  the  preceding  year,  and  having  established  himself 
in  Chicago,  he  closed  his  business  relations  in  New  York,  and  soon  afterward 
became  associated  with  his  father  in  a  general  law  practice,  which  has  continued 
uninterruptedly  until  the  present  —  1883. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Doolittle  possesses  fine  abilities,  being  a  careful  and  diligent 
student.  A  safe  counselor,  painstaking  and  faithful  to  his  clients,  he  has  won  a 
good  reputation,  and  maintains  an  honorable  standing  at  the  Chicago  bar. 

He  is  a  man  of  fine,  prepossessing  personal  appearance,  of  a  cheerful  and 
social  disposition,  measuring  five  feet  and  eleven  inches  in  height,  and  weighing 
one  hundred  and  eighty  pounds.  He  is  an  earnest  advocate,  being  a  fluent  and 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  89 

forcible  speaker,  and,  possessing  a  rare  fund  of  literary  lore,  is  enabled  to  spice  his 
remarks  with  happy  wit  and  illustrate  with  anecdote. 

In  political  sentiment  Mr.  Doolittle  is  a  democrat.  In  1878  he  was  the  candi- 
date of  his  party  for  congress  in  the  first  congressional  district  of  Illinois.  He 
made  a  good  canvass,  running  some  six  hundred  ahead  of  the  regular  state  ticket, 
but  was  defeated  by  Hon.  Wm.  Aldrich,  the  republican  candidate. 

Mr.  Doolittle  was  married  November  4,  1869,  to  Miss  Clara  Matteson,  daugh- 
ter of  Hon.  J.  A.  Matteson,  ex-governor  of  Illinois. 


THOMAS  DENT. 

THOMAS  DENT  was  born  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  November  14,  1831, 
and  is  a  son  of  George  Dent  and  Comfort  (Ijams)  Dent.  His  father,  a 
native  of  Virginia,  was  reared  in  Ohio,  and  thence  removed  to  Illinois;  and  dur- 
ing his  residence  of  nearly  fifty  years  in  this  state  occupied  various  official  posi- 
tions, including  the  offices  of  recorder  of  deeds,  clerk  of  the  county  commissioners' 
court,  clerk  of  the  circuit  court,  county  judge  and  member  of  the  state  legislature. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  had  a  home  training,  and  received  his  education 
mainly  in  the  common  schools  in  the  vicinity  of  his  father's  residence.  Having 
entered  upon  clerical  work  in  various  forms  at  an  early  age,  he  sought  as  far  as 
opportunity  was  afforded  him  to  extend  his  studies,  and  in  early  youth  became 
studious  and  fond  of  reading. 

At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  became  an  assistant  of  his  father  in  the  public  offices 
of  Putnam  county,  and  was  thus  occupied  during  the  greater  part  of  eight  years. 
Near  the  close  of  that  period  he  prepared  tract  and  sectional  indices  to  the  land 
records  of  Putnam  county,  under  appointment  of  the  county  court. 

Admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  fall  of  1854,  he  began  the  practice  of  the  law  at 
Hennepin,.and  soon  had  quite  satisfactory  employment  in  such  legal  business  as 
there  was  in  a  circuit  embracing  a  few  counties.  In  the  spring  of  1856  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  and  became  associated  for  a  time  with  Martin  R.  M.  Wal- 
lace, since  so  well  known  as  general,  and  as  county  judge  of  Cook  county.  Later, 
Mr.  Dent  removed  his  office  to  Peoria,  but  having  meanwhile  retained  some  hold 
upon  the  practice  in  Putnam  county,  and  also  in  Cook  county,  he  returned  in  a 
few  months  to  Chicago,  where  he  settled  permanently. 

In  the  year  1860  he  entered  into  association  in  practice  with  the  late  Judge 
Arrington,  which  association  continued  until  the  death  of  the  latter,  at  the  close 
of  the  year  1867,  and  in  the  next  following  spring  William  P.  Black  was  received 
as  Mr.  Dent's  partner,  since  which  time  the  firm  of  Dent  and  Black  has  continued 
to  pursue  a  general  law  practice. 

While  occasionally  representing  corporate  interests,  for  banks,  insurance  com- 
panies, and  the  board  of  trade,  they  have  more  especially  relied  upon  the  general 
public  for  employment,  which  has  been  given  them  in  nearly  all  branches  of  legal 
work  in  the  state  and  federal  courts. 


gO  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Dent  is  of  medium  height,  and  of  graceful  figure;  of  a  thoughtful,  gentle 
and  earnest  expression  of  countenance,  and  firm  in  his  purposes,  which  are  based 
on  conviction.  He  is  prized  as  a  counselor  because  his  advice  is  the  result  of 
experience  combined  with  candid  and  thorough  investigation.  Pursuing  his 
course  with  steadfastness  and  constant  patience,  he  has  won  for  himself  a  grati- 
fying reputation  as  a  lawyer  and  citizen. 

Before  taking  up  his  residence  in  Chicago  he  was  brought  forward  by  friends 
for  the  office  of  county  judge  of  Putnam  county,  and  received  good  support  with- 
out any  canvass  on  his  part,  but  the  opposing  candidate  was  elected  by  a  few 
votes,  since  which  time  he  has  but  once  been  a  candidate  for  office.  On  the  occa- 
sion just  mentioned  he  was  the  republican  candidate  in  the  seventh  judicial  dis- 
trict of  Illinois,  for  judge  of  the  supreme  court. 

His  constant  employment  in  office  and  court  work  has  left  him  but  little 
opportunity  for  making  addresses  on  political  and  social  subjects,  for  which  he 
showed  some  taste  in  early  life,  when  called  out  by  friends  or  circumstances. 

In  1857  he  was  married  to  Miss  Susan  Strawn,  then  of  Putnam  county,  Illinois, 
a  lady  much  esteemed.  Their  only  child,  Miss  Mary  Dent,  who  was  growing  into 
a  beautiful  and  promising  young  womanhood,  was  taken  with  the  typhoid  fever 
at  Milan,  Italy,  while  traveling  in  Europe,  and  there  died  in  February,  1882,  just 
before  the  arrival  of  her  bereaved  parents. 


CHARLES    S.  THORNTON. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  was  born 
April  12,  1851.     He  is  the  son  of  Solon  Thornton,  who  was  born  at  Lemp- 
ster,  New  Hampshire,  and  Cordelia  A.  (Tilden)  Thornton,  who  comes  from  the 
Tilden  family  of  Marshfield,  Massachusetts. 

He  commenced  his  education  in  the  public  schools  of  Boston,  passing  rap- 
idly through  the  lower  and  grammar  schools,  then  taking  the  six  years'  course 
in  the  famous  Boston  Latin  School.  He  entered  Harvard  College  in  1868,  and 
graduated  from  that  celebrated  institution  with  the  highest  honors  in  1872. 
While  pursuing  his  ordinary  college  course,  he  also  devoted  all  the  time  not 
required  by  that  course  to  the  study  of  the  law  under  the  guidance  of  Henry 
Adams,  of  Cambridge,  attending  the  law  lectures  of  the  Harvard  Law  School. 
After  graduation  he  pursued  his  law  studies  in  the  Boston  Law  School  until  the 
spring  of  1873,  when  he  came  to  Chicago.  He  here  obtained  a  knowledge  of 
practice  in  the  law  offices  of  Lyman  and  Jackson,  and  Isham  and  Lincoln,  remain- 
ing with  the  latter  firm  until  the  fall  of  that  year,  when  he  passed  his-  examina- 
tion at  Ottawa  before  the  supreme  court,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar. 
He  at  once  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Chicago,  transacting  a 
general  law  business,  the  greater  part,  however,  of  his  practice  being  devoted 
to  the  adjustment  of  the  rights  of  real  estate  owners.  Commencing  practice 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  93 

without  a  single  acquaintance  in  Chicago  in  1873,  he  has  steadily  fought  his  way 
to  the  foremost  ranks  of  the  profession,  and  is  now  in  possession  of  a  practice 
which,  with  the  exception  of  one  attorney,  is  greater  in  extent,  and  more  lucra- 
tive, than  that  possessed  by  any  one  member  of  the  Chicago  bar.  Without  pecu- 
niary resources  of  any  kind  in  1873,  he  is  now,  after  his  nine  years  of  practice, 
ranked  among  the  wealthy  men  of  that  bar.  Mr.  Thornton  is  not  only  well  read 
in  his  profession,  but  keeps  up  his  acquaintance  gathered  at  college  with  ancient 
and  modern  literature. 

In  the  practice  of  his  profession  he  is  one  of  the  most  successful  men  at  the 
bar,  preparing  his  cases  carefully,  and  trying  them  with  a  skill  rarely  attained  by 
the  most  eminent  lawyers  after  many  years  of  practice.  He  is  especially  success- 
ful in  the  trial  of  jury  causes,  for  which  he  seems  by  nature  preeminently 
adapted.  Clear  in  the  explication  of  his  client's  rights,  never  moved  by  passion 
to  let  slip  any  opportunity  to  benefit  his  client,  even  in  the  most  desperate  of 
causes,  he  tries  his  suits  with  that  degree  of  coolness  only  attained  by  veteran 
advocates,  and  which  invariably  wins. 

He  is  discriminating  in  his  legal  practice,  and  honorable  in  all  of  his  dealings. 
His  habits  are  unexceptionable,  and  he  bears  the  impress  of  a  liberal  education, 
possessing  refinement  and  cultivated  tastes,  and  being  at  the  same  time  social 
and  congenial.  As  a  lawyer  he  already  occupies  a  high  position,  is  in  possession 
of  a  very  extensive  practice,  and  is  one  of  the  acknowledged  leaders  of  the  Chi- 
cago bar. 

In  political  sentiment  Mr.  Thornton  is  a  democrat,  and  takes  a  leading  part  in 
both  local  and  national  politics. 


HON.  THOMAS    A.   MORAN. 

THOMAS  A.  MORAN,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county, 
was  born  in  Bridgeport,  Connecticut,  October  7,  1839,  of  Irish  parentage. 
His  father,  Patrick  Moran,  was  engaged  in  business  there.  When  Thomas  was 
about  seven  years  of  age,  the  family  moved  to  the  town  of  Bristol,  Kenosha 
county,  Wisconsin,  and  settled  on  a  farm,  where  Thomas  remained  until  about 
nineteen  years  of  age,  attending  school  winters  and  working  on  the  farm  sum- 
mers, never  losing  an  opportunity,  under  any  circumstances,  of  self-improvement 
from  books  or  observation.  Besides  the  district  schools,  he  attended  for  several 
terms  Liberty  Academy  at  Salem,  about  three  miles  from  his  home,  and  subse- 
quently engaged  in  teaching  school.  When  twenty  years  of  age,  he  commenced 
the  study  of  law,  in  Kenosha,  with  J.  J.  Pettit,  and  later  continued  his  studies 
with  Judge  I.  W.  Webster,  studying  in  the  summer  and  teaching  winters.  Dur- 
ing those  latter  years  he  took  an  active  and  prominent  part  in  debating  schools 
and  clubs,  and  became  well  known  in  that  section  as  an  apt,  ready  and  well  in- 
formed debater.  When  engaged  in  discussion  he  was  in  his  natural  element. 


94  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

To  this  practice,  when  young,  is  largely  attributable  his  fluency  of  speech,  ready 
command  of  language,  accuracy  of  expression  and  grace  of  diction  in  public 
speaking  or  addressing  a  jury.  Before  twenty  years  of  age  he  was  making  polit- 
ical speeches,  and  stumped  his  county  in  the  campaign  of  1860.  He  was  an 
ardent  admirer  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and  in  full  accord  with  the  liberal  democ- 
racy of  which  that  eminent  statesman  was  the  champion. 

In  1862,  owing  to  his  father's  illness,  he  returned  to  the  farm  and  managed  it 
one  year.  During  the  year  his  father  died,  and  the  farm  was  sold,  when  the 
family  moved  to  Kenosha.  In  1864  his  mother  died,  and  he  went  east,  and  in 
the  fall  of  that  year  entered  the  law  department  of  the  Albany  University,  grad- 
uating in  May,  1865,  when  he  was  admitted  to  practice.  While  in  the  law  school 
he  was  among  the  leaders  of  his  class.  He  was,  as  he  had  previously  been, 
industrious  and  studious,  evidencing  such  decided  ability  that  Prof.  Dean,  the 
head  of  the  law  college,  predicted  for  him  a  successful  future  as  a  lawyer — which 
prediction  has  been  realized.  He  had,  while  there,  the  full  confidence  of  the 
faculty  and  of  the  students;  they  had  confidence  in  his  ability,  judgment  and 
manhood. 

In  November  of  the  same  year  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  engaged  in  prac- 
tice, and  has  been  here  since,  attaining  to  the  first  rank  at  the  bar.  He  was  first 
in  the  office  of  H.  S.  Monroe,  subsequently  formed  the  partnership  of  Schoff  and 
Moran,  second  that  of  Moran  and  English,  and  later  that  of  Moran,  English  and 
Wolf,  which  was  the  law  firm  when  he  was  elected  to  the  bench  in  1879.  As  a 
lawyer  he  engaged  in  general  practice,  but  was  especially  successful  in  jury 
trials.  Indeed,  so  marked  was  his  success  in  this  class  of  cases,  that  two  of  the 
most  eminent  judges  on  the  circuit  bench  openly  pronounced  him  one  of  the 
most  successful  jury  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar.  He  has  a  clear  intellect,  which 
enables  him  to  grasp  and  comprehend  all  the  points  in  a  case,  arising  out  of  the 
evidence,  or  involved  in  the  law  bearing  upon  it.  While  at  the  bar  he  was  an 
eloquent  and  forcible  advocate;  logical  and  terse,  earnest  and  vigorous  and  often 
ornate.  He  possesses  energy,  industry,  sagacity,  intellectual  vigor  and  patience, 
which  well  qualify  him  for  the  proper  discharge  of  the  duties  and  functions  of  a 
judge.  Before  his  elevation  to  the  bench  the  court  calendars,  and  the  books  of 
his  own  office,  evidenced  that  he  had  a  greater  number  of  cases  in  the  courts 
of  record  than  any  other  attorney  at  .this  bar,  and  his  success  was  marked  and 
noteworthy. 

In  the  fall  of  1879  he  was  elected  one  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit  court  of 
Cook  county  for  a  term  of  six  years.  He  is  the  first  Irish-American  ever  elected 
to  the  Cook  county  bench,  and  the  Irish  naturally  have  a  special  pride  in  him; 
as  indeed  do  all  nationalities  and  parties.  He  sat  for  some  time  after  he  took  the 
bench  as  common  law  judge,  and  is  now  holding  one  of  the  chancery  branches 
of  the  court,  and  in  either  branch  he  is  found  equally  at  home.  As  a  judge  he 
is  always  self-contained  and  self-poised,  of  patient  and  courteous  bearing 
and  an  attentive  listener;  he  discharges  his  high  functions  without  ostentation 


THE    BENCH   AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO.  95 

and  with  conspicuous  ability,  giving  satisfaction  to  the  bar  and  to  litigants. 
He  is  an  impartial  judge,  an  upright  man,  a  good  citizen,  esteemed  by  all  who 
know  him. 

ROBERT    H.   FORRESTER. 

ROBERT    H.    FORRESTER  was  born   at   Pittsburgh,   Pennsylvania.      His 
father,  George  Forrester,  was  a  Scotchman,  a  graduate  of  the  University  of 
Edinburgh,  and  an  eminent  classical  scholar  and  mathematician,  who  first  settled 
at  Portsmouth,  New  Hampshire,  and  removed   from  that  city  to  Pittsburgh  in 

1815,  his  residence  and  library  having  been  burned  by  the  British  in  their  raid 
upon  our  seaboard  cities  near  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812.     At  Pittsburgh,  in 

1816,  he  united  with  Rev.  Drs.  Bruce  and  Black,  two  famous  Scotch  educators,  in 
founding  the  Western  University  of  Pennsylvania,  in  which  he  took  the  profes- 
sorship of  mathematics.     But  he  was  not  suffered  to  remain  long  in  this  position. 
The  stockholders  of  the  Columbian  Steam  Engine  Company,  at  Pittsburgh,  among 
whom  were  the  celebrated  mechanical  inventor,  Oliver  Evans,  of  Philadelphia,  and 
his  no  less  celebrated  brother  George,  of  Pittsburgh,  having  erected  a  large  estab- 
lishment there  —  the  first  ever  established  in  the  western  country  for  the  manu- 
facture of  machinery  and  steam  engines  —  induced  Mr.  Forrester  to  become  the 
general  manager  of  the  business  of  the  corporation,  which  he  continued  to  be 
until  his  tragical  death,  several  years  later,  by  his  being  drowned  while  bathing 
in  the  Allegheny  river.     His  widow  was  left  with  a  modest  fortune  and  a  family 
of  five  infant  children,  his  son  Robert  being  only  four  years  of  age. 

The  childhood  of  this  son,  until  the  age  of  twelve,  was  comparatively  unevent- 
ful. He  enjoyed  the  instruction  of  his  father's  intimate  friend,  Walter  Scott,  also 
a  graduate  of  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  a  Scotchman  of  great  learning,  elo- 
quence and  eccentricity,  and  one  of  the  most  famous  educators  of  his  day  in  the 
western  country,  and  afterward  still  more  famous  as  a  preacher.  The  Scotch 
system  of  education,  in  which  the  rod  figures  constantly  as  an  essential  element 
of  success,  was  religiously  pursued  by  this  prince  of  pedagogues  with  the  most 
gratifying  results  to  his  patrons,  though  the  pupils  might  wince  under  its  coercive 
discipline,  which  did  not  fail,  however,  to  secure  close  application  to  study  on  their 
part.  At  the  age  of  twelve,  his  mother  having  had  the  misfortune  to  lose  a  large 
portion  of  the  family  estate  by  the  failure  of  a  manufacturing  firm,  he  resolved  to 
relieve  her  of  the  burden  of  his  support.  He  obtained  a  situation  in  the  Pitts- 
burgh postoffice,  and  for  several  years  did  the  work  of  a  man  to  the  satisfaction 
of  his  employer  and  the  public.  But  having  acquired  a  fondness  for  books  and 
a  considerable  acquaintance  with  them  from  delving  from  infancy  in  his  father's 
large  and  choice  library,  he  left  the  postoffice  to  take  a  situation  in  a  bookstore  in 
Pittsburgh  as  a  salesman.  In  this  he  found  congenial  employment,  and  became 
a  favorite  with  book  buyers,  as  he  knew  a  good  deal  about  the  books  he  sold,  to 
the  examination  of  which  he  devoted  most  of  his  spare  time.  While  in  this  busi- 


96  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ness  he  made  constant  efforts  to  complete  his  education  with  such  help  as  he  could 
obtain,  attending,  a  portion  of  the  time,  the  classes  of  the  university  of  which  Dr. 
Bruce,  his  father's  former  friend,  was  the  president.  While  yet  a  boy  he  became 
the  president  of  the  Wirt  Literary  Institute,  an  association  of  youths  for  intel- 
lectual improvement,  which  had  the  honor  of  giving  to  the  public  of  Pittsburgh 
the  first  popular  course  of  literary  and  scientific  lectures  ever  delivered  in  that 
city,  the  lecturers  being  prominent  professional  men  of  Pittsburgh  and  western 
Pennsylvania.  These  lectures  were  published  in  a  weekly  literary  paper,  edited 
by  the  famous  Jane  Swisshelm,  and  were  regarded  as  singularly  able  and  brilliant. 
On  arriving  at  manhood  Mr.  Forrester  was  seized  with  a  desire  to  study  law  and 
embark  in  the  legal  profession,  and  at  a  great  pecuniary  sacrifice  in  abandoning 
the  book  business  he  entered  on  this  new  career. 

He  placed  himself  under  the  tuition  of  James  Dunlop,  a  great  lawyer,  and  the 
former  rival  at  the  Carlisle  bar  of  Justice  R.  C.  Greer,  of  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court,  and  after  two  years  of  severe  study  passed  a  successful  and  un- 
usually thorough  examination  before  a  committee  of  able  lawyers  appointed  by 
the  courts  to  examine  applicants  for  admission  to  the  Pittsburgh  bar.  He  then 
entered  vigorously  upon  the  practice  of  law,  and  soon  achieved  considerable  dis- 
tinction both  in  civil  and  criminal  cases,  continuing  to  practice  in  the  courts  at 
Pittsburgh  for  two  years,  when  he  concluded  to  carry  out  a  long  cherished  pur- 
pose to  emigrate  to  the  South,  then  a  most  inviting  field  to  young  northern  law- 
yers. He  accordingly,  in  1846,  emigrated  to  Kentucky  and  settled  at  Georgetown, 
then  the  educational  center  of  the  state. 

Before  leaving  Pittsburgh  he  had  won  quite  a  reputation  as  a  political  orator 
and  debater,  frequently  addressing  large  political  assemblages  in  that  city.  A 
devoted  admirer  of  Henry  Clay,  in  1844,  at  the  request  of  the  Clay  whigs  of  Pitts- 
burgh, he  made  his  debut  in  politics  as  a  champion  of  the  cause  of  that  great 
statesman,  against  the  opposition  of  the  anti-masonic  wing  of  the  whig  party  led 
by  Russell  Erritt,  now  a  member  of  congress,  Thomas  M.  Marshall,  recently 
nominated  for  congressman  at  large,  and  others.  Soon  afterward,  in  an  anti- 
masonic  county  convention  held  at  Pittsburgh  to  which  he  was  elected  a  delegate 
by  the  anti-masons  themselves,  he  was  instrumental  in  disbanding  forever  the 
anti-masonic  party  in  Allegheny  county,  long  its  stronghold.  The  dissolution  of 
the  same  party  in  eastern  Pennsylvania,  which  had  been  led  by  Thaddeus  Stevens, 
soon  followed,  and  the  whig  party  of  the  state  became  thoroughly  united  in  the 
support  of  Henry  Clay  as  its  candidate  in  the  presidential  struggle  of  that  year. 
Soon  after  his  removal  to  Kentucky  Mr.  Forrester  was  solicited  to  return  to  his 
native  county  and  accept  a  nomination  for  congress.  This  he  declined  to  do,  for 
the  reason,  among  others,  that  he  has  always  felt  an  unconquerable  disinclination 
to  run  for  office. 

Arriving  at  Georgetown,  Kentucky,  about  the  beginning  of  the  Mexican  war, 
he  united  with  Col.  Thornton  Johnson,  a  retired  West  Point  officer  and  an  emi- 
nent teacher  of  mathematics,  in  organizing  a  military  college,  to  which  was  given 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  97 

the  name  of  the  Western  Military  Institute.  Unlike  other  military  schools,  this 
one  united  with  the  ordinary  course  of  instruction  in  such  schools  a  thorough 
collegiate  course  in  the  classics  and  other  branches,  with  the  power  to  confer  the 
usual  collegiate  degrees.  There  were  in  its  faculty,  besides  several  civil  pro- 
fessors, three  West  Point  graduates,  Col.  Hopkins,  the  superintendent,  having 
been  for  many  years  professor  of  the  natural  sciences  at  West  Point.  Mr.  Forres- 
ter was  appointed  professor  of  law  in  this  institution,  and  organized  and  con- 
ducted for  several  years,  without  assistance  and  with  marked  success,  a  law 
department  in  which  was  a  large  number  of  students.  The  system  of  instruction 
pursued  was  that  of  daily  familiar  lectures  and  rigid  examinations  through  ses- 
sions of  ten  months  in  the  year,  and  the  results  were  rather  unusual  in  the 
remarkable  proficiency  of  the  students. 

Soon  after  the  establishment  of  this  military  college  the  celebrated  James  G. 
Elaine,  of  Maine,  became  assistant  professor  of  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  institution. 
He  was  then  a  youth  of  about  eighteen,  having  just  graduated  at  Washington 
College,  Pennsylvania,  and  emigrated  to  Kentucky  in  search  of  fame  and  fortune. 
Mr.  Elaine,  intending  to  prepare  himself  for  the  bar,  became  a  student  in  the  law 
department,  and  under  the  tuition  of  Prof.  Forrester  pursued  the  study  of  law 
for  two  years  with  diligence  and  success,  while  he  continued  to  discharge  his 
duties  as  teacher  of  languages.  Even  at  that  early  period  he  gave  some  indica- 
tions of  the  bent  of  his  mind  and  his  inclination  to  engage  in  political  life,  in  the 
special  interest  he  took  in  constitutional  and  international  law.  A  cordial  friend- 
ship for  each  other  is  still  cherished  by  Mr.  Forrester  and  his  renowned  student. 

From  1850  to  1860  Mr.  Forrester  practiced  law  in  the  courts  of  Harrison, 
Bourbon  and  other  counties  of  Kentucky,  and  also  in  the  state  court  of  appeals, 
being  engaged  chiefly  in  land  suits,  which  have  always  furnished  the  bulk  of  liti- 
gation in  Kentucky.  He  also,  at  the  request  of  his  party,  frequently  took  part  in 
political  campaigns.  In  1856,  in  company  with  most  of  the  whig  politicians  of 
the  state,  he  went  over  to  the  democratic  party,  and  he  has  acted  with  it  ever 
since.  In  1849  he  engaged  in  a  newspaper  controversy  with  Hon.  Garrett  Davis, 
who  violently  opposed  the  adoption  by  the  people  of  the  amended  state  con- 
stitution of  that  year.  In  this  controversy  he  published  ten  elaborate  essays, 
in  which  he  advocated  the  election  of  judges  and  county  officers  by  the  people, 
and  other  reforms,  and  which  were  republished  by  the  newspapers  throughout 
the  state  favorable  to  the  new  constitution,  being  considered  able  and  exhaustive. 
In  1860  Mr.  Forrester,  desiring  to  engage  in  a  city  practice,  removed  to  the  then 
thriving  city  of  Memphis,  Tennessee,  and  had  entered  upon  practice  there,  with 
bright  prospects,  when  the  war  cut  short  his  legal  career  in  that  city. 

In  1862  he  became  provost-marshal  general  of  west  Tennessee  under  Gen. 
Bragg.  He  was  induced  to  accept  this  position  that  he  might  minister  to  the 
relief  of  the  thousands  of  sick  and  wounded  soldiers  who  were  thrown  upon  his 
care.  Soon  afterward  he  was  invited  by  Gen.  Villepigue,  of  South  Carolina,  and 
formerly  of  the  United  States  army,  to  take  the  position  of  provost-marshal  on 


98  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

his  staff,  with  the  rank  of  colonel,  having  jurisdiction  over  northern  Mississippi, 
then  under  martial  law  and  of  which  the  general  was  department  commander. 
The  special  reason  why  he  was  invited  to  take  this  position  was  that  it  was  the 
desire  of  Gen.  Villepigue  that  the  numerous  federal  prisoners  brought  to  his 
headquarters  at  Grenada,  Mississippi,  should  be  treated  with  all  the  humanity 
and  kindness  possible  under  the  circumstances,  and  that  he  could  rely  on  Col. 
Forrester  to  carry  out  his  humane  wishes.  Entering  upon  the  performance  of  his 
duties  at  Grenada  in  June,  1862,  Col.  Forrester  adopted  and  carried  out  a  policy 
in  the  treatment  of  prisoners  of  war  perhaps  without  a  parallel.  He  paroled  all 
the  officers,  giving  them  the  freedom  of  the  town,  and  for  months  was  witnessed 
every  day  in  Grenada  the  singular  scene  of  federal  officers  in  uniform  associating 
freely  on  the  streets  with  the  citizens,  who  were  staunch  confederates,  and  even 
discussing  with  them  in  a  friendly  manner  the  issues  of  the  war.  Col.  Forrester, 
of  course,  had  given  a  caution  to  the  citizens  that  they  must  treat  his  military 
guests  with  respect.  For  the  private  soldiers  a  spacious  and  well  ventilated  prison 
was  furnished,  which  was  kept  scrupulously  clean  and  provided  with  a  brick  oven 
and  cooking  range,  so  that  the  food  of  the  prisoners  was  prepared  by  bakers  and 
cooks  detailed  by  themselves,  and  so  excellent  was  it  that  the  paroled  officers 
obtained  from  the  colonel  permission  to  take  their  meals  with  the  boys  at  the 
prison  table,  assuring  him  that  the  fare  there  was  better  than  at  the  hotel.  This 
excellent  fare  was  secured  by  the  steward  of  the  prison  trading  the  rations  of 
bacon  and  cornmeal  for  fresh  provisions  with  the  planters  and  the  negroes,  who 
daily  brought  in  fresh  supplies  of  the  delicacies  of  the  season.  It  may  have  been 
that  the  colored  brothers,  in  their  zeal  to  provide  for  the  comfort  of  the  boys  in 
blue,  occasionally  made  a  hen-roost  suffer,  but  there  was  no  complaint  from  any 
quarter.  The  prisoners  were  frequently  allowed  to  bathe  in  the  Yellowbusha 
river,  which  flows  past  the  town.  The  result  of  these  sanitary  measures  was  that 
in  the  course  of  a  very  hot  summer  not  a  case  of  sickness  or  death  occurred 
among  the  large  number  of  prisoners.  Dr.  Yandell,  of  Louisville,  Gen.  Bragg's 
medical  inspector-general,  who  often  visited  the  prison  officially,  pronounced  it  a 
model  which  could  not  be  improved,  and  that  this  novel  experiment  in  the  treat- 
ment of  prisoners  of  war  was  a  complete  success.  On  leaving  this  post  Col.  For- 
rester, backed  by  a  strong  written  recommendation  from  Lieut.  Col.  Beale,  Gen. 
Bragg's  inspector-general,  offered  to  undertake  the  task  of  organizing  for  the 
confederacy  a  system  of  prison  discipline  and  sustenance  similar  to  that  so  suc- 
cessfully carried  out  at  Grenada,  but  other  views  had  begun  to  be  entertained  at 
Richmond,  and  his  offer  was  not  accepted.  This  ended  Mr.  Forrester's  connection 
with  the  confederate  military  service. 

Early  in  the  year  1864  he  became  the  editor-in-chief  of  the  Augusta  "Chron- 
icle and  Sentinel,"  a  daily  paper  of  large  circulation  in  Georgia  and  other  states. 
This  paper,  encouraged  and  supported  by  Alexander  H.  Stephens,  Joshua  Hill  and 
Gov.  Joseph  Brown,  who  were  opposed  to  the  continuance  of  the  war  and  in  favor 
of  the  restoration  of  the  Union,  had  become  an  avowed  peace  organ,  like  the 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  99 

Raleigh  (North  Carolina)  "Standard,"  then  edited  by  Gov.  Holden.  During  this 
year,  while  the  war  was  still  raging,  Mr.  Forrester,  in  the  editorial  columns  of  this 
paper,  commented  freely  upon  the  confederacy,  the  war  and  Jefferson  Davis,  argu- 
ing that  a  confederacy  based  on  the  doctrine  of  secession  carried  within  itself  the 
seeds  of  its  own  speedy  dissolution,  that  the  war  was  suicidal  and  a  failure,  that 
Mr.  Davis  had  shown  himself  to  be  a  despot  and  usurper,  and  that  the  true  inter- 
ests of  the  South  demanded  the  restoration  of  the  Union.  His  editorials  occasion- 
ally found  their  way  into  the  northern  press,  and  surprised  and  cheered  the  friends 
of  the  Union  by  the  evidence  they  afforded  of  a  reaction  in  southern  sentiment. 
This  bold  opposition  to  Mr.  Davis  and  the  war  was  generally  popular  in  Georgia, 
and  even  in  South  Carolina,  whose  planters  had  become  sick  of  secession. 

But  Mr.  Davis  was  much  irritated  by  these  attacks,  and  had  an  act  passed  by 
the  confederate  congress  suspending  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  in  Georgia,  to 
enable  him  to  suppress  them.  In  response  to  this  menace  against  his  own  people 
Gov.  Brown  issued  a  counter  proclamation,  and  organized  the  militia  reserve,  to 
resist  any  attempt  to  enforce  this  high-handed  act.  The  result  was  that  no  arrests 
were  made. 

The  suspension  of  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus  excited  in  Georgia  such  a  deep 
feeling  of  resentment  against  the  Richmond  government  that  Howell  Cobb,  the 
bosom  friend  of  Jefferson  Davis,  published  in  an  Atlanta  newspaper  a  lengthy 
article  in  vindication  of  it.  To  this  Mr.  Forrester  replied  in  an  argument  which 
covered  a  page  of  his  paper,  in  which  he  contested  the  positions  of  Mr.  Cobb  and 
denounced  the  act  as  an  attack  on  the  liberties  of  the  people.  But,  notwithstand- 
ing he  had  incurred  the  displeasure  of  Mr.  Davis  and  his  friends  by  his  editorial 
attacks,  when  the  Richmond  cabinet  desired  to  share  in  the  trade  of  cotton  for 
provisions,  which  Mr.  Lincoln  toward  the  close  of  1864  had  offered  to  open  with 
the  famished  confederates,  that  they  might  be  won  back  to  the  Union  by  a  taste 
of  the  benefits  of  its  commerce,  which  had  already  been  opened  at  Memphis,  the 
confederate  secretary  of  war  commissioned  Mr.  Forrester  as  a  special  ambassador 
to  the  government  of  the  United  States  to  negotiate  a  trade  of  confederate  cotton 
for  supplies  other  than  military,  believing  that  he  would  be  favorably  received. 
He  undertook  and  successfully  accomplished  this  novel  mission  at  Memphis,  being 
very  kindly  received  both  there  and  at  Washington  by  the  United  States  authori- 
ties, they  being  apprized  of  his  services  to  the  Union  cause  in  Georgia. 

After  the  close  of  the  war,  in  the  fall  of  1865,  Mr.  Forrester  embarked  his 
capital  in  a  large  cotton  plantation  on  the  Tombigbee  river,  in  Alabama,  which 
adventure  proved  disastrous  to  both  his  fortune  and  health.  In  1866  and  1867 
his  plantation  was  overflowed  by  spring  floods,  which  destroyed  his  crops,  and 
the  malaria  produced  by  these  late  overflows  ruined  the  health  of  himself  and 
family.  The  whole  river  valley  shared  these  calamities,  and  many  of  the  oldest 
citizens  died  of  malarial  fever. 

Early  in  1868,  having  spent  several  months  at  Washington  city  on  business, 
Mr.  Forrester  was  induced  by  curiosity  to  visit  Chicago  on  his  way  back  to  the 


IOO  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

South,  and,  attracted  by  its  wonderful  activity  and  growth,  and  the  prospect  of 
regaining  his  health  in  its  pure  lake  breezes,  concluded  to  settle  and  end  his  days 
in  the  metropolis  of  the  West.  Here  he  has  since  quietly  applied  himself  to  the 
practice  of  his  profession  without  any  wish  to  achieve  any  special  prominence, 
seeking,  rather,  rest  and  repose  after  a  life  of  such  vicissitude  and  excitement. 
He  has  had  a  good  measure  of  success  in  his  cases,  and  especially  in  the  appellate 
and  supreme  courts,  several  leading  cases,  in  which  important  questions  have 
been  settled  by  the  supreme  court,  having  been  carried  through  by  him.  In 
exciting  jury  trials  his  old-time  fire  often  blazes  forth  afresh.  Before  the  college 
of  law  he  has  occasionally,  at  the  request  of  the  students,  given  them  a  taste  of  his 
quality  as  a  law  lecturer.  Five  times,  at  different  sessions,  by  invitation,  he  has 
lectured  before  them  on  the  dry  and  difficult  subject  of  "Uses  and  Trusts,"  which 
it  is  said  by  the  students  he  invested  with  the  charms  of  poetry  and  humor  while 
he  gave  them  a  lucid  exposition  of  its  crabbed  technicalities  so  appalling  to  the 
student. 

In  addition  to  his  efforts  at  the  bar  he  has  often  come  before  the  public  of 
Chicago  and  other  places  in  northern  Illinois  as  a  democratic  orator,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  presidential  campaigns  of  1876  and  1880.  His  speeches  have  been 
logical  and  eloquent,  enlivened  by  anecdote  and  humor,  and  have  always  been 
characterized  by  fairness  and  the  absence  of  bitterness  toward  his  political  oppo- 
nents, many  of  whom  have  listened  to  them  with  apparent  interest  and  pleasure. 
The  democracy  of  Cook  county  regard  him  as  one  of  their  most  efficient  and 
reliable  champions. 

HON.   HARVEY  B.   HURD. 

WHEN  we  trace  the  history  of  our  leading  men,  and  search  for  the  secret  of 
their  success,  we  find,  as  a  rule,  that  they  are  men  who  were  early  thrown 
upon  their  own  resources,  and  whose  first  experiences  were  in  the  face  of  adversity 
and  opposition.     Such  was  the  case  with  Harvey  B.  Hurd,  an  outline  of  whose  life 
may  be  found  in  what  follows. 

He  is  a  native  of  Huntington,  Fairfield  county,  Connecticut,  and  was  born 
February  14,  1828.  His  father,  Alanson  Hurd,  was  of  English  descent.  His 
mother's  name  was  Elizabeth  Lowe,  of  Dutch  and  Irish  descent.  Until  his 
fifteenth  year  young  Hurd  worked  on  his  father's  farm  during  the  summer  and 
attended  the  district  school  during  winters.  The  narrow  routine  of  such  a  life, 
however,  had  no  attractions  for  him,  and  he  determined  to  seek  a  wider  sphere  of 
action.  Accordingly,  having  with  considerable  difficulty  obtained  his  father's  con- 
sent to  leave  home,  on  May  i,  1842,  with  his  clothes  tied  in  a  cotton  handkerchief, 
he  walked  to  Bridgeport  and  entered  the  office  of  the  "  Bridgeport  Standard,"  a 
whig  paper,  as  youngest  apprentice,  "printer's  devil."  In  the  spring  of  1844  he 
went  to  New  York,  where  he  remained  until  the  fall,  when  he  returned  to  Bridge- 
port, and,  in  company  with  ten  other  young  men,  went  to  Peoria  county,  Illinois, 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  103 

and  entered  Jubilee  College.  He  remained  here  one  year,  when  a  misunderstand- 
ing with  the  president  of  the  college,  Rev.  Samuel  Chase,  resulted  in  his  leaving. 
He  went  immediately  to  Peoria,  but  not  finding  employment  there  took  passage 
in  a  baggage  stage  for  Chicago,  where  he  arrived  on  January  7,  1846,  with  fifty 
cents  in  his  pocket  and  thinly  clad.  He  stopped  at  the  Illinois  Exchange,  kept  by 
a  Mr.  Lee,  for  whose  generous  treatment  Mr.  Hurd  in  after  years,  when  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  two  men  had  been  changed,  expressed  his  gratitude  in  a  sub- 
stantial way.  He  at  once  obtained  work  in  the  office  of  the  "Chicago  Evening 
Journal,"  then  published  by  Wilson  and  Geer,  and  afterward  was  engaged  in  the 
office  of  the  "Prairie  Farmer."  In  the  fall  of  1847  he  began  the  study  of  law  in 
the  office  of  Calvin  De  Wolf,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1848.  He  began 
the  practice  of  law  with  the  late  Carlos  Haven,  who  was  afterward  states  attorney. 
He  afterward  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  Henry  Snapp,  late  member  of  con- 
gress, now  practicing  law  in  Joliet,  Illinois.  In  1850  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
A.  J.  Brown,  which  continued  till  1854.  The  firm  dealt  largely  in  real  estate,  and 
were  proprietors  of  248  acres  of  land,  which  they  laid  out  as  a  part  of  Evan- 
ston,  in  which  town  Mr.  Hurd  was  one  of  the  first  to  build,  having  commenced 
the  house  in  which  he  now  resides  in  the  summer  of  1854,  and  moved  into  it  in 
September  1855.  His  residence  occupies  a  block  of  ground,  and  is  one  of  the 
most  beautiful  and  home-like  in  that  beautiful  suburb. 

Mr.  Hurd  was  married  May  18,  1853,  to  Miss  Cornelia  A.  Hilliard,  daughter  of 
the  late  Capt.  James  Hilliard,  of  Middletown,  Connecticut.  From  this  marriage 
he  has  three  daughters:  Eda  I.,  the  wife  of  George  S.  Lord,  and  Hettie  B.  and 
Nellie.  He  was  married  to  his  present  wife,  Sarah  G.,  November  i,  1860.  She 
was  the  widow  of  the  late  George  Collins,  of  Chicago. 

He  was  an  abolitionist,  and  took  an  active  part  in  the  stirring  events  that 
occurred  in  Chicago  before  and  following  the  repeal  of  the  Missouri  compromise 
line.  He  was  a  member  of  the  convention  held  at  Buffalo,  New  York,  which 
formed  the  national  Kansas  committee,  and  became  secretary  of  its  executive  com- 
mittee, which  had  its  headquarters  at  Chicago.  The  other  member  of  this  execu- 
tive committee  were  Gen.  J.  D.  Webster  and  the  late  George  W.  Dole;  the  former 
acting  as  its  president  and  the  latter  as  treasurer.  Mr.  Hurd  gave  his  entire  time 
to  the  duties  of  the  committee  for  a  year  without  compensation,  taking  the  prin- 
cipal direction  of  its  affairs.  His  position  may  be  said  to  have  been  that  of  secre- 
tary of  the  Kansas  war.  Horace  White,  now  one  of  the  editors  of  the  "  Chicago 
Tribune,"  was  assistant  secretary,  and  Mr.  Hurd  speaks  in  praise  of  his  services  in 
that  capacity.  No  higher  commendation  can  be  given  to  this  committee  than  to 
say  its  labors  were  crowned  with  entire  success  in  making  Kansas  a  free  state. 

To  give  a  full  account  of  Mr.  Hurd's  connection  with  the  Kansas  struggle 
would  be  to  write  the  history  of  the  struggle  itself.  There  is  one  instance,  how- 
ever, deserving  especial  mention.  The  strife  in  the  territory  and  on  the  western 
border  of  Missouri  was  so  devastating  that  no  crops  of  any  considerable  amount 
were  raised  in  1856;  as  a  consequence,  there  was  not  a  sufficient  quantity  of  grain 
ii 


IO4  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  other  products  to  supply  the  demand  for  seed  for  the  next  spring's  planting. 
A  large  increase  in  the  population  was  expected  through  the  improved  means  of 
travel  which  were  secured  by  the  committee.  To  hold  this  population  in  the  ter- 
ritory it  was  necessary  they  should  be  enabled  to  raise  a  crop,  and  for  this  purpose 
seeds  must  be  furnished.  At  a  meeting  of  the  committee  in  New  York  city,  in 
February,  1857,  a  resolution  was  adopted  instructing  the  executive  committee  at 
Chicago  to  purchase  and  forward  the  necessary  seed.  At  the  same  time  an  appro- 
priation of  $5,000  was  made  to  John  Brown,  to  be  used  by  him  in  raising  and 
equipping  in  Kansas  a  company  of  armed  men  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of 
defending  the  free-state  settlers,  but  which  it  was  feared  by  some  might  be  used 
by  Brown  in  making  incursions  into  Missouri  or  some  other  slave  state. 

Mr.  Hurd,  ascertaining  on  his  return  to  Chicago  that  the  funds  in  the  hands  of 
the  treasurer  were  barely  sufficient  to  answer  one  of  these  requirements,  selected 
that  which  he  thought  most  important,  and  the  one  which  he  believed  would  be 
the  most  efficient  in  the  settlement  of  the  contest  as  it  affected  Kansas,  viz.,  the 
purchase  of  the  seed,  which  he  immediately  set  about  doing,  and  when  Mr.  Brown 
a  short  time  afterward  applied  for  his  appropriation  he  found  the  committee's 
treasury  empty.  At  first  Gerritt  Smith  and  other  friends  of  Brown  were  inclined 
to  find  fault  with  Mr.  Hurd's  course.  They  contended  that  he  should  at  least 
have  divided  with  Mr.  Brown,  and  for  a  time  there  was  fear  that  dissatisfaction 
would  be  stirred  up;  but  Mr.  Hurd  soon  found  himself  vindicated  by  the  events 
which  followed  in  due  time.  As  had  been  expected,  the  restoration  of  the  travel, 
from  the  tedious  overland  route  through  Iowa  and  Nebraska,  to  the  Missouri 
river  by  way  of  St.  Louis,  Jefferson  City  and  Kansas  City,  and  the  sale  of  through 
tickets  from  all  important  points  in  the  North,  resulted  in  a  large  immigration; 
claims  were  taken  up  and  preparations  made  for  permanent  abode;  but  the  seeds 
had  been  forwarded  by  a  small  steamboat  which  was  to  ascend  the  Kansas  river 
to  Lawrence.  In  consequence  of  low  water  its  arrival  was  delayed  about  two 
weeks.  The  people  therefore  gathered  at  Lawrence  from  all  parts  of  the  ter- 
ritory, awaiting  the  arrival  of  the  seeds.  At  one  time  it  was  feared  that  their 
expectations  would  not  be  realized,  and  their  return  to  the  states  was  contem- 
plated as  the  only  alternative.  When  at  last  the  boat  arrived,  and  the  agent  of 
the  committee  announced  that  he  was  ready  to  make  free  distribution  of  seeds  to 
all  free-state  settlers  who  desired  them  for  the  purpose  of  planting,  such  a  shout 
of  rejoicing  was  sent  up  that  the  action  of  Mr.  Hurd  received  the  universal  com- 
mendation of  the  people  of  the  North,  and  no  further  question  was  made  by  Mr. 
Brown  or  his  friends  as  to  the  wisdom  or  propriety  of  his  course.  The  free-state 
settlers  were  thus  enabled  to  satisfy  their  enemies  that  they  had  come  to  stay;  they 
were  too  many  for  the  Missourians,  as  the  pro-slavery  party  was  called,  and  the 
latter  gave  up  the  strife. 

In  1862  he  formed  a  partnership  for  the  practice  of  law  with  Henry  Booth,  late 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  Cook  county  circuit  court,  and  at  the  same  time  accepted  a 
position  as  lecturer  in  the  law  department  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  This 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of   CHICAGO.  105 

partnership  continued,  with  several  changes  by  the  admission  of  junior  partners, 
till  1868,  when  he  withdrew  from  the  firm  with  the  intention  of  retiring  from  the 
practice  of  his  profession. 

In  April,  1869,  Mr.  Hurd,  on  the  nomination  of  Gov.  Palmer,  and  confirmation 
of  the  senate  of  the  twenty-sixth  general  assembly  of  Illinois,  was  appointed  one  of 
three  commissioners  to  revise  and  rewrite  the  general  statutes  of  the  state.  One 
of  the  commissioners,  Mr.  Nelson,  having  been  elected  to  the  house  of  repre- 
sentatives, the  work  of  the  revision  fell  upon  Mr.  Hurd  and  the  other  commissioner, 
Mr.  Schaeffer,  who  acted  together  till  the  twenty-seventh  general  assembly  ad- 
journed, when  the  latter  also  withdrew,  leaving  the  whole  work  in  the  hands  of 
Mr.  Hurd,  who  completed  the  same  with  the  adjournment  of  the  twenty-eighth 
general  assembly  in  April,  1874,  when  the  last  of  the  chapters  of  the  revised  stat- 
utes of  1874  was  adopted,  and  Mr.  Hurd  appointed  by  that  body  to  compile,  edit 
and  supervise  the  publication  of  the  same,  which  he  has  accomplished  to  the  entire 
satisfaction  of  the  people  of  the  state.  Few  people  appreciate  for  how  many 
reforms  in  the  law  they  are  indebted  to  Mr.  Hurd,  or  how  great  a  work  it  was  to 
revise  and  rewrite  the  whole  body  of  the  laws  of  the  great  state  of  Illinois,  and 
adapt  them  to  the  new  condition  of  things  resulting  from  the  adoption  of  the  new 
constitution  of  1870.  Ordinarily  a  revision  means  the  rearrangement  and  adjust- 
ing of  existing  laws,  but  the  revision  of  the  laws  of  Illinois  under  the  circumstances 
meant  radical  changes  in  many  of  them;  the  rejection  of  old  provisions  and  the 
construction  of  new  ones;  and  in  many  cases  the  construction  of  entire  new  chap- 
ters, construing  for  the  first  time  the  provisions  of  the  new  constitution.  Mr.  Kurd's 
work  as  reviser  has  proved  a  success.  The  state  edition  of  1874  of  15,000  volumes 
was  soon  exhausted,  and  he  has  been  called  upon  to  edit  three  editions  since,  all  of 
which  have  received  the  unqualified  commendation  of  the  bar  and  public.  In  the 
summer  of  1875  Mr.  Hurd  was  again  elected  to  a  chair  in  the  law  school,  which 
had  then  become  the  Union  College  of  Law  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  the 
Northwestern  University,  and  now  fills  the  position  of  professor  of  pleadings,  prac- 
tice and  statutory  law  in  that  flourishing  institution. 

He  was  nominated  by  the  republican  party  as  its  candidate  for  the  office  of 
judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  at  the  special  election  held  on  December 
21,  1875,  but  was  defeated  by  his  democratic  rival,  T.  L.  Dickey,  who  ran  as 
an  independent  candidate,  and  not  only  received  the  support  of  his  party  but 
of  the  city  government  of  Chicago,  whose  counsel  he  then  was,  and  the  pow- 
erful railroad  influence,  the  railroad  companies  attributing  to  Mr.  Hurd  a  large 
share  in  the  enactment  of  the  stringent  railroad  laws  contained  in  his  revision.  A 
highly  defamatory  pamphlet  was  published  against  Mr.  Hurd  a  few  days  before 
the  election  —  too  late  to  be  successfully  met,  and  no  doubt  it  had  some  influence 
in  effecting  his  defeat.  The  falsity  of  this  publication  was  afterward  fully  estab- 
lished in  the  trial  of  its  author  for  slander  and  unchristian  conduct  before  the 
church  of  which  both  he  and  Mr.  Hurd  were  members,  and  in  which  the  author  of 
the  libel  was  found  guilty  and  censured  by  the  court  that  tried  him  In  this  trial  Mr. 


IO6  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Hurd  gained  many  friends  for  his  fairness  and  Christian  bearing,  as  also  for  his 
magnanimity  toward  the  one  who  had  thus  wronged  him. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Hurd  has  long  maintained  a  high  position  at  the  bar,  his  forte 
being  in  the  argument  of  legal  questions  to  the  court,  rather  than  as  an  advocate 
before  a  jury,  though  he  is  by  no  means  unsuccessful  in  the  latter  character.  His 
style  in  speaking  is  deliberate  and  argumentative,  rather  than  impassioned  and 
declamatory.  In  the  preparation  of  his  cases  he  is  careful  and  exhaustive,  and  is 
eminently  a  safe  adviser.  As  a  teacher  in  the  law  school  he  is  accurate,  method- 
ical and  thorough. 

One  of  the  cases  in  which  Mr.  Hurd  was  early  engaged,  and  which  attracted 
a  great  deal  of  attention  in  Cook  county,  was  that  of  Farrell  vs.  Cadwell  (1861), 
a  case  of  malpractice  on  a  servant  girl's  eye,  Mr.  Hurd  being  counsel  for  the  plain- 
tiff and  obtaining  a  verdict  of  $10,000. 

Another  case  was  that  of  Hartranft  vs.  Yundt,  tried  in  Kane  county  in  1865, 
a  crim.  con.  case,  in  which  Mr.  Hurd  was  counsel  for  the  plaintiff,  gaining  the  suit 
with  no  less  than  seven  or  eight  lawyers  for  the  defense,  including  one  of  the  ablest 
criminal  lawyers  in  the  Northwest. 

Mr.  Hurd  is  an  indefatigable  worker.  No  one  has  more  implicit  faith  than  he 
in  the  ancient  maxim,  "Labor  vincit  omnia."  He  possesses  great  tenacity  of  pur- 
pose, endurance  and  force  of  will.  He  is  self-reliant,  persistent  in  whatever  he 
attempts  and  not  easily  diverted  from  the  pursuit  of  his  object.  Being  still  in 
the  prime  of  life,  with  the  laudable  ambition  as  well  as  the  ability  to  still  further 
distinguish  himself,  he  may  well  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  rising  men  of  the  state. 


PERRY    H.   SMITH,  JR. 

FOREMOST  among  the  young  men  whose  names  adorn  the  bar  of  Illinois  is 
the  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this  sketch,  no  man  possessing  more  of 
the  true  instincts  and  characteristics  of  the  gentleman  than  Perry  H.  Smith,  Jr. 

It  will  generally  be  found  that  similar  causes  lead  to  like  results  in  whatever 
branch  of  human  activity  a  man's  genius  and  enterprise  may  be  employed.  The 
essentials  of  success  are  courage,  patience  and  perseverance.  Success  brings 
honor  in  every  honest  occupation,  and  when  it  is  achieved  by  a  young  man  it 
adds  new  pleasure.  This  has  been  accomplished  by  the  gentleman  who  is  here- 
with presented  to  our  readers.  He  is  the  son  of  one  of  our  most  respected  and 
wealthy  citizens,  a  gentleman  who  is  prominent  among  the  influential  men  of 
Chicago. 

Perry  H.  Smith,  Jr.,  was  born  in  Appleton,  Wisconsin,  but  his  parents  removed 
to  Chicago  when  he  was  but  five  years  of  age.  He  commenced  his  school  life  at 
the  Ogden  school,  where  he  remained  for  one  year,  and  at  the  age  of  eight  years 
was  a  student  at  the  Racine  College,  where  he  closely  applied  himself  to  his 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  107 

studies  for  three  years,  after  which  he  was  favored  with  a  trip  abroad,  visiting 
the  Paris  Exposition  and  other  places  of  interest  in  France  and  Germany. 

In  1867  he  returned,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Charlier  Institute  in  New  York 
city,  where  he  remained  for  two  years.  Again  expressing  a  desire  for  travel,  he 
was  permitted  to  take  an  extensive  tour  abroad,  visiting  Belgium  and  all  promi- 
nent points  of  the  old  world.  After  a  two  years'  trip,  he  returned  home  and 
entered  the  Sophomore  class  in  Hamilton  College,  New  York,  where,  years 
before,  his  father  had  been  graduated,  and  in  1874  passing  a  very  creditable 
examination,  graduated  with  the  highest  honors.  He  was  honored  by  the  fac- 
ulty with  an  appointment  on  the  Clark  Prize,  which  is  considered  one  of  the  chief 
honors  that  could  be  bestowed  in  the  senior  year.  His  classmates  fully  appre- 
ciating his  abilities  selected  him  as  the  class  orator  at  the  commencement. 

After  graduating  he  made  another  trip  abroad,  and  returning  after  a  year's 
absence  entered  the  Columbia  College  Law  School,  New  York  city,  presided  over 
by  Judge  Dwight,  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  a  gentleman  of  the  highest  legal 
attainments. 

Mr.  Smith  being  endowed  by  nature  with  a  strong  and  acute  intellect,  trained 
under  legal  teachers  distinguished  for  ability,  he  closely  applied  himself  to  the 
study  of  that  profession  and  graduated  with  the  degree  of  LL.B.,  and  was  admit- 
ted to  practice  in  the  supreme  court  of  the  state  of  New  York. 

He  then  returned  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  law  office  of  John  N.  Jewett, 
and  has  been  for  three  years  past  the  law  partner  of  Francis  H.  Kales,  of  the 
late  famous  firm  of  Beckwith,  Ayer  and  Kales.  His  tastes  and  character  of 
mind  induce  a  love  of  legal  study  for  its  own  sake,  and  he  is  therefore  wedded  to 
the  law. 

In  the  practice  of  his  profession  he  is  very  zealous,  as,  indeed,  he  is  in  every- 
thing which  he  undertakes.  He  is  reliable  and  honorable  in  all  places,  and 
under  all  circumstances;  he  is  loyal  to  truth  and  right,  justly  valuing  his  own 
self-respect  and  the  deserved  esteem  of  his  fellow-men,  as  infinitely  better  than 
wealth,  fame  or  position.  His  character  as  a  citizen  is  irreproachable;  he  holds 
the  respect  and  confidence  of  all  who  know  him.  He  has  never  been  known  to 
betray  a  friend,  or  a  trust,  and  if  he  has  any  enemies  they  have  never  made  them- 
selves known. 

In  social  life  he  is  genial  and  companionable,  warm  in  his  attachments  and 
firm  in  his  friendships,  a  gentleman,  liberal  in  all  his  views,  and  of  culture  and 
refinement,  a  pleasing  conversationalist  and  always  the  life  of  the  social  circle,  and 
can  express  his  views  clearly,  forcibly  and  elegantly  when  the  occasion  requires. 

Personally  he  has  rare  qualities,  and  by  his  upright  course  of  life,  his  deport- 
ment and  independence  of  character,  has  made  for  himself  an  honorable  reputa- 
tion. He  is  as  quick  of  observation  and  prompt  in  his  business  as  he  is  generous 
in  his  social  relations,  thoroughly  meriting  the  esteem  in  which  he  is  held  by  his 
fellow-citizens.  He  was  the  democratic  candidate  for  congress  in  the  third  dis- 
trict in  the  Hancock  campaign,  and  carried  the  city  precincts  by  r,ooo  majority. 


IO8  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

While  Mr.  Smith  is  not  exactly  a  politician  in  the  general  acceptation  of  the 
term,  he  has  always  taken  a  lively  interest  in  the  political  matters  of  the  day,  and 
in  so  doing  has  ever  been  honorable  and  zealous  in  what  he  esteems  to  be  the 
cause  of  right  and  justice. 


ISRAEL    HOLMES. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Herkimer  county,  New  York,  January 
21,  1828.  His  father  was  John  Holmes,  a  widely  known  physician  in  that 
county;  his  mother's  maiden  name  was  Alida  Herkimer.  He  received  his  early 
education  in  the  public  schools,  and  fitted  for  college  at  Fairfield  Academy,  in  his 
native  county,  and  entered  Union  College  at  Schenectady,  from  which  he  gradu- 
ated with  the  highest  honors  in  1849;  after  which  he  was  chosen  principal  of 
Fairfield  Academy.  He  studied  law  and  graduated  from  the  law  school  at  Balls- 
ton  Spa,  New  York,  where  he  ranked  as  one  of  the  most  proficient  and  promising 
students.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  state  of  New  York,  and  in  1854 
removed  to  Portage,  Wisconsin,  and  eventually  settled  there,  in  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  and  soon  took  position  as  one  of  the  foremost  lawyers  of  that  state, 
ranking  high  as  a  conscientious  and  able  counselor  and  an  eloquent  advocate, 
and  contributed  much  toward  giving  to  the  bar  of  Wisconsin  its  reputation. 

Mr.  Holmes  received  his  earliest  political  impressions  under  the  example  and 
teachings  of  Silas  Wright,  John  A.  Dix,  and  A.  C.  Flagg,  and  of  such  local  politi- 
cians as  Michael  Hoffman  and  others,  who  made  such  a  proud  name  for  old  Her- 
kimer county,  and  gave  her  that  power  in  the  councils  of  the  state  and  nation  she 
so  justly  enjoys;  he  was  a  true  democrat  of  their  school,  and  naturally  identified 
himself  with  the  republican  organization  at  its  inception;  for  no  man  ever  lived 
who  hated  tyranny  in  every  form,  whether  over  the  mind  or  person,  more 
intensely,  and  with  every  fiber  of  his  soul,  than  Israel  Holmes.  Thoroughly  inde- 
pendent in  thought  and  action,  in  all  things,  he  freely  concedes  the  same  to  every 
other  human  being. 

During  his  residence  in  Portage  he  frequently  contributed  leading  articles  to 
the  columns  of  the  local  papers,  and  for  a  time  was  connected  with  the  editorial 
department  of  the  "State  Register."  In  that  capacity  also,  he  gained  more  than 
a  local  reputation,  and  his  articles  always  commanded  wide  spread  attention. 
Had  he  been  connected  with  the  metropolitan  journals,  he  must  have  gained  the 
same  reputation  throughout  the  country  as  a  journalist,  that  he  enjoyed  in  the 
state  as  an  advocate.  His  professional  duties,  however,  required  his  attention  to 
a  degree  that  forbade  editorial  labor,  and  he  withdrew  from  journalism  to  devote 
his  entire  time  to  his  chosen  profession. 

In  writing  or  speaking  Mr.  Holmes  has  not  the  art  of  mystifying  with  words, 
at  least  he  will  not  practice  it.  With  him  every  word  is  to  represent  or  help  to 
express  an  idea,  but  never  to  conceal  one,  and  so  he  always  writes  and  speaks 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  IOQ 

plainly,  and  to  this  fact  was  due  much  of  the  reputation  he  gained  in  Wisconsin 
with  the  common  people.  So  perfect  was  the  confidence  of  his  neighbors  in  him 
that  they  came  to  lay  aside  all  political  differences  when  he  was  talked  of  for 
office,  and  supported  him  unanimously.  His  political  associates  knew  him  to  be 
a  republican.  He  was  so  just  in  his  dealings  with  men;  was  so  tolerant  and  lib- 
eral toward  others  who  held  conflicting  views;  was  so  much  the  friend  of  the 
weak  at  all  times,  that  the  average  democrat  believed  that  he  must  be  a  demo- 
crat, and  so  men  of  all  parties  favored  and  supported  him  with  one  accord,  a 
sentiment  that  constantly  grew  in  strength  until  he  determined  to  retire  from 
politics  and  devote  his  labors  wholly  to  his  profession.  His  county  often  desired 
to  make  him  a  candidate  for  congress,  and  on  one  occasion  presented  his  name 
in  convention,  and  worked  for  him  most  zealously  through  many  ballotings,  but 
with  a  disdain  for  the  jugglery  of  politics  that  was  as  hearty  as  it  was  lofty,  he 
could  not  be  led  from  the  avenues  of  self-respect,  into  the  by-ways  that  led  to 
success.  Israel  Holmes  never  compromised  his-self-respect.  Political  preferment 
had  but  little  attraction  for  him:  an  unsullied  manhood  was  the  apple  of  his 
existence. 

Just  previous  to  the  great  fire  of  1871  he  moved  to  Chicago  to  seek  a  wider 
field  of  operations.  After  practicing  alone  for  a  time,  he  formed  a  partnership 
under  the  firm  name  of  Holmes,  Rich  and  Noble,  which  was  among  the  best  and 
strongest  law  firms  in  the  city;  this  firm  was  dissolved  in  1881,  since  which  time 
Mr.  Holmes  has  been  alone  in  practice.  He  has  been  very  successful,  and  has 
been  employed  in  some  very  important  cases,  attracting  wide  attention  and  inter- 
est, in  which  his  power  as  an  advocate  and  an  eloquent  speaker  have  been  felt. 
He  is  a  thorough  lawyer  in  either  the  civil  or  criminal  practice,  and  ennobles  the 
profession  of  which  he  is  so  honored  a  member. 


JOHN   L.   THOMPSON. 

JOHN  LEVERETT  THOMPSON  was  born  in  Plymouth,  New  Hampshire,  in 
1835,  and  was  the  son  of  William  C.  Thompson,  who  was  a  lawyer  in  that 
place.  His  grandfather,  Thomas  W.  Thompson,  who  was  United  States  senator  and 
speaker  of  the  house  of  representatives  of  New  Hampshire,  practiced  law  in  Salis- 
bury, New  Hampshire,  the  birthplace  of  Daniel  Webster,  and  it  was  in  his  office 
that  Webster  studied  law,  and  during  the  period  of  their  connection  as  preceptor 
and  pupil  was  formed  the  friendship  between  them  which  lasted  through  the  for- 
mer's life.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  prepared  for  college  at  Meriden,  New 
Hampshire,  and  entered  Dartmouth  College  in  1852,  where  he  remained  two 
years,  when  he  entered  Williams  College,  remaining  there  one  year.  He  then 
began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  F.  H.  Dewey,  in  Worcester,  Massachu- 
setts, attending  for  a  time  the  law  school  at  Poughkeepsie,  New  York,  and  after- 
ward in  1856  entering  the  Harvard  Law  School,  where  he  graduated  in  1858,  in 


IIO  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

which  year  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Worcester.  Mr.  Thompson  then  went 
to  Europe  to  continue  his  studies  and  travel,  and  matriculated  at  the  universities 
of  Berlin,  Munich  and  Paris,  severally,  and  returned  to  America  in  1860.  He  set- 
tled in  Chicago  the  same  year,  and  entered  the  office  of  Messrs.  Scammon,  Mc- 
Cagg  and  Fuller  as  a  student  and  clerk,  and  remained  there  until  the  opening  of 
the  war,  when  he  entered  the  army  as  a  private  in  Battery  A,  Chicago  Light 
Artillery,  and  served  three  months.  He  then  entered  the  ist  R.  I.  Cav.,  as  lieu- 
tenant, and  afterward  was  transferred  to  the  ist  N.  H.  Cav.,  of  which  he  became 
colonel,  being  afterward  brevetted  brigadier-general.  Serving  with  considerable 
distinction  till  the  close  of  the  war,  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  in  Pope's  Army 
of  Virginia,  and  in  the  Army  of  the  Shenandoah,  under  Sheridan,  and  in  the 
principal  engagements  of  these  corps,  Gen.  Thompson  was  mustered  out  of  the 
service  in  1865.  Returning  to  Chicago  he  reentered  the  office  of  Scammon,  Mc- 
Cagg  and  Fuller,  and  in  the  spring  of  1866  began  practice  alone,  and  in  the  fol- 
lowing October  formed  the  partnership  now  existing  between  himself  and  Mr. 
Norman  Williams,  which  is  now  one  of  the  oldest  law  partnerships  in  the  city, 
under  the  style  of  Williams  and  Thompson.  Mr.  Thompson's  health  failing,  he 
has  been  traveling  during  1881  and  1882,  in  the  Rocky  mountains  and  on  the 
Pacific  coast,  with  the  desired  result  of  restoring  him  again  to  strength  and  vigor. 
He  was  an  alderman  of  the  city  from  1876  to  1878,  is  a  republican  in  politics,  but 
is  not  an  aspirant  for  public  office.  He  was  in  1870  a  republican  candidate  for  the 
state  constitutional  convention,  and  is  now  prominently  connected  with  the  work 
of  the  Citizens'  Association  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Thompson  was  married  in  1866  to 
Miss  Laura  Chandler,  of  Concord,  New  Hampshire,  and  has  two  children. 


ARTHUR  DRAPER  RICH. 

AMONG  the  substantial  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar  Arthur  D.  Rich  ranks  high. 
He  was  born  in  Ticonderoga,  New  York,  November  25,  1827.  His  father, 
Larned  Rich,  came  from  Richville,  Vermont.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was 
Amanda  Pearce.  She  was  a  native  of  Bolton,  New  York.  His  father  served  in 
the  revolution  and  was  in  the  battle  of  Plattsburg.  Arthur  received  his  prelimin- 
ary education  mainly  in  the  schools  where  he  lived,  and  took  a  college  course  in 
the  University  of  Michigan,  from  which  he  was  graduated  in  1851,  when  he  came 
to  Chicago  and  studied  law  with  the  then  well  known  and  strong  firm  of  Judd  and 
Wilson,  and  later,  Judd,  Wilson  and  Frink.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1853 
when  he  commenced  practice,  and  has  been  so  engaged  since,  doing  a  general  and 
successful  law  business,  and  attaining  to  a  position  among  the  best.  He  has 
earned  and  is  accorded  the  reputation  of  being  a  faithful  and  reliable  attorney 
and  counselor,  and  has  conducted  to  a  successful  issue  some  notable  cases  in  the 
higher  courts,  which  appear  in  the  court  reports,  and  are  noted  there  as  involving 
important  points  of  law.  Among  them  Butler  vs.  Butler,  in  1872,  which  was  an 


THE   FtF.NCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  I  I  3 

attempt  to  take  minor  children  from  the  custody  of  the  father  and  recover  their 
estate,  valued  at  over  a  quarter  of  a  million  dollars;  Jenkins  vs.  Jenkins,  a  divorce 
case  of  consequence  which  was  before  the  courts  several  times  on  various  issues; 
the  case  of  Sims  vs.  Everhart,  involving  a  large  tract  of  land,  the  case  culminating 
in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  favor  of  his  client;  and  other  cases  of  note 
could  be  cited  in  the  conduct  of  which  he  evidenced  decided  ability  and  a  thorough 
and  varied  knowledge  of  law.  In  sound  judgment,  in  patient  industry,  in  pains- 
taking research  and  clear  conception  of  the  spirit  and  scope  of  the  law  as  bearing 
upon  the  case  of  his  client,  in  his  almost  intuitive  perception  of  the  right,  in  his 
integrity  and  honesty  of  purpose,  Mr.  Rich  ranks  with  the  best.  He  is  a  man  of 
generous  impulses  and  of  genial  companionship,  which  qualities  characterize 
his  professional  and  social  relations,  and  have  won  for  him  the  deserved  respect 
and  regard  of  those  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact.  He  devotes  his  time  and 
energies  to  his  profession  to  the  exclusion  of  politics,  except  to  discharge  his  duties 
as  a  citizen.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Swedenborgian  church.  In  the  year  1856  he 
married  Esther  Tenant  Dyckman,  daughter  of  the  late  Judge  Evert  B.  Dyckman,  of 
Kalamazoo  county,  Michigan.  They  have  had  nine  sons  and  two  daughters;  eight 
of  the  former  and  one  of  the  latter  survive. 


E.  RAYMOND   BLISS. 

A^IONG  the  more  prominent  and  successful  of  the  younger  members  of  the 
Chicago  bar  is  E.  Raymond  Bliss,  present  attorney  of  Cook  county.  He  was 
born  in  New  Brunswick,  New  Jersey,  September  3,  1847  ;  son  of  George  Ripley 
Bliss,  D.D.,  an  author  and  professor  of  theology  in  the  Upland  Seminary,  in  Penn- 
sylvania. His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Mary  A.  Raymond;  she  was  a  daughter 
of  Eliakim  Raymond,  of  New  York,  who  gave  his  children  not  only  the  advantages 
of  excellent  associations  but  devoted  himself  to  their  correct  training  and  devel- 
opment. E.  Raymond  was  primarily  educated  at  Lewisburg,  Pennsylvania.  He 
first  came  to  Chicago  in  1863,  but  was  away  from  1870  to  1876,  during  which 
time  he  attended  the  Columbia  Law  School,  in  Washington,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, from  which  he  graduated  in  1873  and  was  there  admitted  to  the  bar  the 
same  year.  Upon  his  return  he  engaged  in  practice,  first  forming  a  partnership 
which  existed  but  a  few  months,  when  he  formed  another,  in  1880,  with  Mr. 
Leander  D.  Condee,  under  the  firm  name  of  Condee  and  Bliss,  a  firm  which  ranked 
high  and  conducted  to  a  successful  issue  some  important  cases.  Wherever  the 
distinction  of  merit  is  preferred  to  and  regarded  as  superior  to  ephemeral,  acci- 
dental or  incidental  success,  there  the  name  of  E.  Raymond  Bliss  will  be  recog- 
nized as  deserving  of  credit.  He  is  yet  a  young  man,  but  his  life  work  up  to  this 
time  is  to  his  credit,  and  the  firmness  and  persistency  of  his  faithfulness  to  well 
founded  principles,  with  his  integrity  of  purpose,  give  promise  of  a  successful 
future.  The  individual  who  devotes  himself  to  an  early  imbibed  principle,  and 


114  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO 

the  profession  or  avocation  of  his  choice,  with  earnestness,  sincerity  and  persever- 
ing energy,  is  almost  certain  to  rise  above  the  majority  of  men  in  the  way  of 
success  and  develop  his  native  abilities,  his  real  character  and  his  manhood. 

He  is  an  active  and  earnest  member  of  the  republican  party,  and  takes  the  part 
in  politics  every  good  citizen  should.  September  i,  1882,  he  was  appointed  by  the 
board  of  commissioners  to  the  responsible  position  of  attorney  for  Cook  county, 
and  is  serving  with  ability  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  his  great  clientage,  and  pro- 
tecting the  interests  of  the  county  well.  He  is  held  in  high  estimation  by  all  who 
know  him. 

WILLIAM    J.  ENGLISH. 

WILLIAM  J.  ENGLISH  is  one  of  the  most  successful  lawyers  at  the  Chi- 
cago bar.  Though  comparatively  young  in  years,  he  has  attained  to  an 
enviable  prominence  in  a  quiet  and  unostentatious  way.  His  life  has  been  one  of 
activity.  He  seems  to  have  had  the  intuition  to  formulate  his  future,  and  the 
ability,  singleness  of  purpose  and  integrity  of  character  to  consummate  his  early 
formed  purposes.  He  possesses  the  tact,  energy  and  application,  which  have  ena- 
bled him  to  meet,  contend  with  and  eventually  master  emergencies,  and  hence 
conquer  in  his  profession;  such  men  usually  attain  to  success,  and  often  emi- 
nence. Gifted  by  nature  with  sturdy  qualities  of  mind  and  body,  he  has  trained 
and  cultured  them. 

Mr.  English  was  born  in  Kenosha,  Wisconsin,  in  the  year  1845.  His  father, 
John  English,  was  a  business  man  there,  and  at  one  time  county  treasurer.  Later 
he  engaged  in  the  wholesale  business  in  Chicago,  and  is  now  residing  here.  He 
furnished  William  the  advantages  for  obtaining  an  education,  which  were  im- 
proved. After  graduating  at  the  Kenosha  high  school,  he  entered  Michigan 
University  at  Ann  Arbor,  and  graduated  in  the  classical  course  in  1867.  He  was 
among  the  first  in  his  class  in  all  branches,  and  was  a  superior  linguist.  After 
graduating  he  remained  with  the  institution,  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the  mod- 
ern European  languages,  and  can  now  read  fourteen  different  languages,  includ- 
ing the  Hebrew.  He  held  positions  in  the  university  successively  as  Greek  tutor, 
assistant  librarian  and  curator  of  the  museum,  and  lost  no  opportunity  to  add  to 
his  fund  of  knowledge  of  all  subjects.  He  took  a  two  years'  course  in  the  law 
school  there,  graduating  in  1869,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Michigan  bar.  He 
then  came  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  law  office  of  Walker  and  Dexter;  later 
became  assistant  to  Mr.  J.  M.  Walker  as  counselor  for  the  Chicago,  Burlington 
and  Quincy  and  Michigan  Central  railroads,  and  the  lines  known  as  the  Joy  rail- 
roads. This  was  a  valuable  experience  as  it  brought  him  in  contact  with  the 
ablest  minds  of  the  country,  including  senators  and  members  of  the  national 
house  of  representatives,  and  gave  him  an  insight  into  corporation  law,  which  he 
practices  largely.  In  1871  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Thomas  A.  Moran,  now 
one  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  under  the  firm  name  of 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  I  15 

Moran  and  English,  and  when  the  former  was  elected  to  the  bench  the  firm 
became,  and  is  now,  Hynes,  English  and  Dunne,  one  of  the  leading  law  firms  in 
Chicago.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  studious,  and  prepares  his  cases  with  great  care  and 
research.  A  case  well  presented  is  already  half  tried,  he  thinks.  He  masters  a 
case  before  he  leaves  it,  and  when  presented  to  a  court  it  is  complete  to  that 
extent. 

He  is  attorney  for  and  manages  a  great  number  of  estates,  and  has  the 
implicit  confidence  of  those  who  have  intrusted  their  interests  to  him.  He  has 
the  management  of  over  one  hundred  estates,  besides  one  of  the  largest  common 
law  dockets  in  the  city,  and  a  combination  of  legal  and  business  qualifications 
are  indispensable  in  the  successful  and  faithful  prosecution  of  the  same.  His 
education  and  experience  have  given  him  these  qualifications.  He  is  the  attor- 
ney for  a  number  of  large  corporations,  including  Chicago  board  of  education, 
the  Catholic  Bishop  of  Chicago  (a  corporation),  People's  Gas  Light  and  Coke 
Company,  Hibernian  Banking  Association,  Home  National  Bank,  and  Fortune 
Brewing  Company.  The  management  of  the  school  property,  amounting  to  mill- 
ions, with  an  annual  income  of  about  $200,000,  requires  special  fitness  which  he 
possesses.  So  also  of  other  large  estates. 

Mr.  English  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  Chicago  board  of  education 
three  successive  times,  and  served  seven  years  and  declined  a  reappointment.  On 
his  retirement,  the  board  passed  the  following  resolution: 

Resolved,  That  we  part  with  regret  with  the  valuable  services  of  William  J.  English,  who  has 
discharged  his  duties  faithfully  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  during  the  past  seven 
years,  a  great  portion  of  said  time  acting  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  school  fund  property, 
who  has  ever  proved  himself  a  zealous  and  watchful  guardian  over  the  interests  of  the  public 
schools  of  the  city,  and  that  our  best  wishes  go  with  him  in  his  retirement. 

At  the  following  election,  however,  the  board,  desiring  to  retain  his  services, 
elected  him  attorney  of  the  board,  which  position  he  still  holds.  From  his  first 
appointment  he  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  school  fund  property,  requir- 
ing the  highest  business  ability  combined  with  legal  knowledge.  He  had  as 
assistants  on  that  committee  such  successful  business  men  and  millionaires  as  D. 
A.  Kohn,' Perry  H.  Smith  and  E.  G.  Keith,  the  latter  succeeding  him  as  chairman. 
As  attorney  he  now  has  the  same  charge  of  the  fund.  As  the  recognized  scholar 
of  the  board,  he  was  also  accorded  the  chairmanships  of  the  committees  on  high 
schools  and  of  the  judiciary.  While  a  linguist,  and  having  a  special  fondness  for 
the  Greek  language,  he  did  not  hesitate  to  antagonize  the  prevailing  sentiment 
in  the  board  at  the  time  when  the  finances  of  the  city  were  straitened,  and  took 
radical  ground  in  favor  of  giving  primary  children  the  full  advantages  of  rudi- 
mental  education,  even  if  to  the  detriment  of  those  pursuing  higher  studies, 
music,  drawing  and  modern  languages,  at  the  expense  of  the  public  money 
designed  to  educate  the  poorer  children  in  the  fundamental  branches.  He  was 
sustained  in  his  position  by  the  real  friends  of  public  schools,  the  mayor  and  the 
press,  the  latter  approving  his  course  in  its  editorial  columns. 


Il6  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  is  the  adviser  of  many  mercantile  houses,  which  have  confidence  in  his 
ability  to  advise  them  because  he  has  evidenced  his  competency  and  knowledge 
of  business  management  in  having  accumulated  a  handsome  property  himself. 
He  is  quiet  and  modest  in  his  manner,  and  attends  strictly  to  his  professional 
business. 


THOMAS    CRATTY. 

THOMAS  CRATTY  was  born  in  Champaign  county,  Ohio,  of  Irish  parentage, 
his  great-great-grandfather  having  emigrated  from  the  north  of  Ireland  in 
1760,  and  settled  in  Pennsylvania,  where  many  of  his  descendants  still  reside. 
Several  of  the  family  were  prominently  connected  with  the  current  events  of  the 
day,  and  the  grandfather  of  the  above,  who  was  born  in  Franklin  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1763,  bore  arms  as  a  soldier  in  the  revolutionary  war. 

His  ancestors  were  very  long-lived,  almost  always  exceeding  the  allotted  time 
of  man,  and  often  nearly  reaching  the  one  hundredth  year.  His  grandmother, 
who  reached  the  age  of  ninety-three,  when  over  eighty  years  of  age  made  the 
journey  on  horseback  from  Delaware  county,  Ohio,  to  Butler  county,  Pennsylva- 
nia, a  distance  of  over  two  hundred  and  fifty  miles.  Her  mother  died  at  the  age 
of  ninety-nine.  Robert  Cratty,  a  great-uncle,  is  still  living  in  Marion  county, 
Ohio,  strong  and  erect,  at  the  advanced  age  of  ninety-seven. 

William  Cratty,  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  born  in  Butler 
county,  Pennsylvania,  June  20,  1805,  but  removed  to  Ohio  when  a  boy,  in  1814. 
In  April,  1826,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Candis  Bennett,  who  was  born  in  Rhode 
Island,  December  25,  1805,  and  they  lived  happily  together  up  to  the  time  of  her 
death.  He  was  an  earnest,  indefatigable  abolitionist,  and  for  many  years,  while 
in  Ohio,  he  was  thought  to  be  a  conductor,  and  his  residence  a  station-house  on 
the  under-ground  railroad  running  across  the  state  into  Canada.  During  those 
years  of  unparalleld  struggle  for  freedom  there  was  a  standing  reward  of  $3,000 
offered  for  his  body,  dead  or  alive,  delivered  south  of  the  Ohio  river,  and  many 
times  while  the  devoted  mother  was  at  home  alone  with  the  children  she  could 
hear  the  curses  of  the  slave  hunters  heaped  upon  her  husband,  as  they  hanged 
him  (in  imagination)  to  a  neighboring  tree.  From  their  parents  the  children 
very  naturally  early  imbibed  their  anti-slavery  sentiments. 

For  many  years,  until  broken  down  by  hard  work,  William  Cratty  was  a  thor- 
ough, industrious  farmer,  and  when  old  age  crept  on  he  was  obliged  to  seek  rest 
and  a  more  retired  life,  and  now  resides  with  a  widowed  daughter  in  the  beautiful 
town  of  Elmwood,  Illinois,  in  the  vicinity  of  all  of  his  remaining  children  and 
grandchildren,  who  gladly  minister  to  the  wants  of  his  declining  years.  He  rests 
in  the  satisfaction  of  having  done  his  work  well,  having  raised  up  a  family  of 
twelve  children,  eight  girls  and  four  boys,  of  whom  five  girls  and  two  boys  are 
still  living. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  \  \  J 

The  death  of  Mrs.  Cratty,  which  occurred  in  her  home  in  Elmwood  on  Janu- 
ary 27,  1875,  was  deeply  mourned  by  all  who  knew  her.  Her  family,  who  gath- 
ered around  her  during  her  last  sickness,  deeply  felt  the  loss  of  the  gentle  hand 
and  loving  heart  that  had  so  long  kept  them  in  peace  and  happiness  around  the 
family  hearth.  Although  tried  almost  beyond  endurance  by  a  long  and  severe 
illness,  she  was  a  consistent  and  exemplary  Christian  woman,  an  affectionate  and 
devoted  wife,  and  a  loving  mother.  Her  disposition  was  uniformly  kind  and 
gentle,  and  she  was  sincerely  loved  by  her  husband  and  children.  Theirs  was  a 
happy  family,  and  those  remaining  revere  the  memory  of  her  to  whom  they  owe 
so  much  of  what  they  now  are  and  enjoy.  She  and  her  husband  early  became 
members  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  they  ever  after  adhered  to  their  first 
choice. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch,  a  farmer  boy,  was  early  trained  to  habits  of  indus- 
try and  sobriety,  and  inherited  from  his  parents  a  genius  for  hard  labor.  His 
education  was  mainly  acquired  from  attendance  at  the  country  common  school 
in  the  winter  months,  sandwiched  between  seasons  of  farm  labor.  His  collegiate 
education  was  limited  to  the  ownership  of  a  scholarship.  At  an  early  age  he 
began  the  work  of  a  pedagogue  in  a  district  school,  boarding  round,  and  holding 
spelling  schools  Friday  nights.  This  he  kept  up  until  the  fall  of  1854,  when  he 
took  a  trip  through  the  southern  states,  as  well  for  a  recreation  as  to  better 
acquaint  himself  with,  the  institution  of  slavery.  Being  limited  in  means  with 
which  to  pay  his  way,  he  taught  school  a  portion  of  the  time,  and  thereby  had 
opportunities  of  witnessing  results  of  the  divine  right  which,  when  he  returned 
to  Illinois  a  year  after,  made  him  if  possible  more  bitter  than  ever  against 
slavery. 

After  his  return,  in  1856,  he  continued  farming,  struggling  nobly  against  hard 
times  and  low  prices,  on  a  farm  of  several  hundred  acres.  When  in  1860  finan- 
cial troubles  brought  his  farming  operations  to  a  close,  he  saw  in  the  ruins  the 
long-hoped-for  opportunity  of  entering  the  profession  of  his  choice.  Gathering 
together  what  little  he  could  from  the  wreck,  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in 
the  Chicago  Law  School,  from  which  he  graduated  with  honor  in  1861,  and  was 
immediately  admitted  to  practice  by  the  supreme  court,  then  in  session  at  Ottawa. 
Not  being  able  to  pay  cash  for  his  tuition  at  the  law  school,  he  gave  to  the  then 
professor  in  charge,  Hon.  Henry  Booth,  his  note  therefor,  and  paid  the  same  out 
of  the  first  moneys  earned  in  his  practice.  For  Prof.  Booth  he  has  always  enter- 
tained the  highest  regard  as  a  thorough  lawyer  and  an  accomplished  gentleman. 

During  his  attendance  at  the  law  school  poverty  compelled  him  to  keep  bach, 
cooking  his  own  meals  and  doing  his  own  housework.  It  no  doubt  agreed  with 
him,  for  it  is  said  he  did  not  miss  a  meal  or  a  lecture  during  the  year.  He,  with 
his  companions  in  poverty,  E.  S.  Abbott,  of  La  Salle,  Illinois,  and  P.  W.  Harts, 
of  Springfield,  Illinois,  occupied  a  small  room  in  an  old  house,  still  standing,  on 
the  corner  of  Green  and  Randolph  streets.  Many  pleasant  recollections  are 
retained  of  the  school  and  the  faculty,  by  whom  he  was  selected  as  one  of  four 


Il8  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

graduates  who  participated  in  a  moot  trial  at  a  public  exhibition  in  Metropolitan 
hall,  by  way  of  graduating  exercises. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  commenced  practice  in  Elmwood,  Peoria 
county,  Illinois,  with  but  little  money  and  less  furniture,  and  a  library  consisting 
of  one  small  law  book.  For  two  years  it  was  a  struggle  to  get  along,  having  to 
allow  the  fees  earned  of  the  merchants,  to  go  toward  paying  his  old  farming  bills. 
Had  it  not  been  for  the  kindness  of  W.  H.  Kellogg  and  Dr.  J.  J.  Lobaugh,  it 
might  have  gone  even  harder  for  the  young  lawyer;  but  when  kindness  was  of 
some  account,  they  extended  it.  As  a  village  practitioner  it  became  necessary 
for  him  to  travel  over  the  country  considerably;  but  no  inclemency  of  the  weather 
or  roughness  of  the  roads  ever  prevented  him  from  meeting  his  engagements. 

In  the  fall  of  1863  he  entered  into  a  partnership  with  Hon.  W.  W.  O'Brien,  a 
prominent  lawyer  in  Peoria,  but  now  of  Chicago,  with  whom  he  did  a  pleasant 
and  prosperous  business  for  three  years.  Being  of  opposite  political  views,  it  was 
in  the  contract  that  politics  should  not  be  a  subject  of  conversation  between 
them,  that  they  might  avoid  unpleasantness. 

The  present  law  firm  of  Cratty  Brothers  in  Peoria,  was  formed  in  January, 
1872,  by  the  admission  into  the  profession  of  Josiah  Cratty,  an  only  brother. 
They  are  doing  an  increasingly  prosperous  business.  The  collection  department 
of  their  office  has  become  so  extensive  that  they  now  require  the  assistance  of 
several  clerks  and  a  stenographer.  Being  a  hard  worker  himself,  he  desires  others 
in  his  employ  to  follow  his  example,  and  remember  the  meaning  of  the  conspicu- 
ous sign  in  his  office,  "Time  is  Money,"  for  to  such  industry  does  he  owe  his 
present  position  at  the  bar. 

On  May  i,  1880,  Mr.  Cratty  came  to  Chicago  and  entered  into  partnership  with 
W.  W.  O'Brien,  under  the  name  and  style  of  O'Brien  and  Cratty  (still  retaining 
his  office  in  Peoria),  which  partnership  lasted  four  months,  when  Mr.  Cratty 
became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Tenney,  Flower  and  Cratty.  This  latter  connec- 
tion lasted  until  May  i,  1882,  when  the  firm  was  dissolved,  since  which  time  Mr. 
.  Cratty  has  been  practicing  alone. 

In  politics  he  is  a  republican,  but  political  fame  has  for  him  no  allurements, 
he  never  having  held  or  been  a  candidate  for  any  office. 

During  the  years  1871-2-3  he,  together  with  Mr.  Leslie  Robison,  published 
the  "  Peoria  Review,"  a  daily,  weekly  and  tri-weekly  republican  newspaper,  of 
wide  circulation.  Connected  therewith  they  had  an  extensive  steam  job  office 
and  blank  book  manufactory  and  bindery.  The  newspaper  requiring  too  much 
time  and  attention  from  their  professional  duties,  they  disposed  of  it,  and  its 
publication  was  discontinued.  In  the  presidential  campaign  of  1872  the  "Review" 
supported  the  late  Horace  Greeley  for  president. 

In  enterprises  of  public  benefit  Mr.  Cratty  has  been  among  the  foremost,  not 
always  regarding  his  own  self-interest  in  the  matter.  When  school  houses  were 
thinly  scattered  over  the  western  prairies  he  assisted  in  organizing  the  first 
teachers'  institute  of  Knox  county,  a  feature  that  has  become  so  invaluable  to  the 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  Iig 

cause  of  education.  The  Elmwood  Paper  Manufacturing  Company,  the  Cham- 
ber of  Commerce  Association  of  Peoria,  the  Merchants'  Exchange,  and  the  Peoria 
Public  Library,  are  each  indebted  partly  to  the  assistance  and  material  aid  of  Mr. 
Cratty  for  their  existence  and  success. 

His  ability  as  a  speaker  has  received  many  compliments,  not  the  least  of  which 
is  his  occupying  the  position  of  law  lecturer  in  Cole's  Commercial  College,  Peo- 
ria, delivering  his  lectures  weekly  for  several  years,  both  to  citizens  and  to  students 
of  the  college. 

Although  of  a  domestic  turn  of  mind,  it  has  never  been  his  fortune  to  marry, 
and  at  this  late  day  he  is  rather  busy  to  pay  much  attention  to  the  selection  of  a 
life  partner.  Being  a  man  of  firm  integrity  and  untiring  industry,  a  lawyer  of 
honest  purpose  and  an  increasing  practice,  he  has  attained  an  enviable  position 
in  society  and  at  the  bar  of  his  state. 


ROBERT  HERVEY. 

ROBERT  HERVEY  was  born  in  Glasgow,  Scotland,  August  10,  1820,  his 
father,  Alexander,  being  a  West  India  merchant  and,  like  the  long-lost 
brother  in  the  novels  of  the  time,  owning  a  plantation  in  Trinidad.  In  his  youth 
Robert  attended  the  preparatory  grammar  schools,  and  entering  Glasgow  Univer- 
sity was  graduated  in  1837.  Shortly  after  this  event  he  turned  his  face  to  the  new 
world,  and  settling  in  Canada  began  the  study  of  the  law  with  Henry  Sherwood, 
attorney  general  of  the  province.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1842,  and  com- 
menced practice  in  Bytown,  now  Ottawa,  the  capital  of  the  Dominion.  His  ability 
and  solid  legal  acquirements  soon  won  him  a  very  extensive  and  paying  practice 
in  Bytown;  but  the  city  was  small  and,  after  all,  provincial,  and  desiring  a  wider 
field  he  readily  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  an  uncle,  long  a  resident  of  Illinois, 
to  settle  in  Chicago.  Removing  thither  in  1852,  he  became  a  member  of  the  firm 
of  Morris,  Hervey  and  Clarkson,  a  firm  existing  until  the  elevation  of  the  senior 
partner,  Buckner  S.  Morris,  to  the  bench.  Mr.  Hervey  continued  with  Mr.  Clark- 
son  until  1857,  when  he  formed  with  Eliot  Anthony  the  firm  of  Hervey  and 
Anthony.  In  1860  Mr.  Gait  was  admitted  to  the  firm,  and  the  copartnership  con- 
tinued to  1877,  and  was  then  the  oldest  legal  firm  in  the  city. 

He  has  always  enjoyed  an  extensive  and  profitable  practice  in  all  the  courts, 
state  and  national,  civil  and  criminal.  Mr.  Hervey,  indeed,  has  been  retained  in 
most  of  the  cases  of  public  importance,  civil  and  criminal  alike,  which  have  come 
before  our  courts  in  his  time.  He  assisted  in  the  defense  of  the  nineteen  alder- 
men indicted  for  bribery,  only  one  of  whom  was  convicted.  He  also  defended 
Arthur  Devine  for  the  murder  of  Francis  McVey,  one  of  his  employes,  and  secured 
Devine's  acquittal ;  and  of  all  the  capital  cases  in  which  he  has  been  retained  not 
one  of  his  clients  has  suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law.  He  was  retained 
by  the  state  in  the  celebrated  Hoops  murder  case,  and  again  in  the  defense  of 
the  county  commissioners,  not  one  of  whom  was  found  guilty. 


I2O  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

The  list  of  his  important  civil  cases  would  be  too  large  for  publication  here. 
His  firm  were  the  attorneys  of  the  complaining  stockholders  of  the  Galena  Rail- 
way Company,  and  succeeded  in  preventing  its  consolidation  with  the  North- 
western until  their  clients  were  paid  the  full  value  of  their  shares,  and  in  almost 
innumerable  cases  of  similar  importance  he  has  been  counsel  on  the  one  side  or 
the  other.  It  may  be  said  that  he  lives  in  the  court,  his  special  forte  being  trial  of 
cases  before  a  jury.  He  has  fine  literary  attainments  and  is  an  accomplished 
linguist.  His  integrity  as  a  lawyer  and  a  man  is  unquestioned.  No  corporation 
ever  purchased  his  conscience,  no  client  ever  retained  it.  He  is  a  prominent 
member  and  one  of  the  originators  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association,  and  has  been 
frequently  president  of  the  St.  Andrews  Society  and  chief  of  the  Caledonian  Club. 

He  has  been  twice  married:  in  1843  to  Maria  Jones,  daughter  of  Dunham 
Jones,  collector  of  the  Port  Maitland,  and  in  1861  to  Frances  W.  Smith. 

In  personal  appearance  Mr.  Hervey  is  rather  distingue.  His  form  is  medium 
height,  very  erect  and  well  proportioned.  His  complexion  is  fresh,  his  whiskers 
are  gray  and  worn  in  the  English  fashion,  his  hair  is  silvery,  his  head  well  shaped, 
his  eyes  gray  and  keen,  and  the  tout  ensemble  that  of  a  very  pronounced  Scotch- 
man. In  his  demeanor  he  is  very  affable  and  courteous,  and  before  a  jury  and  in 
the  examination  of  a  witness,  as  well  as  in  his  treatment  of  opposing  counsel,  is 
always  gentlemanly  and  considerate. 


CAPT.  STEPHEN  F.   BROWN. 

OTEPHEN  F.  BROWN  was  born  in  Swanton,  Franklin  county,  Vermont,  April 
w^3  1841,  and  was  reared  on  a  farm.  His  maternal  grandfather  served  during  the 
revolution  and  was  with  Washington  at  Valley  Forge.  He  received  his  primary 
education  in  the  schools  of  his  native  town,  and  subsequently  attended  the  academy 
at  Swanton  Falls  spring  and  fall,  teaching  school  winters  and  working  on  the  farm 
in  summer,  until  he  had  fitted  himself  for  college,  when  he  passed  examination  for 
admission  to  the  Vermont  University  in  the  fall  of  1862,  immediately  after  which 
he  enlisted  in  the  service  of  his  country,  and  graduated  in  the  Army  of  the  Poto- 
mac with  an  empty  sleeve  for  a  diploma.  He  enlisted  as  a  private  in  Co.  K,  I3th 
Vt.  Inf.  and  was  elected  first  lieutenant  of  that  company.  The  regiment  enlisted 
for  but  nine  months,  and  its  term  of  service  had  expired  just  before  the  battle  of 
Gettysburg  wa%  fought,  but  it  continued  in  service  and  did  itself  great  credit  in 
that  memorable  contest.  The  second  Vermont  brigade,  of  which  that  regiment 
was  a  part,  did  effective  service,  and  Capt.  Brown  distinguished  himself,  and  his 
name  has  since  been  placed  on  the  roll  of  honor  for  gallantry  and  daring,  about 
which  it  is  proper  in  this  connection  to  state  some  facts. 

The  officers  of  Vermont  regiments  formed  a  reunion  society  after  the  war,  and 
have  held  an  annual  meeting  and  banquet  ever  since.  In  January,  1882,  that 
society  met  at  White  River  Junction,  Vermont,  where  an  address  was  delivered 


**$ 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  123 

by  Capt.  Albert  Clark,  of  i3th  regiment,  and  the  following  extract  from  it  will 
explain  an  incident  which  has  become  historical: 

"  One  personal  incident  of  the  Gettysburg  campaign  let  me  here  contribute. 
We  had  marched  an  entire  sweltering  forenoon  without  a  drop  of  water.  A  short 
halt  was  made  and  orders  passed  along  the  line  'to  rest  in  place.'  Notwithstand- 
ing this  the  commanding  general  had  taken  the  precaution  to  place  a  safeguard 
over  a  neighboring  well,  he  knowing  what  the  troops  did  not  know,  that  the  well 
would  prove  totally  inadequate  to  the  wants  of  the  brigade,  and  within  an  hour 
Frederick  City  would  be  reached,  where  an  ample  supply  of  water  could  be  ob- 
tained. Disregarding  the  order  and  the  safeguard,  Lieut.  S.  F.  Brown,  from  Swan- 
ton,  went  to  the  well  and,  in  the  face  of  threatened  death,  obtained  some  water 
and  took  it  to  a  few  of  his  famishing  men.  He  was  immediately  put  under  arrest 
and  deprived  of  his  sword.  When  Gettysburg  was  reached,  and  all  could  see  that 
there  would  be  business  for  every  one  on  the  morrow,  Brown  went  to  Gen.  Stan- 
nard  and  asked  for  his  sword,  promising  to  return  it  if  he  survived  the  battle. 
The  general  found  himself  relieved  from  an  embarrassing  position,  in  which  his 
generous  sense  of  gallantry  contended  with  his  knowledge  of  the  importance  of 
discipline,  by  replying  that  the  weapon  had  been  sent  with  the  baggage  twenty- 
five  miles  to  the  rear.  But  nothing  discouraged,  Brown  armed  himself  with  a 
hatchet  and  went  into  the  fight.  All  through  the  two  terrific  days  that  followed, 
whenever  there  was  an  opportunity  near  him  for  conspicuous  gallantry,  there  that 
hatchet  was  seen  swinging;  and  all  through  the  live  long  night,  while  most  of  us 
were  wrapt  in  slumber,  he  was  hovering  along  the  front,  and  even  penetrating  the 
skirmish  line  to  help  off  the  wounded  and  minister  unto  the  dying.  I  hardly  need 
add  that  after  the  battle  he  was  allowed  to  wear  a  captured  sabre.  Nothing  more 
was  ever  heard  of  the  impending  court-martial,  and  after  his  honorable  discharge 
he  again  entered  service  as  a  captain  in  the  i7th,  lost  an  arm  at  the  Wilderness  and 
is  now  a  prosperous  lawyer  in  Chicago." 

The  error  in  the  above  statement  is  that  although  Capt.  Brown  is  the  personal 
friend  of  the  general,  the  subject  of  the  arrest  has  never  been  mentioned  between 
them.  The  lieutenant-colonel  was  the  one  who  just  before  the  battle  informed  the 
captain  of  his  release  from  arrest,  but  that  his  sword  was  away  in  the  baggage 
with  the  quartermaster. 

These  facts  became  generally  known  through  the  newspapers.  More  than 
nineteen  years  had  passed,  but  the  veteran  soldiers  of  the  West  determined  that 
such  gallantry  merited  recognition,  and  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was,  a  few 
months  ago,  presented  with  a  very  elegant  medal  in  commemoration  of  the  event, 
concerning  which  the  "  Chicago  Times"  of  May  28,  1882,  contained  the  following: 

"Capt.  Stephen  F.  Brown,  a  well-known  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  was  the 
recipient  of  distinguished  honors  at  the  meeting  of  Post  28,  G.A.R.,  on  Tuesday 
evening.  The  occasion  was  particularly  noteworthy,  as  this  was  the  first  instance 
where  a  veteran  has  been  complimented  by  his  comrades  with  a  medal  for  any  dis- 
play of  gallantry.  The  facts  which  led  to  the  event  noted  were  brought  out  inci- 
13 


124  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

dentally  in  an  oration  delivered  before  the  Vermont  officers  reunion  last  winter, 
and  were  briefly  set  forth  in  the  charges  preferred  at  the  past  meeting.  Capt. 
Brown  was  arraigned  under  the  following  specification:  For  having  obtained  water 
for  his  soldiers  contrary  to  orders  while  performing  a  forced  march  to  Gettysburg, 
and  thereby  having  been  ordered  under  arrest  and  deprived  of  his  sword;  for 
having  gone  into  battle  armed  only  with  a  camp  hatchet  after  having  been  released 
from  arrest,  his  sword  being  in  the  keeping  of  a  quartermaster,  who  was  in  a  safe 
place  somewhere;  for  capturing  a  rebel  officer  in  a  hand-to-hand  contest,  and 
taking  from  the  latter  his  revolver  and  saber;  for  having  rushed  into  a  place  of 
extreme  danger  to  save  a  wounded  comrade,  and,  when  wounded  himself,  refusing 
to  leave  the  field  until  the  fight  was  over.  Evidence  of  the  truth  of  these  charges 
was  supplied  by  members  of  his  company,  now  residents  of  Chicago,  and  the 
captain  was  then  sentenced  to  receive  a  gold  badge  of  most  beautiful  design 
and  workmanship.  The  guard  bar  is  an  angle,  with  crossed  cannon  below,  a  mini- 
ature hatchet  of  platinum,  and  suspended  from  this  is  a  colonel's  badge,  from 
which  depend  charms  supporting  a  five-pointed  star,  bearing  the  G.A.R.  badge, 
surrounded  by  oak  leaves.  On  the  back  is  the  inscription :  '  Presented,  May  23, 
1882,  by  friends  in  Post  28,  G.A.R.,  to  Capt.  Stephen  F.  Brown,  for  gallantry  at 
Gettysburg.'" 

The  facts  and  circumstances  that  surrounded  Capt.  Brown's  breach  of  disci- 
pline are  set  forth  in  his  extempore  response  to  the  presentation,  which  we  copy 
from  the  "Chicago  Weekly  Freeman,"  of  June  i,  1882,  whose  reporter  was  present 
.at  the  time.  After  expressing  his  thanks  for  the  beautiful  and  costly  gift,  and 
the  kind  expressions  that  accompanied  its  presentation,  and  stating  that  all  com- 
mendations of  his  valor  and  patriotism  applied  equally  to  every  worthy  member 
of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  Capt.  Brown  said:  "The  device  [the 
hatchet]  upon  this  medal  must  have  been  intended  by  its  donors  to  commemorate 
an  episode  in  my  army  life,  an  event  of  my  boyhood,  upon  which  I  have  fre- 
quently reflected  since  maturity,  and  although  I  have  discovered  no  valid  reason 
for  revising  the  conclusion  I  then  formed,  I  can  never  forget  that  in  obtaining 
water  for  my  famishing  men,  I  not  only  incurred  the  penalty  of  death  for  forcing 
a  safeguard,  but  also  disobeyed  the  positive  orders  of  my  superior  officer.  Hence 
in  my  mental  horizon,  have  there  floated  the  mists  of  doubt,  and  the  hazy  horror 
of  the  military  maxim:  'A  soldier's  honor  is  to  obey.'  Contemplate  the  relief  I 
now  experience  in  such  an  indorsement  from  veterans,  a  majority  of  whom  have 
held  commissions,  and  many  of  them,  including  yourself,  sir,  of  distinguished 
rank.  This  occasion  furnishes  an  added  illustration  of  the  fact  that  no  great 
principle  can  be  extended  beyond  its  proper  limits,  without  crossing  the  bounda- 
ries of  some  other  great  truth. 

"Comrades,  you  have  often  followed  honor  across  barriers  where  death  stood 
sentinel.  You  have  suppressed  the  holiest  and  tenderest  emotions,  and  bidden 
the  heart  keep  still,  while  cold  duty  led  you  through  hottest  dangers,  but  you 
have  admitted  to-night  that  sometimes  hearts  find  their  way  surer  than  heads  to 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  125 

wise  conclusions.  I  do  not  take  this  occasion  to  cast  any  reflections  upon  the 
general  who  commanded.  He  is  a  man  of  noble  and  generous  impulses.  Except 
for  him  the  history  of  this  country  might  have  been  written  differently.  He  is 
one  of  the  bravest  of  the  brave.  He  hurled  his  regiments  upon  the  enemy  in 
hand  to  hand  conflict,  and  actually  finished  the  fighting  at  Gettysburg.  I  am 
always  ready  to  uncover  in  his  presence,  but  I  think  now,  as  I  thought  then,  that 
he  did  not  fully  realize  the  extremes  of  suffering  we  endured  on  the  fearful  forced 
march  by  which  we  reached  that  battle-field.  You  may  the  better  judge  of  its 
rigors  when  you  remember  that  our  brigade  (the  2d  Vt.)  was  left  on  outpost  duty 
in  Virginia  until  the  third  day  after  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  had  passed  us  in 
pursuit  of  Lee,  and  that  in  six  days  after  we  started,  we  overtook  that  army  on 
its  forced  march.  Ours  was,  therefore,  doubly  severe. 

"Our  nine  months'  term  of  service  had  expired  before  we  left  Virginia,  and  we 
supposed  our  march  would  terminate  at  the  first  railroad  leading  to  Vermont, 
and  so  the  boys  filled  their  knapsacks  with  every  conceivable  relic  of  camp,  until 
they  appeared  more  like  a  brigade  of  foot  pedlers  than  soldiers,  while  the  multi- 
tude of  dogs  they  were  taking  home  devoured  their  rations.  However,  before 
we  reached  the  Maryland  border,  we  were  alike  destitute  of  knapsacks,  dogs  and 
rations,  but  the  boys  were  tired  out. 

"Col.  H.  W.  Jackson  recently  delivered  a  lecture  before  the  Historical  Society 
in  this  city,  wherein  he  very  properly  paid  a  tribute  to  the  generosity  and  patri- 
otism of  the  people  of  Maryland  and  Pennsylvania,  who  are  said  to  have  wel- 
comed the  advanced  guard  of  the  Union  Army  with  munificent  hospitality. 

"  I  pause  now  and  here  to  respectfully  recommend,  that  the  first  hundred 
pages  of  the  history  of  the  rebellion  be  kept  free  of  any  other  matter,  that 
thereon  may  be  recorded  the  outlines  of  some  slight  tribute  to  the  enormous 
appetite  of  that  advanced  guard,  and  of  that  army  that  consumed  everything  in 
its  progress,  and  left  its  track  as  destitute  of  rations  for  its  rear  guard,  as  if  it 
had  been  marching  across  the  Sahara. 

"  I  have  offered,  and  have  seen  other  soldiers  offer,  to  those  generous  and  pat- 
riotic citizens  one  dollar  a  loaf  for  bread,  and  no  takers.  There  was  none.  Never 
before  had  these  boys  passed  a  summer  beyond  the  cool  breezes  of  their  native 
mountains,  but  they  then  found  themselves  in  a  climate  almost  tropical,  burdened 
with  the  weight  of  gun  and  ammunition,  and  clothed  with  heavy  woolen  gar- 
ments, and  thus  they  marched  on  and  on,  over  a  seemingly  endless  track, 
fatigued,  hungry,  exhausted,  the  perspiration  pouring  from  them  like  summer 
rain. 

"  In  many  cases  the  rough  stones  of  the  macadam  pike  had  worn  through  the 
'soles  of  their  shoes,  and  their  tracks  were  blood-stained.  They  were  too  plucky 
to  fall  out  when  exhausted;  they  fell  out  only  when  they  fainted. 

"We  actually  marched  past  the  prostrate  forms  of  unconscious  soldiers,  strug- 
gling convulsively  in  the  dust.  So  urgent  was  the  march,  that  we  were  not 
allowed  to  stop  and  assist  such  a  one.  We  were  only  permitted  to  leave  the 


I  26  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ranks  for  water  three  times  a  day,  and  a  canteen  full,  under  the  circumstances, 
would  not  last  an  hour. 

"These  were  my  school  fellows.  Their  parents,  their  mothers  had  charged 
me  with  their  well  being.  They  were  on  the  cruel  road  from  Gethsemane  to 
their  Golgotha,  like  that  innocent  Nazarene,  whom  our  order  recognizes,  and 
whom  my  mother  had  taught  me  to  worship  as  a  God,  because  he  gave  up  his 
life  for  others.  But  these  brave  boys,  amidst  all  the  extremes  of  their  suffering, 
were  each  bearing  his  cross  toward  his  Calvary,  there  to  offer  up  himself,  a  willing 
sacrifice  for  my  liberty  and  for  yours,  and  that  of  all  the  people  that  dwell  in  this 
broad  land  from  ocean  to  ocean,  and  all  the  generations  that  are  to  come. 

"These  were  the  martyrs  of  liberty,  and  their  piteous  cries  of  distress  went  up 
to  heaven.  They  were  perishing  from  thirst  with  an  abundance  of  water  in 
sight.  What  less  could  man  have  done  than  what  I  did  ?  And,  except  the  pleas- 
ing consciousness  that  attends  well  doing,  what  greater  pleasure  can  I  now  expe- 
rience than  comes  to  me  from  your  generous  indorsement  of  my  act?  Surely 
man  in  his  dark  strivings  may  still  be  conscious  of  the  right  way. 

"I  was  ordered  under  arrest,  and  deprived  of  my  sword.  It  was  placed  in  the 
possession  of  the  quartermaster,  for  it  was  supposed  I  had  disgraced  it.  In  my 
then  situation,  nothing  for  arms  was  obtainable  but  a  common  camp  hatchet, 
and  with  that  I  encountered  the  enemy.  But  to-night,  you  encounter  me  with  a 
hatchet  of  gold,  and  I  interpret  your  peaceful  attack  to  mean,  that  there  are 
exceptions  to  all  general  rules,  and  that  an  intelligent,  manly  act,  prompted  by 
pure  purposes,  will  always  answer  for  its  own  consequences  and  furnish  its  own 
vindication.  Upon  the  medal  which  you  have  presented" to  me,  appears  the 
hatchet,  but  no  word  of  disgrace.  I  read  upon  it  words  of  commendation. 
Surely,  time  dispels  the  illusions  of  opinion,  and  vindicates  all  things  that  in 
themselves  are  right.  Again,  sir,  permit  me  to  thank  you  and  these  friends  for 
your  kind  words,  and  this  elegant  gift." 

During  this  desperate  engagement  he  was  injured  in  the  head  by  concussion 
from  the  explosion  of  a  shell,  while  in  the  act  of  aiding  one  of  his  soldiers,  who 
had  had  a  leg  carried  away  by  a  shell.  The  final  result  of  this  injury  was  the 
permanent  loss  of  nearly  all  of  the  hair  on  his  head.  Notwithstanding  this  severe 
injury  he  remained  on  the  field,  refusing  to  be  taken  to  the  rear,  and  held  himself 
in  readiness  to  take  part  in  any  succeeding  battle  as  his  condition  would  admit 
of,  but  the  battle  was  essentially  closed,  and  he,  with  the  regiment,  was  taken  to 
Vermont  and  mustered  out.  Subsequently  Vermont  attempted  to  organize  a  vet- 
eran regiment  from  the  discharged  brigade,  and  he  was  commissioned  recruiting 
officer  for  northern  Vermont,  and  had  a  company  of  one  hundred  and  sixty  men 
ready  to  muster  long  before  any  one  else.  The  veterans  had  confidence  in  him,' 
and  enlisted  under  him.  He  accepted  the  captaincy  of  the  company;  though  he 
had  not  sufficiently  recovered  his  health  to  again  engage  in  the  service,  he  listened 
to  the  call  of  duty,  which  was  to  him  paramount  to  all  other  considerations.  In 
the  spring  of  1864  the  regiment  was  organized  as  the  iyth  Vermont,  and  imme- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  \2"J 

diately  took  the  field  and  participated  in  the  Battle  of  the  Wilderness,  in  which 
on  May  6,  following,  he  lost  his  left  arm  by  a  minie  ball  which  entered  his 
shoulder  and  came  out  at  the  elbow,  while  that  arm  was  extended  in  giving 
orders  to  his  men  on  the  left.  The  arm  was  amputated,  and  after  great  suffering 
it  healed.  One  of  the  fortunate  results  of  this  wound  was  his  complete  recovery 
from  the  injury  in  the  head,  the  cerebral  pressure  being  relieved  by  the  excessive 
discharge  of  blood. 

After  his  final  muster  out,  and  when  he  had  recovered  his  health  and  strength 
sufficiently  to  admit  of  his  pursuing  his  studies,  he  entered  the  Albany  Law  Uni- 
versity, and  graduated  with  the  highest  honors  of  his  class  March  3,  1868;  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  and  removed  to  Chicago,  and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  which  he  has  persistently  followed  since.  When  he  commenced  he 
had  but  twenty-five  dollars  in  his  pocket,  and  had  never  spent  an  hour  in  a  law 
office,  but  as  the  result  solely  of  his  law  practice  he  has  accumulated  a  handsome 
fortune,  including  the  Vermont  block,  where  his  office  is,  and  real  estate  else- 
where. The  great  fire  destroyed  his  building  and  a  fine  law  library,  but  he  has 
more  than  recovered  all  since.  In  pursuing  the  legal  profession  his  courage  has 
never  faltered,  and  invention  and  enterprise  have  distinguished  his  career  in 
Chicago. 

The  following  illustrates  his  invention:  After  the  great  fire  in  Chicago,  Capt. 
Brown  rented  for  a  law  office  a  room  on  Desplaines  street,  Chicago,  wherein  was 
a  pine  table  and  upon  it  a  copy  of  the  New  Testament.  A  man  called  for  advice. 
He  stated  that  as  a  collector  he  held  money  which  he  desired  to  use  a  few  days, 
but  that  it  belonged  •'to  his  principal,  who  threatened  to  capias  him  unless  he  paid 
over.  Capt.  Brown  told  his  client  that  he  had  the  latest  law  on  the  subject,  and 
opening  the  Testament  read  Mat.  v,  25:  "Agree  with  thine  adversary  quickly," 
etc.  That  law  settled  that  case. 

As  we  have  said,  he  has  been  financially  successful,  but  none  of  his  gold  is 
stained  with  blood,  or  rusted  with  tears.  His  purpose  and  practice  is  to  render 
to  every  man  his  just  dues  without  distinction.  His  present  partner,  Mr.  Hull, 
relates  an  incident  illustrating  Capt.  Brown's  old  fashioned  notions  of  honesty 
and  fair  dealing:  During  Mr.  Hull's  earliest  connection  with  the  office  as  a  clerk, 
one  of  his  duties  was  to  watch  the  court  calls,  and  not  being  familiar  with  his 
duties,  a  case  of  replevin  went  by  default,  and  a  judgment  in  trover  for  $290.45  was 
rendered  against  his  client,  and  the  term  passed  so  that  it  could  not  be  set  aside. 
Capt.  Brown  promptly  drew  his  check  payable  to  his  client's  order  for  that  amount, 
and  no  case  has  since  gone  by  default  in  that  office. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  has  not  only  never  sought  to  be  retained  in  cases 
merely  for  advertisement,  but  has,  as  now  appears,  sometimes  declined  retainers 
in  cases  that  vainer  men  would  gladly  grasp.  Two  criminals  in  fleeing  from  the 
scene,  of  a  burglary  they  had  just  committed  in  Chicago,  were  arrested  by  police 
officer  Hubner,  whom  one  of  them  killed.  James  Tracy  and  Michael  Rock,  two 
discharged  convicts,  were  arrested  and  held  for  that  crime.  Rock's  father  and 


128  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO. 

brothers  knowing  the  captain's  skill,  ability  and  success  as  an  advocate,  offered 
him  a  retainer  for  the  defendant  Rock.  Before  accepting  it,  however,  he  inquired 
into  the  case,  and  the  following  letter  from  him  to  Mr.  Rock,  Sr.,  from  whom  the 
writer  obtained  it,  illustrates  points  in  Capt.  Brown's  professional  methods. 

JOSEPH  B.  ROCK,  Esq.  CHICAGO,  April  15,  1882. 

Dear  Sir: — I  have  inquired  into  the  case  of  your  son,  charged  with  murder,  and  give  you 
timely  information  that  I  cannot  undertake  the  case,  for  the  following  reasons  :  First,  Your  son, 
apparently  more  anxious  for  Tracy's  safely  than  his  own,  demands  that  we  defend  Tracy  jointly 
with  himself.  Second,  That  we  prove  by  members  of  your  family  that  Tracy  slept  with  Michael 
Rock  at  your  house  on  the  night  of  the  murder,  -which  was  not  a  fact.  Third,  That  if  we  fail  to 
establish  that  false  alibi  for  Tracy,  Michael  Rock  threatens  to  be  sworn  and  deny  the  testimony  of 
his  brothers  and  sisters,  necessary  witnesses  in  his  own  defense.  Thanking  you  for  the  efforts  you 
have  made  to  change  the  insane  purposes  of  your  son,  and  fully  appreciating  the  confidence  that 
has  induced  you  to  request  my  professional  services  in  a  case  of  such  moment  to  him  and  your 
household,  I  must  decline  to  accept  the  retainer  you  so  generously  offer. 

I  have  the  honor  to  be,  very  respectfully  yours,  STEPHEN  F.  BROWN, 

For  Brown  and  Hull. 

P.S.  I  am  satisfied  that  your  son  is  innocent  of  the  murder,  and  I  shall  not  fail  to  exert  my 
influence  in  favor  of  his  acquittal.  S.  F.  B. 

James  Tracy  expiated  his  crimes  on  the  gallows  in  Chicago,  September  15, 
1882,  and  the  case  against  Michael  Rock  was  nolle  prossed.  Capt.  Brown  never 
sought  a  criminal  practice,  but  has  been  uniformly  successful  in  every  criminal 
trial  he  has  undertaken;  and  in  some  important  cases  he  has  defended,  the  evi- 
dence of  the  defendant's  guilt  seemed  overwhelming;  but  the  attorney  fully 
believed  in  the  innocence  of  his  client. 

In  the  McManus  arson  case  defendant  was  a  saloon-keeper,  and  lived  on  the 
same  floor  and  in  rear  of  the  saloon.  The  stock  in  trade  was  insured  for  $600, 
and  there  was  not  a  pint  of  liquor  or  a  cigar  in  the  saloon,  and  when  the  fire 
department  arrived  defendant  had  his  household  goods  packed  and  moved  into 
the  alley  in  the  rear  with  his  family.  The  fire  was  easily  extinguished.  The 
firemen  found  in  the  saloon  a  ball  of  candle  wicking  saturated  with  kerosene.  It 
was  therefore  conceded  that  the  place  was  set  on  fire.  The  case  was  stubbornly 
prosecuted,  and  the  trial  was  a  severe  one.  The  fire  department,  an  insurance 
company  and  an  irate  and  wealthy  landlord  assisted  the  prosecution.  But  Capt. 
Brown's  management  of  the  case  was  as  fearless  and  honorable  as  it  was  inge- 
nious and  masterly,  and  the  jury  acquitted  the  defendant. 

Shortly  after  the  great  fire  a  maimed  soldier,  named  Sommers,  who  kept  a 
saloon  on  North  Desplaines  street,  Chicago,  was  arrested  for  assault  with  a  deadly 
weapon  with  intent  to  kill.  The  circumstances  attending  the  assault  were  that  a 
mob  had  surrounded  the  saloon  to  obtain  free  drinks,  and  the  accused,  after  vainly 
trying  to  disperse  the  mob,  fired  a  pistol  shot  in  the  air  above  their  heads,  and 
that  only  caused  derision.  He  next  fired  directly  to  disperse  the  mob,  and  the 
bullet  lodged  in  the  leg  of  a  small  boy  on  the  outskirts  of  the  crowd.  Hence  the 
arrest. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  I  2Q 

Capt.  Brown  sought  to  introduce  evidence  to  prove  among  other  things  that 
as  many  as  twelve  of  the  individuals  in  that  mob  had  since  that  time  been  indict- 
ed for  various  crimes,  from  highway  robbery  to  petty  larceny,  but  the  court 
refused  to  allow  the  evidence;  and  though  it  was  conceded  to  be  the  rule  that  if 
the  accused  was  found  to  have  acted  as  a  man  of  ordinary  prudence  would  have 
acted  under  similar  circumstances  the  jury  must  acquit  the  accused,  yet  the 
court  refused  to  admit  testimony  tending  to  show  what  the  circumstances  were. 
Thereupon  Capt.  Brown,  as  defendant's  counsel,  appealed  from  the  court  to  the 
jury  upon  a  question  of  law,  under  a  provision  of  the  Illinois  statutes,  and  the 
jury  discharged  the  defendant.  It  was  an  extraordinary  proceeding,  and  one 
never  resorted  to  in  any  other  case  that  has  come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  writer, 
but  it  was  the  only  thing  that  could  have  saved  the  defendant  from  a  verdict  of 
guilty.  It  was  afterward  ascertained  to  have  been  the  intention  of  the  judge  to 
have  suspended  sentence  in  the  event  of  a  verdict  of  guilty;  but  the  attorney 
replied  that  he  had  no  knowledge  at  the  time  as  to  any  such  intention,  and 
thought  the  intention  to  convict  was  sufficiently  manifest.  The  jury  immediately 
rendered  their  verdict  of  acquittal,  and  the  enthusiastic  friends  of  the  defendant 
lifted  Capt.  Brown  upon  their  shoulders,  much  to  his  surprise  and  against  his 
earnest  protest,  and  bore  him  triumphantly  from  the  court-house. 

His  practice  has  been  largely  in  the  civil  courts,  wherein  he  has  had  occasion 
to  rejoice  in  many  triumphs,  while  his  defeats  can  be  numbered  on  the  fingers  of 
one  hand,  and  these  only  because  occasionally  misinformed  by  a  client.  In  every 
sense  of  the  term  his  career  has  marked  the  successful  lawyer. 

In  the  circuit  court,  before  Judge  McAllister  and  a  jury,  he  defended  Peter  E. 
Reimond  in  an  action  brought  by  Richard  Bonhomie  to  recover  $1,500,  and 
actually  recovered  a  verdict  against  the  plaintiff  in  the  suit  in  favor  of  the  defend- 
ant for  $271  and  costs. 

Capt.  Brown  was  intrusted  with  the  prosecution  or  defense  of  many  mechan- 
ics' lien  suits  brought  after  the  rebuilding  that  followed  the  great  fire  of  Chicago, 
and  in  every  one  of  these  suits  he  was  equally  successful,  whether  for  plaintiff  or 
defendant,  and  some  of  them  were  hotly  contested.  Not  the  least  notable  among 
them  was  the  case  of  Biggs  et  al.  vs.  Clapp,  in  which  he'was  opposed  by  Messrs. 
Fuller  and  Smith.  That  case  was  reported  in  the  "Chicago  Legal  News"  of 
1875,  p.  272,  and  in  the  seventy-fourth  volume  Illinois  Supreme  Court  Reports. 

Another  notable  case  that  he  defended  was  Holden  vs.  Bushnell  et  al.,  the  last 
trial  over  which  the  late  Judge  Porter,  of  the  superior  court,  presided.  The 
amount  involved  was  $20,000,  and  the  trial  of  the  cause  occupied  the  entire  week 
preceding  the  sudden  death  of  the  judge. 

Capt.  Brown  made  a  successful  defense,  closing  the  case  with  a  masterly  argu- 
ment ;  and  though  he  had  not  averaged  three  hours  of  rest  out  of  every  twenty- 
four  during  the  trial,  he  was  in  good  condition  at  its  close,  but  both  attorneys  for 
plaintiff  were  exhausted. 

A  fine  physical  constitution  and  untiring  industry,  united  with  strong  common 


130  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

sense  and  natural  tact,  arm  him  with  the  power  of  "bringing  things  to  pass,' 
and  his  unassailable  integrity  gives  him  power  with  judges  and  jurors. 

Capt.  Stephen  F.  Brown  has  never  yet  been,  but  has  thus  far  declined  to  be,  a 
candidate  for  any  political  office.  In  1873  a  nominating  convention  sent  its  com- 
mittee to  tender  him  a  membership  in  the  legislature,  which  he  declined.  In 
1868  the  executive  committees,  on  behalf  of  both  political  parties  jointly,  tendered 
him  the  nomination  for  alderman  of  the  First,  the  ward  containing  the  amassed 
wealth  of  Chicago.  Dr.  J.  Ward  Ellis,  in  tendering  the  support  of  the  democracy, 
stated  that  his  party  expected  Capt.  Brown  to  accept  the  nomination  as  a  repub- 
lican. His  charities  and  helpfulness  to  the  poor  and  distressed  have  made  him 
as  universally  loved  as  he  is  universally  respected. 

His  father  and  mother,  stricken  with  years,  still  reside  in  the  valley  of  Lake 
Champlain,  in  Swanton,  Vermont.  He  is  all  that  remains  to  them,  having  lost 
his  only  brother,  Lieut.  S.  G.  Brown,  Jr.,  in  the  war.  He  spends  every  court 
vacation  with  them. 

Ambition  for  political  distinction  has  not  lured  him  from  professional  pursuits, 
but  it  is  intimated  among  his  friends  that  filial  duty  may  induce  him  to  abandon 
the  law.  There  are  circumstances  aside  from  their  earlier  associations  that  ren- 
der it  impracticable  for  his  parents  to  come  west.  But  if  Stephen  F.  Brown  leaves 
the  West,  we  shall  hear  from  him  in  the  East. 


ALLAN    C.    STORY. 

A, LAN  C.  STORY,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  and  one  of  the  leading  lawyers 
of  the  Chicago  bar,  was  born  in  Allegany  county,  New  York,  August  i, 
1835.  His  grandfather,  Rev.  Cyrus  Story,  was  of  an  old  Massachusetts  family  of 
English  origin,  a  clergyman,  and  latterly  a  member  of  the  old  Genesee  confer- 
ence of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  as  was  also  his  father,  Rev.  Asa  Story, 
who  with  true  heroism  bore  for  many  years  the  privations  common  to  men  of  his 
profession  in  those  early  days.  In  1828  he  married  Miss  Minerva  Davis,  of  Caze- 
novia,  New  York,  a  young  lady  of  excellent  family  and  religious  cjiaracter. 
There  were  four  children  born  of  this  marriage,  of  whom  Allan  C.  was  the 
youngest.  During  infancy  he  suffered  the  loss  of  a  kind  and  gentle  mother,  and 
at  the  tender  age  of  twelve  years  was  left  an  orphan  by  the  death  of  his  father, 
who  died  at  Pine  Bluff,  Arkansas,  to  which  place  he  had  gone  in  the  hope  that  a 
milder  climate  might  restore  his  then  failing  health.  His  son  Allan  was  thus  a 
young  lad  thrown  almost  entirely  upon  his  own  resources,  the  expenses  incident 
to  his  father's  sickness  and  death  in  a  strange  land  having  exhausted  the  small 
savings  of  a  frugal  life,  and  left  him  only  a  father's  good  name  as  an  inherit- 
ance. The  struggle  for  an  education  at  first  seemed  almost  desperate,  but 
with  energy  and  some  slight  assistance  from  kind  relatives  he  was  able  to  attend 
school  winters,  working  as  a  farm  hand  during  the  summer  months.  A  bright 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  133 

and  precocious  youth,  he  made  rapid  progress,  and  soon  was  enabled,  as  a  teacher, 
to  increase  his  income,  and  thus  to  acquire,  in  part  at  least,  a  collegiate  education 
at  Genesee  College  and  the  University  of  Albany,  though  he  felt  constrained  by 
reason  of  his  limited  means  to  commence  the  study  of  law  before  completing  a 
full  collegiate  course.  In  1855  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Rogers,  Lowman 
and  King,  at  Elmira,  New  York,  where  he  remained  until  1856,  when  he  entered 
the  office  of  Hon.  Ira  Harris,  at  Albany,  attending  lectures  at  the  law  school  of 
the  university,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York  in  March  1857.  He 
practiced  in  Livingston  county  until  1859,  when  he  visited  Pine  Bluff,  Arkansas. 
Thence  he  proceeded  to  New  Orleans,  where  he  landed  an  entire  stranger.  He 
there  found  that  owing  to  the  peculiar  code  of  Louisiana  he  must  again  become 
a  student  before  being  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  entered  the  law  office  of  Whita- 
ker  and  Fellows,  where  he  prosecuted  his  studies  with  vigor,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  that  state  in  1860,  and,  remaining  with  that  firm, 
was  doing  a  prosperous  business  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  war.  As  all  northern 
men  were  looked  upon  with  suspicion  at  this  time,  he  gathered  together  a  few 
books,  secured  as  much  for  his  interest  in  the  business  as  he  could,  reluctantly 
leaving  the  Crescent  City,  which  he  had  intended  to  make  his  home,  and  returned 
to  the  North  in  April  1861.  After  visiting  friends,  he  entered  the  office  of  W. 
J.  Baxter,  at  Jonesville,  Michigan,  and  was  admitted  in  the  supreme  court  of 
that  state  in  November  1861.  Desiring  a  wider  field  of  labor,  he  removed  to 
Chicago  in  June,  1862,  where  he  has  since  devoted  himself  untiringly  to  his  pro- 
fession, being  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  September  of  that  year.  His 
name  appears  frequently  in  the  reports  of  the  state  in  connection  with  many 
important  leading  cases,  most  of  them  pioneers  in  the  principles  established. 
Among  these  Mason  vs.  Dousay  is  the  leading  case,  holding  a  parol  accept- 
ance of  a  bill  of  exchange  to  be  valid.  Burton  vs.  Curyea  holds  that  warehouse 
receipts  are  non-negotiable.  Green  vs.  Williams  is  a  leading  case  upon  the 
measure  of  damages  on  a  breach  by  the  lessor  of  the  covenants  of  a  lease. 
Commercial  Insurance  Company  vs.  Mehlman  establishes  the  right  of  a  corpo- 
ration to  take  a  change  of  venue  like  other  litigants.  In  People  ex  rel.  vs. 
Chicago  City  Railway  Company,  involving  important  constitutional  questions, 
he  was  acting  attorney  general  appointed  by  the  circuit  court  to  bring  the 
suit.  Garrick  vs.  Chamberlain,  one  of  his  more  recent  cases,  is  remarkable  in 
that  a  tax  title  was  allowed  to  prevail  in  a  court  of  equity,  probably  for 
the  first  time  in  any  court.  The  principles  here  established  were  important 
and  just,  and  have  since  been  followed  generally.  Insurance  Company  vs.  Corn- 
stock,  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  was  a  case  where  Mr.  Story  as  coun- 
selor successfully  established  the  right  of  a  bankrupt  after  adjudication  to  take 
a  bill  of  exceptions  and  writ  of  error  upon  the  judgment  adjudging  him  bankrupt. 
This  case  is  a  notable  one,  not  only  as  to  the  theory  and  practice  of  the  law  in 
bankrupt  cases,  but  also  as  to  its  practical  effect.  In  August,  1863,  Mr.  Story 
was  married  to  Miss  Cornelia  Witherell,  a  daughter  of  the  late  Henry  M.  With- 
14 


134  TIIE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

erell,  M.D.,  of  Waukegan,  Illinois.  In  religion  Mr.  Story  is  an  Episcopalian,  and 
in  politics  has  always  been  an  ardent  democrat.  He  was  secretary  for  Illinois 
of  the  national  democratic  convention  held  in  St.  Louis  in  1876,  and  has  been 
frequently  and  favorably  mentioned  in  connection  with  a  congressional  nomina- 
tion. In  July,  1882,  he  was  appointed  by  Mayor  Harrison  to  the  board  of  educa- 
tion of  Chicago,  and  has  proved  himself  an  active,  efficient  and  prominent  member. 
He  has  a  large  and  profitable  clientage,  and  may  be  classed  as  an  able  and 
successful  lawyer. 

JOSEPH    W.   MERRIAM. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  well  read  lawyer  in  all  of  the  branches  of  the 
profession.  He  was  born  in  Coos  county,  New  Hampshire,  June  14,  1828, 
the  son  of  David  Merriam  and  Joanna  (Smith)  Merriam.  His  grandfather  was 
a  soldier  in  the  revolutionary  war,  and  was  in  the  battle  of  Stony  Point  under 
Gen.  Wayne;  and  was  one  of  three  men  in  the  town  of  Northumberland  to  vote 
for  Thomas  Jefferson  the  first  time  he  was  a  candidate  for  the  presidency.  Mr. 
Merriam  received  his  earlier  education  in  the  common  schools,  and  afterward 
pursued  a  classical  and  scientific  academic  course.  He  read  law  three  years  in 
Lancaster,  New  Hampshire,  with  Messrs.  Burns  and  Fletcher,  both  of  whom  were 
very  eminent  men,  and  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  in  New  Hampshire  at  that 
time.  Mr.  Merriam 's  course  of  study  was  very  thorough,  and  he  imbibed  deeply 
of  the  principles  of  the  common  law,  and  was  well  grounded  in  the  rudiments  of 
the  profession.  He  went  into  the  newspaper  business  in  1857,  and  was  connected 
editorially  with  the  New  Hampshire  "Patriot,"  where  he  displayed  rare  talent  as 
a  political  writer,  his  paper  taking  rank  as  one  of  the  ablest  journals  in  New  Eng- 
land under  his  leadership.  He  was  afterward  connected  with  the  Memphis,  Ten- 
nessee, "  Avalanche,"  but  severed  his  connection  with  it  in  1860,  not  being  disposed 
to  continue  with  it  after  it  had  declared  for  secession,  and  commenced  the  practice 
of  his  profession  at  Memphis.  Mr.  Merriam  was  on  a  hunting  expedition  in 
Mississippi,  some  twenty-five  miles  below  Memphis,  when  Fort  Sumter  was  fired 
upon.  He  at  once  returned  to  Memphis,  arriving  there  April  15,  1861,  to  find  his 
partner  prepared  to  start  north.  Mr.  Merriam  remained  until  April  25,  when  he 
embarked  on  board  the  last  steamboat  allowed  by  Gen.  Polk  to  pass  Columbus,  and 
says  "  if  ever  a  man  felt  grateful  for  a  sight  of  the  United  States  flag,  it  was  I, 
when  the  old  star  spangled  banner  first  met  my  view  at  Cairo,"  Illinois.  He  landed 
beneath  its  ample  folds  as  it  floated  out  over  the  Father  of  Waters,  and  cheered 
heartily  for  the  Union.  He  then  went  to  Grinnell,  Iowa,  and  practiced  law  in 
that  place  one  year  with  reasonable  success.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1862, 
and  formed  a  partnership  with  Solomon  M.  Wilson,  a  well  known  Chicago  lawyer, 
under  the  firm  name  of  Wilson  and  Merriam;  afterward  associated  himself  with 
Mr.  Alexander,  under  the  firm  name  of  Merriam  and  Alexander,  a  partnership 
which  continued  about  fourteen  years. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  135 

Mr.  Merriam  was  in  business  by  himself  from  1877  to  1880,  when  the  present 
firm  of  Merriam  and  Whipple  was  formed.  This  firm  has  a  very  respectable 
business,  largely  in  chancery  matters,  and  business  connected  with  patent  litiga- 
tion. They  also,  to  a  considerable  extent,  engage  in  a  general  law  business.  As 
a  lawyer,  Mr.  Merriam  justly  sustains  the  reputation  of  being  a  very  thorough 
practitioner,  discriminating  and  accurate,  having  a  well  balanced  judgment, 
which,  combined  with  that  sterling  integrity  that  characterizes  the  natives  of  the 
granite  hills,  has  won  for  him  the  respect  of  all  who  know  him,  both  as  a  lawyer 
and  a  citizen. 

HON.  E.  A.  OTIS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  August  2,  1835,  at  Marengo,  in'Calhoun 
county,  Michigan.  His  father,  Hon.  Isaac  Otis,  was  one  of  the  old  settlers 
of  Michigan,  and  at  one  time  judge  of  the  probate  court  of  Barry  county.  His 
mother's  maiden  name  was  Caroline  Curtis.  She  was  a  daughter  of  Hon.  Gideon 
Curtis,  of  Courtland  county,  New  York.  Both  his  parents  were  Quakers,  and 
natives  of  New  York  state,  and  of  English  descent. 

Mr.  Otis  lived  on  a  farm  until  nineteen  years  of  age,  attending  school  at 
Albion,  Michigan,  and  afterward  at  the  Michigan  University.  In  the  fall  of  1856, 
he  began  the  study  of  the  law  with  Hon.  Joseph  Miller,  at  Kalamazoo,  Michigan. 
After  completing  his  legal  course  of  study,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
entered  into  the  practice  of  the  law  at  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  in  company  with  his 
brother,  Hon.  George  L.  Otis,  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  that  state,  and  was 
in  successful  business  there  from  that  time  until  the  opening  of  the  civil  war.  He 
assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  2d  Minn.  Inf.,  and  was  commissioned  a 
lieutenant  in  that  regiment,  which,  in  October,  1861,  was  ordered  to  join  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland.  He  was  immediately  detailed  on  the  staff  of  Gen.  R. 
W.  Johnson,  with  whose  command  he  served  until  after  the  battle  of  Shiloh,  in 
which  he  participated.  In  the  spring  of  1862,  at  the  request  of  Brig.  Gen.  Van 
Cleave,  the  old  colonel  of  the  2d  Minn.,  Mr.  Otis  was  assigned  to  duty  on  his 
staff  as  assistant  adjutant-general,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  the  close  of 
the  war,  through  all  of  the  campaigns  of  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland.  He  was 
in  the  battles  of  Shiloh,  Murfreesborough,  Perryville  and  Chickamauga,  in  all  of 
which  his  command  was  very  heavily  engaged.  He  left  the  army  after  the  battle 
of  Nashville,  in  December  1864,  being  satisfied  that  the  war  was  over.  He  was 
then  serving  temporarily  on  the  staff  of  Maj.  Gen.  Rosseau,  of  Kentucky. 

Believing  that  the  southern  country  would  be  opened  to  northern  emigration, 
he  opened  a  law  office  in  Nashville,  Tennessee,  in  1865,  when  he  took  an  active 
part  in  the  reconstruction  of  that  state,  and  was  a  warm  personal  friend  of  the 
late  ex-Gov.  Brownlow.  He  was  commissioned  chancellor  in  the  Nashville  chan- 
cery district  of  Tennessee  in  1868,  being  the  youngest  man,  who,  up  to  that  time, 
had  ever  held  that  office  in  that  state.  He  filled  this  position  with  great  ability, 


1^6  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

giving  universal  satisfaction  to  all  having  business  connection  with  that  high 
court,  where  he  presided  about  one  year.  Judge  Otis  arrived  in  Chicago,  June  10, 
1869.  On  the  22d  of  the  same  month,  when  the  court  convened,  over  which  he 
had  presided,  a  meeting  of  his  old  associates  at  the  bar  in  Nashville  was  held,  at 
which  the  following  resolutions  were  reported  by  a  committee,  composed  of  Col. 
William  B.  Reese,  Hon.  William  F.  Cooper,  Gov.  Neil  S.  Brown,  Hon.  Francis  B. 
Fogg  and  H.  H.  Harrison. 

"  Chancellor  E.  A.  Otis,  having  found  it  to  be  to  his  interest  to  remove  from  Tennessee  to  the 
city  of  Chicago,  to  engage  in  the  practice  of  the  law  at  that  place,  and  having  left  the  bench  at  the 
close  of  the  term  for  which  he  had  been  appointed  chancellor  of  this  division,  the  members  of  the 
Nashville  bar,  desiring  to  attest  their  appreciation  of  his  labors  and  merits,  have  met  and 

"Resolved:  That  we  regret  that  circumstances  have  called  Judge  Otis  from  our  midst,  and  that 
our  best  wishes  for  his  success  and  prosperity  in  his  new  field  of  labor  attend  him. 

"Resolved:  That  the  industry  and  ability  he  manifested  in  the  examination  of  questions 
brought  before  him  while  presiding  as  chancellor,  and  his  gentlemanly  bearing  and  courtesy  to  the 
members  of  the  bar,  in  the  discharge  of  his  official  duties,  entitle  him  to  our  high  consideration  and 
esteem. 

"Resolved:  That  a  copy  of  these  resolutions  be  forwarded  to  Judge  Otis,  and  inserted  in  the 
Nashville  papers,  and  that  the  chancellor  be  moved  to  enter  them  on  the  records  of  the  chancery 
court." 

Judge  Otis  was  a  prominent  republican,  and  assisted  in  the  organization  of 
the  republican  party  in  Tennessee,  and  was  one  of  the  few  northern  men  who  had 
been  prominent  republicans  in  the  South,  and  who  came  away,  retaining  the 
friendship  of  the  ex-rebels.  Among  other  able  and  leading  men  in  this  country, 
during  his  service  in  the  army,  and  during  his  residence  at  Nashville,  he  made 
the  acquaintance  of  Gen.  George  H.  Thomas,  and  sustained  warm  personal  rela- 
tions with  him  up  to  the  day  of  his  death.  He  was.  employed  by  him  in  several 
suits  in  which  officers  who  had  served  under  Gen.  Thomas  during  the  war  had 
been  sued  in  connection  with  the  reconstruction  policy.  Among  others,  was  one 
brought  against  Hon.  William  B.  Woods,  now  associate  justice  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  in  which  he  was  entirely  successful. 

He  was  also  employed  by  Gov.  Brownlow  to  defend  the  constitutionality  of 
the  Tennessee  franchise  law,  whereby  confederate  soldiers  were  excluded  from 
voting.  He  made  a  very  able  and  elaborate  argument  on  that  question  before 
the  supreme  court  of  Tennessee,  and  afterward  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the 
United  States,  and  was  successful  in  every  case  where  a  decision  was  rendered. 
Since  coming  to  Chicago,  Judge  Otis  has  been  in  the  general  practice  of  the  law, 
having  numerous  chancery  cases,  and  a  large  amount  of  business  for  national 
banks  in  Chicago,  and  in  the  East.  In  all  of  his  business  he  has  been  very  suc- 
cessful. 

He  is  a  very  thorough  lawyer  in  all  branches,  possessing  an  analytic  mind 
with  great  power  of  condensation.  He  is  quick  of  apprehension,  has  large  rea- 
soning faculties,  a  retentive  memory,  a  copious  flow  of  language  and  is  fertile  in 
original  ideas,  and  eminently  skillful  in  arguing  questions  of  law  before  a  court. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  137 

He  is  a  gentleman  of  fine  presence,  being  of  medium  height  and  size,  of  light 
complexion,  with  a  high,  broad  forehead  and  dark,  large  eyes.  He  is  urbane  in 
his  manners,  social  in  his  intercourse  with  mankind,  and  sustains  a  reputation  for 
honor,  integrity  and  truthfulness  second  to  no  man.  He  has  a  keen  sense  of  jus- 
tice, which  he  upholds  with  an  untiring  energy. 

He  has  been  prominently  connected  with  the  Historical  Society  of  Chicago, 
and  the  Chicago  Literary  Club,  and  is  one  of  the  founders  of  the  society  of  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland,  and  also  a  member  of  the  military  order  of  the  Loyal 
Legion  and  the  Grand  Army,  and  other  ex-soldier  societies.  Judge  Otis  belongs 
to  a  family  of  lawyers,  and  is  one  of  five  brothers,  all  prominent  and  successful 
in  the  profession. 

WALLACE    SMITH. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  descended  of  Scotch-Irish  parentage.  He  was 
born  at  Troy,  New  York,  May  28,  1850,  and,  consequently,  is  in  his  thirty- 
third  year.  He  was  named  after  Sir  William  Wallace,  the  hero  of  his  father's 
native  country,  but  for  many  years,  except  on  occasions  such  as  being  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  the  present  one,  he  has  abbreviated  his  name  to  read  Wallace 
Smith,  instead  of  William  Wallace,  having  been  so  called  from  his  boyhood  up. 
His  father,  George  Smith,  was  born  in  Paisley,  Scotland,  and  his  mother,  whose 
maiden  name  was  Jane  Maloy,  was  born  in  the  County  of  Cavan,  Ireland.  After 
bringing  Ireland  to  submission  in  the  seventeenth  century,  Cromwell  peopled 
this  part  of  it  from  Scotland,  therefore  Mrs.  Smith's  ancestors  must  also  have 
been  Scotch. 

Mr.  Smith's  parents  were  married  in  the  city  of  New  York  in  1845,  and  after- 
ward moved  to  Troy,  where  they  resided  for  some  years,  and  thence  removed  to 
Watkins,  New  York,  where  his  widowed  mother  still  resides.  His  parents 
belonged  to  different  religious  denominations,  his  father  belonging  to  the  estab- 
lished church  of  his  native  country,  and  his  mother  to  the  established  church  of 
England,  but  no  religious  restraint  being  placed  on  their  children,  they  were 
permitted  to  attend  the  churches  of  either  denomination  or  both.  Mr.  Smith's 
father  having  been  a  merchant,  it  was  his  intention  to  have  his  son  follow  that 
walk  of  life,  and  therefore  his  education  was  mainly  directed  to  that  end.  After 
having  attended  the  common  schools,  which  New  York  state  so  amply  affords,  up 
through  the  high  school,  he  was  sent  to  the  Watkins  Academy  for  several  years, 
where  he  graduated.  Then  he  was  sent  to  Eastman's  Business  College  at  Pough- 
keepsie,  New  York,  and  after  graduating  in  that  institution,  his  father  furnished 
the  capital  to  carry  on  the  boot  and  shoe  business,  which  proving  distasteful  to 
his  son  was  soon  abandoned  for  a  more  congenial  pursuit.  Mr.  Smith  now 
decided  to  study  law.  After  studying  the  law  in  his  native  state  for  a  time,  he 
came  west  and  settled  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  continued  its  study  for  over  two 
years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  he  was  admitted  by  the  supreme  court  at 


138  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO. 

Columbus  to  the  Ohio  bar,  his  certificate  bearing  date  January  19,  1875.  After 
being  so  admitted,  Mr.  Smith  continued  to  reside  in  Cincinnati,  and  practice  law 
there  till  the  spring  of  1879,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago.  On  June  12,  1879,  he  was 
admitted  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  at  Mount  Vernon,  to  practice  in  the 
courts  of  record  of  this  state,  since  which  time  he  has  continued  to  live  in  Chi- 
cago, and  practice  law. 

H.  S.  AND    F.  S.  OSBORNE. 

THE  senior  member  of  this  firm,  Henry  Sayre  Osborne,  was  born  November 
24,  1840,  in  New  York  city.  The  junior  member,  Frank  Sayre,  is  a  native 
of  the  same  place,  and  was  born  July  24,  1844.  Their  father  was  Milo  Osborne,  a 
steel  engraver  of  that  city,  who  married  Miss  Phoebe  A.  Sayre,  a  descendant  of 
one  of  the  oldest  and  most  honored  families  of  New  Jersey.  In  1852  the  family 
removed  to  Rock  county,  Wisconsin.  While  there  both  boys  entered  Beloit  Col- 
lege, Henry  graduating  in  1862,  and  Frank  in  1866.  Immediately  after  graduat- 
ing, Henry  enlisted  in  the  8th  Illinois  Cavalry,  and  at  the  same  time  became  the 
western  war  correspondent  of  the  Chicago  "Tribune."  He  served  through  the 
four  years  principally  in  the  East,  and  at  the  close  of  the  war,  was  detailed  to 
Texas  to  guard  the  frontier,  and  was  mustered  out  of  the  service  in  February 
1866.  He  at  once  returned  to  the  North,  and,  settling  at  Chicago,  commenced 
the  study  of  law,  and  in  1869  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois. 

Frank  Sayre  Osborne,  after  graduating  at  Beloit,  in  1866,  accepted  a  position 
as  teacher  in  a  public  school  in  Long  Island,  a  position  which  he  retained  three 
years,  improving  his  spare  time  by  studying  law.  In  1870  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  New  York,  and  at  once  proceeded  to  Chicago,  where,  in  the  same  year,  in 
connection  with  his  brother,  he  formed  the  present  firm  of  H.  S.  and  F.  S.  Osborne. 
In  politics  both  are  republican,  although  neither  take  an  active  part,  but  always 
vote  at  the  polls  and  the  primary  elections.  Frank  S.  was  married  October  20, 
1874,  to  a  daughter  of  Hon.  J.  Lawrence  Smith,  and  since  that  time  has  resided  in 
Hyde  Park,  his  brother  living  with  him.  In  religion  Henry  is  a  Presbyterian, 
and  takes  a  very  active  part  in  all  that  pertains  to  church  matters.  Frank  is  an 
active  and  leading  member  of  the  Hyde  Park  Episcopal  Church.  As  lawyers  the 
Messrs.  Osborne  rank  among  the  leaders  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago 
bar,  and  are  both  esteemed  by  the  profession  for  their  legal  attainments  and 
genuine  upright  manliness. 

BENJAMIN    M.   MUNN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  West  Fairlee,  Orange  county,  Vermont, 
in  the  year  1828,  on  a  farm,  where  he  worked  during  his  youth  and  early 
manhood,  until  he  resolved  upon  obtaining  a  liberal  education.    He  had  attended 
the  schools  of  his  native  town  during  the  periods  between  the  seasons  of  labor. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  139 

He  was  dependent  upon  his  own  resources,  which  consisted  mainly  of  health, 
strength,  determination,  decision,  willing  heart  and  hand,  a  robust  body  and  a 
well  balanced  mind.  His  education  was  obtained  in  the  schools  of  Vermont,  and 
in  Williams  College,  Massachusetts.  He  commenced  the  study  of  law,  the  pro- 
fession he  had  chosen,  in  Massachusetts,  and  completed  his  studies  in  Indiana, 
under  Hon.  William  S.  Holman;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1852,  after  which 
he  was  principal  of  the  Rising  Sun,  Indiana,  Female  Seminary,  one  year,  when  he 
moved  to  Charleston,  Illinois,  and  taught  the  academy  there  one  year,  when  he 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  in  that  place,  and  continued  until  1861.  During 
this  time  he  practiced  in  the  same  courts  with  Abraham  Lincoln,  Leonard  Swett, 
and  other  noted  men  who  traveled  that  circuit,  and  practiced  before  Hon.  David 
Davis  and  others.  In  1861  he  entered  the  Union  service  as  private,  and  was 
immediately  elected  captain  of  a  company  in  the  yth  111.  Inf.,  and  served  his 
country  well.  He  now  holds  the  oldest  captain's  commission  in  the  volunteer 
service  in  this  state.  He  settled  in  Chicago  in  1869,  and  was  made  deputy  col- 
lector of  internal  revenue  in  1872  and  1873,  a°d  assistant  counsel  to  the  corpora- 
tion of  Chicago,  under  the  late  Hon.  Jesse  O.  Norton,  and  was  acting  counsel  for 
several  months.  In  all  of  these  different  capacities  in  which  he  has  acted  for  the 
public  or  individual  client,  he  has  devoted  himself  to  the  conscientious  discharge 
of  his  duty,  and  has  always  been  faithful  and  honorable,  and  has  the  respect  of 
the  profession.  For  several  years  past  he  has  made  a  specialty  of  internal  revenue 
practice,  in  connection  with  his  partner,  Theodore  E.  Davis,  of  Washington,  D.C., 
and  has  collected  large  sums  of  money  upon  refund  claims  of  distillers  of  spirits, 
paid  upon  erroneous  assessments  under  internal  revenue  laws.  He  is  now  in 
active  and  successful  practice  here,  and  takes  an  active  part  in  politics,  invariably 
in  support  of  the  principles  of  the  republican  party. 


HON.   LEANDER    D.  CONDEE. 


EiANDER  DEVINE  CONDEE  is  a  native  of  Athens  county,  Ohio,  his  birth 
being  dated  September  26,  1847.  His  parents  are  Henry  M.  and  Jane 
(Rickey)  Condee.  His  paternal  grandfather,  Ami  Condee,  was  a  soldier  in  the 
war  of  1812,  and  his  maternal  grandfather  was  a  member  of  the  first  board  of 
trustees  of  Athens  county.  Leander  farmed  with  his  father  until  seventeen  years 
of  age;  received  an  academic  education  at  Kankakee,  Illinois,  the  family  moving 
to  this  state  in  1854;  read  law  at  the  same  place,  and  is  a  graduate  of  the  law 
department  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  class  of  1868. 

Mr.  Condee  opened  an  office  at  Butler,  Bates  county,  Missouri,  and  while 
there  held  the  office  of  city  attorney  for  three  years.  Early  in  the  autumn  of 
1873  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  been  in  practice  there  since  that  date.  He 
was  alone  for  four  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  became  a  member  of  the 
firm  of  Condee  and  Bliss,  his  partner  being  E.  R.  Bliss,  present  county  attorney 
of  Cook  county. 


140  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

The  residence  of  Mr.  Condee  is  at  Hyde  Park  village,  of  which  he  has  been 
attorney  since  the  spring  of  1879.  In  November,  1880,  he  was  elected  state  sena- 
tor for  the  second  district,  South  Chicago,  and  still  holds  that  office.  He  is  a 
strong  republican,  very  active  during  a  political  canvass. 

In  the  senate  he  is  chairman  of  the  committee  on  corporations,  a  committee 
having  great  interests  in  Chicago  to  guard,  and  is  also  a  member  of  the  commit- 
tees on  judiciary,  railroads,  judicial  department,  municipalities,  warehouses, 
canals  and  rivers,  and  military  affairs. 

Mr.  Condee  is  a  Knight  Templar  in  the  masonic  order,  and  has  passed  all  the 
chairs  in  Odd-Fellowship.  He  was  married  in  March,  1871,  to  Miss  Margaretta 
Stovie,  of  Butler,  Missouri,  who  died  in  March,  1881,  leaving  three  children;  was 
again  married  August  24,  1882,  to  Mrs.  M.  J.  Waterbury. 


RICHARD  S.  TUTHILL. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  the  son  of  David  B.  Tuthill,  and  his  wife,  Sally 
Strong,  daughter  of  Luke  Strong,  a  prominent  lawyer  of  Vergennes,  Addi- 
son  county,  Vermont.  Their  ancestors  on  both  sides  are  among  the  best  New 
England  families,  and  can  be  traced  in  its  annals  for  many  generations.  The 
elder  Tuthill  was  educated  for  an  Episcopal  clergyman,  but  on  account  of  deli- 
cate health  would  not  enter  the  ministry,  and  in  1819,  with  his  wife,  joined  a  com- 
pany of  pioneers,  who  settled  on  and  gave  name  to  Tuthill's  Prairie,  in  Jackson 
county,  in  southern  Illinois.  The  town  of  Vergennes  was  founded  by  them,  and 
named  by  Mrs.  Tuthill  after  her  own  native  place,  one  of  the  oldest  cities  of  Ver- 
mont. Mr.  Tuthill  became  postmaster  of  Vergennes,  and  held  the  office  for  many 
years,  under  all  administrations,  without  regard  to  their  political  complexion, 
though  he  himself  was  a  whig  and  afterward  a  republican. 

His  hospitable  mansion  was  the  resort  of  all  the  noted  men  of  the  state  and 
nation  who  chanced  in  that  part  of  the  state,  such  as  President  Lincoln,  Judge 
Breese,  Bishop  Chase,  John  A.  Logan,  D.  L.  Philips,  and  many  others. 

Richard  Stanley  Tuthill  was  born  in  Vergennes,  Illinois,  November  10,  1841. 
He  was  the  youngest  of  a  family  of  nine  children.  His  education  began  in  a 
private  school  established  by  his  father,  and  was  continued  in  the  St.  Louis  high 
school,  in  Jacksonville  College,  and  finally  completed  at  Middlebury  College, 
Vermont,  where  he  graduated  with  high  honors  in  August  1863. 

Immediately  after  graduating  he  joined  the  army  before  Vicksburg,  with  the 
intention  of  entering  the  ranks,  but  the  promise  of  a  commission  delayed  his 
doing  so,  and  after  a  time  he  joined  a  company  of  volunteer  scouts,  and  served 
with  them  on  the  campaign  through  Mississippi  to  Meridian.  After  spending 
some  months  in  this  most  dangerous  and  exciting  arm  of  the  service  he  returned 
to  Vicksburg  to  find  a  commission  awaiting  him.  Gov.  Blair,  of  Michigan,  had 
sent  him  a  commission  as  2d  lieutenant  of  Battery  H,  ist  Michigan  Light  Artillery, 


J . 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

attached  to  Gen.  Logan's  old  division  of  the  i7th  army  corps,  Army  of  the  Ten- 
nessee. He  remained  attached  to  this  battery  till  the  close  of  the  war,  taking 
active  part  in  the  campaign,  which  ended  in  the  fall  of  Atlanta,  and  in  the  bat- 
tles of  Resaca,  Kenesaw  Mountain,  Altoona,  and  in  the  numerous  severe  engage- 
ments in  front  of  Atlanta,  and  afterward  in  Gen.  Geo.  H.  Thomas'  campaign 
against  the  rebel  Gen.  Hood,  in  Tennessee,  and  in  the  final  and  victorious  battle 
of  Nashville.  After  the  fall  of  Richmond,  believing  the  war  ended,  and  anxious 
to  enter  upon  his  profession,  he  resigned  his  commission  on  May  29,  1865,  and 
returned  to  Nashville.  He  had  with  commendable  energy  and  foresight  spent 
his  leisure  hours  in  camp  in  the  study  of  the  law,  and  now  he  resumed  his  studies 
in  the  office  of  Hon.  H.  H.  Harrison,  at  Nashville,  Tennessee.  In  the  latter  part 
of  1866  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  entered  at  once  upon  the  practice  of  his 
profession  in  the  courts  of  Tennessee. 

In  1867  he  was  elected  attorney  general  of  the  Nashville  circuit,  and  served 
until  1870,  when  a  change  in  southern  politics  threw  all  republicans  out  of  office. 
In  1872  he  ran  for  presidential  elector  on  the  republican  ticket,  and  made  a  vig- 
orous campaign,  stumping  the  district  which  was  largely  democratic,  and  only 
lacked  a  few  votes  of  an  election.  In  1868  Mr.  Tuthill  married  Miss  Jennie  Smith, 
a  native  of  Vergennes,  Vermont,  by  whom  he  had  one  child,  a  daughter,  now  liv- 
ing. Mrs.  Tuthill's  death  occurred  December  22,  1872,  at  Nashville,  Tennessee, 
which,  together  with  the  breaking  up  of  the  republican  party  in  Tennessee,  and 
the  general  weakening  of  the  ties  which  bound  him  to  the  South,  sent  him  to 
Chicago  in  the  early  part  of  1873.  Here  he  found  a  more  congenial  and  a  wider 
field  for  his  talents.  He  entered  at  once  with  determination  upon  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  to  which  he  has  devoted  himself  with  unwearied  diligence  and 
marked  success.  In  1875  Mr.  Tuthill  was  nominated  by  the  republican  party  as 
its  candidate  for  city  attorney,  and  was  elected  with  what  was  known  as  the 
reform  council,  by  a  majority  of  over  5,000.  In  1877  he  was  again  nominated  and 
elected  to  the  same  office  by  a  largely  increased  majority. 

His  service  in  the  city  law  department  was  marked  with  unusual  success. 
He  soon  became  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  law  of  municipal  corporations,  and 
established  a  high  reputation  as  a  corporation  lawyer,  as  is  well  shown  by  the 
fact  that  he  has  since  been  employed  by  the  city  to  conduct  in  its  behalf  the 
highly  important  suits  yet  undecided  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
involving  the  right  of  the  city  to  impose  a  license  fee  of  $50  a  car  upon  the  street 
railway  companies  in  Chicago,  the  amount  involved  not  less  than  $50,000  per 
annum,  and  the  principles  of  law  involved  making  the  cases  of  the  utmost 
importance.  At  the  close  of  his  term  of  service  as  law  officer  of  the  city  Mr.  Tut- 
hill entered  a  law  partnership  with  Col.  David  Quigg,  an  attorney  of  large  expe- 
rience and  very  high  personal  and  professional  character,  which  business  associa- 
tion continues  at  the  present  time. 

While  not  a  politician  in  the  professional  sense,  Mr.  Tuthill  takes  a  deep 
interest  in  all  public  concerns.  He  is  still  an  earnest  republican  and  active  in  all 
15 


144  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

party  matters.  He  was  a  member  of  the  state  convention  at  Springfield  in  r88o 
was  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  national  convention  held  in  Chicago,  and  one  of 
the  phalanx  of  306,  who  voted  for  the  nomination  of  Gen.  Grant.  Mr.  Tuthill  is 
in  the  prime  of  life,  full  of  vigor  and  of  unbounded  energy;  he  is  master  of  his 
profession,  full  of  ambition,  enthusiasm,  and  personal  magnetism,  and  is  richly 
endowed  with  those  qualities  which  manifest  themselves  only  through  the  medium 
of  an  ardent  and  exalted  friendship.  He  never  betrayed  a  trust,  never  neglected 
a  duty,  never  deserted  a  friend.  Honorable  in  all  things,  he  is  a  sincere  hater  of 
shams  in  business,  politics  or  religion,  and  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  scorns 
to  resort  to  subterfuges,  or  to  secure  victory  by  questionable  means.  He  is  a 
member  of  several  military  societies,  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  the  Vete- 
ran Club,  and  military  order  of  the  Loyal  Legion. 

January  2,  1877,  he  married  for  the  second  time.  His  wife  was  Miss  Hattie 
McKey.  the  daughter  of  Edward  McKey,  a  noted  dry  goods  merchant  of  Janes- 
ville,  Wisconsin,  by  whom  he  has  had  two  children. 


JAMES  EDWARDS  FAY. 

JAMES  EDWARDS  FAY,  of  the  widely  known  law  firm  of  Bonney,  Fay  and 
Griggs,  was  born  in  Westborough,  Worcester  county,  Massachusetts,  June  20, 
1830.  His  father,  James  Fay,  was  engaged  in  farming  there.  His  mother's  maiden 
name  was  Jane  Bates;  she  was  of  Cohasset,  Norfolk  county,  Massachusetts,  and  a 
sister  of  Joshua  Bates,  D.D.,  formerly  president  of  Middlebury  (Vermont)  College. 
James'  early  education  was  obtained  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  .county. 
After  passing  two  years  in  a  store  he  went  to  Thetford  Academy,  Vermont,  where 
he  fitted  for  college,  and  entered  the  sophomore  class  in  Williams  College;  gradu- 
ated from  that  institution  with  high  rank  in  scholarship  in  the  class  of  1856. 
Among  his  classmates  were  the  late  President  Garfield  and  others  distinguished 
in  the  different  avocations  of  life.  He  is  one  of  two  classmates  of  Garfield  now 
living  in  Chicago.  After  graduating,  he  was  for  one  year  principal  of  the  Dickin- 
son Academy  at  Southwick,  Massachusetts.  In  1857  he  moved  to  Minnesota  and 
began  the  study  of  law  with  Hon.  William  Windom,  late  Secretary  of  the  United 
States  Treasury,  and  now  United  States  senator  from  that  state.  In  1858  he  re- 
turned to  Massachusetts  and  completed  his  preparations  for  the  practice  of  law 
under  the  late  Chief  Justice  R.  A.  Chapman,  of  Massachusetts,  and  at  the  Dane 
Law  School  of  Harvard  College;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1859,  and  during  the 
following  year  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion. In  1869  he  formed  the  present  partnership,  which  has  remained  substantially 
the  same  to  the  present  time,  ranking  among  the  ablest  and  most  successful  law 
firms  practicing  at  Chicago  bar.  While  Mr.  Fay  is  a  general  practitioner,  he  has 
given  special  attention  to  real  estate  law  and  its  practice  in  all  branches,  and  in 
this  respect  ranks  high  with  the  courts  and  the  profession.  He  has,  by  his  indus- 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  145 

try,  integrity  and  unblemished  character,  won  an  honorable  reputation  and  a  fair 
competency.  He  has  never  sought  or  held  political  office,  but  is  a  decided  repub- 
lican and  takes  part  in  politics  only  to  the  extent  of  discharging  his  duties  as  a 
citizen  who  has  the  general  welfare  at  heart.  He  devotes  his  time  not  occupied  in 
his  profession  to  the  cause  of  education  and  religion,  being  a  prominent  member 
of  the  Eighth  Presbyterian  church,  of  which  he  has  been  elder  and  held  other 
offices  for  several  years.  In  1862  he  was  married  to  Julia  A.  Bush,  of  Southwick, 
Massachusetts,  and  has  four  children.  His  life  is  exemplary  in  all  respects,  and 
he  has  the  esteem  of  his  friends  and  the  confidence  of  those  who  have  business 
relations  with  him. 

CALVIN  DEWOLF. 

A  HONG  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago,  who  have  persevered  in  the  face  of  stern 
adversity,  and  won  for  themselves  a  name  long  to  be  remembered,  none 
deserve  more  honorable  mention  than  he  whose  name  heads  this  article.  Calvin 
DeWolf,  one  of  thirteen  children,  was  born  February  18,  1815,  at  Braintrim, 
Luzerne  county,  Pennsylvania,  and  is  the  oldest  son  now  living.  His  father, 
Giles  M.  DeWolf,  was  born  at  Pomfret,  New  London  county,  Connecticut, 
November  7,  1782;  and  his  mother,  Anna  Spaulding,  of  Cavendish,  Winsdor 
county,  Vermont,  was  born  April  22,  1786.  Soon  after  his  birth  his  parents 
moved  to  Cavendish,  Vermont,  his  mother's  native  town,  where  he  received  his 
first  schooling  and  religious  instructions.  In  1820,  when  he  was  five  years  old, 
his  parents  returned  to  Braintrim,  Luzerne  county,  Pennsylvania;  and  in  1824 
his  father  purchased  a  farm  at  Pike,  in  the  beech  forests  of  Bradford  county, 
Pennsylvania.  Here  young  DeWolf  assisted  in  clearing  and  cultivating  his 
father's  farm,  attending  the  district  school  during  the  winters,  until  he  reached 
his  twenty-first  birthday. 

Being  of  an  ambitious  and  aspiring  disposition,  the  advantages  offered  by  the 
district  school  did  not  satisfy  him;  and  there  being  in  the  neighborhood  a  gen- 
tleman of  liberal  education,  young  DeWolf  procured  a  Latin  grammar  and  dic- 
tionary and  a  copy  of  Virgil,  and  so  economized  his  time  that,  with  the  help  of 
his  instructor,  Mr.  Woodruff,  he  gained  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  Latin  language, 
and  read  six  books  of  the  JEne'id.  He  also  studied  arithmetic,  algebra  and  sur- 
veying under  his  father,  who  was  a  fine  mathematician.  When  nineteen  years  of 
age  he  taught  school  in  his  own  town  at  a  salary  of  ten  dollars  per  month,  and 
when  he  was  twenty  he  took  a  school  in  the  adjoining  town  of  Orwell,  at  twenty- 
five  dollars  per  month.  He  left  home  in  1836,  and  entered  the  Grand  River  Insti- 
tute, a  manual  labor  school  of  Ashtabula  county,  Ohio,  where  he  remained  till  the 
fall  of  1837,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  then  containing  about  4,000  inhabi- 
tants, arriving  October  31,  with  but  a  few  dollars  in  his  pocket,  and  poorly 
clad.  Here  he  passed  the  requisite  examination  and  applied  for  a  school;  but 
being  unsuccessful,  he  started  on  foot  across  the  prairies  toward  St.  Charles,  to 


146  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

Elgin  and  the  different  settlements  along  Fox  river,  and  finally  obtained  a  situa- 
tion as  teacher  in  Hadley,  Will  county,  Illinois. 

In  the  spring  of  1838  he  returned  to  Chicago  and  engaged  in  teaching,  till  the 
autumn  of  that  year,  receiving  as  pay  only  certificates,  when  he  was  forced  to  seek 
other  employment,  and  took  a  situation  as  collector  in  the  meat  market  of  Funk 
and  Doyle,  which  he  held  until  the  summer  of  1839,  when  he  began  the  study  of 
the  law  with  Spring  and  Goodrich.  He  again  engaged  in  teaching  in  1841,  and 
continued  for  two  years,  till  May  1843,  when  he  was  examined  by  Hon.  Richard  M. 
Young,  judge  of  the  supreme  court,  assisted  by  Hon.  J.  Y.  Scammon  and  Buckner 
S.  Morris,  and  being  found  qualified  was  duly  licensed  to  practice  law  in  all  the 
courts  of  Illinois. 

Mr.  DeWolf  then  entered  upon  the  general  practice  of  his  profession,  with 
good  success,  doing  a  large  business,  until  1854,  when  he  was  elected  justice  of 
the  peace,  an  office  which  he  held  six  successive  terms,  four  by  popular  election, 
and  two  by  appointment,  in  all  over  twenty-five  years.  During  that  time  he 
heard  and  disposed  of  over  90,000  cases,  a  greater  number  than  any  other  judicial 
officer  in  Illinois.  Many  of  the  ablest  members  of  the  Illinois  bar  who  practiced 
before  him,  can  bear  testimony  to  his  well  balanced  judgment,  candor  and  hon- 
esty, with  an  ability  to  hold  the  scales  of  justice  with  an  even  hand.  He  held  the 
office  of  alderman  four  years,  from  1856  to  1858,  and  from  1866  to  1868.  During 
the  first  period  the  ordinances  of  the  city  were  revised,  and  Mr.  DeWolf  was 
chairman  of  the  committee  of  revision  and  publication,  and  many  of  the  most  use- 
ful provisions  of  the  present  ordinances  were  originally  framed  by  him  or  under 
his  direction.  From  his  boyhood  he  has  possessed  positive  qualities  and  strong 
convictions.  In  the  early  days  of  the  anti-slavery  crusade,  when  political  parties 
denounced  abolitionists,  when  most  of  the  churches,  though  opposed  to  slavery  in 
the  abstract,  were  opposed  to  disturbing  the  peace  and  harmony  of  our  southern 
brethren,  Mr.  DeWolf  was  one  of  the  most  active  and  persistent  advocates  of  the 
anti-slavery  cause.  He  was  secretary  of  the  first  abolition  society  formed  in 
Chicago  in  1839,  Rev.  Flavel  Bascom  being  president  and  Hon.  George  Manierre 
treasurer.  In  1842,  at  a  meeting  of  the  Illinois  state  anti-slavery  society,  an 
organization  was  effected  to  raise  funds  for  establishing  an  anti-slavery  news- 
paper in  Chicago,  with  Mr.  DeWolf  as  treasurer,  and  the  "  Western  Citizen  "  was 
established  with  Mr.  Z.  Eastman  editor  and  publisher. 

In  September  1858,  an  indictment  was  found  against  Mr.  DeWolf  by  the  grand 
jury  of  the  northern  district  of  Illinois,  for  the  alleged  crime  of  "  aiding  a  negro 
slave  called  Eliza,  to  escape  from  her  master,"  one  Stephen  F.  Nuckolls,  of  the 
territory  of  Nebraska.  Mr.  DeWolf,  together  with  George  Anderson,  A.  D.  Hay- 
ward  and  C.  L.  Jenks,  who  were  indicted  at  the  same  time,  were  arrested  and 
gave  bail  in  the  sum  of  $2.500. 

Under  advice  of  counsel  a  motion  was  made  to  quash  the  indictments,  because 
slavery  did  not  exist  by  authority  of  law  in  Nebraska,  and  consequently  a  slave 
could  neither  be  held  in,  nor  escape  from,  that  territory.  Judge  Drummond  never 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  147 

decided  the  point,  and  under  the  advice  of  Hon.   E.  C.   Larned,  United  States 
district  attorney,  dismissed  the  case  December  3,  1861. 

Since  1879  Mr.  DeWolf  has  practiced  law  with  his  son,  Wallace  L.  DeWolf,  a 
promising  young  lawyer.  Mr.  DeWolf  is  well  posted  in  his  profession,  is  dis- 
criminating in  his  practice,  and  has  a  clientage  of  many  of  the  wealthiest  business 
men  and  property  owners  of  Chicago.  He  is  a  well  preserved  man  of  his  age,  is 
active,  and  walks  with  the  elasticity  of  youth;  he  is  also  cheerful,  courteous  and 
kind,  and  enjoys  the  society  of  a  large  circle  of  friends,  who  respect  and  honor 
him  for  his  manly  and  upright  qualities. 


LUTHER  MARTIN  SHREVE. 

ETHER  M.  SHREVE  was  born  September  n,  1819,  near  Nicholasville,  in 
the  county  of  Jessamine,  state  of  Kentucky,  and  was  the  youngest  child  of 
William  and  Ann  Shreve,  each  of  whom,  at  the  time  of  their  marriage,  had  a 
family  of  sons  and  daughters  by  former  marriage.  William  Shreve,  for  many  years 
judge  of  the  county  court  of  Jess'amine,  was  born  in  Maryland,  and  while  but  a 
boy  at  a  country  school  in  his  native  state  joined  a  passing  company  of  volunteer 
infantry,  and  served  the  full  term  for  which  he  enlisted  in  the  revolutionary  war, 
and  was  awarded  a  pension  in  after  life.  He  emigrated  to  Kentucky  in  early 
manhood,  where  he  acquired  an  ample  fortune,  and  lived  and  died  respected  and 
beloved  by  all  who  knew  him.  A  lofty  shaft  of  Italian  marble  reared  over  his 
remains  can  be  seen  by  every  passenger  upon  the  Kentucky  Central,  and  though 
the  beautiful  farm  has  passed  into  other  hands,  the  family  burying  ground  with 
its  broad  approach  is  preserved  in  perpetuity,  where  repose  his  widow  and  many 
of  the  family.  His  eldest  sons,  L.  L.  Shreve  and  I.  T.  Shreve.  of  Louisville, 
engaged  in  the  iron  manufacture,  and  through  his  direction  and  financial  indorse- 
ment, in  every  crisis  which  attended  the  business  and  closed  every  manufactory 
which  could  not  withstand  the  fluctuations  that  changes  in  the  tariff  system  pro- 
duced, they  were  enabled  to  amass  large  fortunes,  and  L.  L.  Shreve  is  remem- 
bered by  the  people  of  Louisville  to-day  as  one  of  the  largest  minded,  public 
spirited  men  of  that  city.  But  three  of  the  sons  and  daughters  of  William  Shreve 
survive:  Ann,  the  widow  of  L.  Y.  Martin,  and  mother  of  a  numerous  family  of 
enterprising  men  and  several  married  daughters;  John  M.  Shreve,  a  resident  of 
Louisville,  and  known  as  a  man  of  large  intelligence  and  great  purity  of  life,  and 
Luther  M.,  the  subject  of  this  memoir,  and  the  only  member  of  the  numerous 
family  who  embarked  in  the  profession  of  the  law. 

Having  graduated  in  the  St.  Mary's  Collegiate  Institute  of  Kentucky,  the 
youngest  graduate  of  the  school,  at  seventeen  years  of  age,  he  entered  Cambridge, 
and  was  received  by  the  president  of  the  institute,  Hon.  Josiah  Quincy,  as  a 
university  student,  being  considered  then  too  young  to  enter  the  law  department. 
After  remaining  one  year  in  this  department,  during  which  time  he  had  the  ben- 


148  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO. 

efit  of  the  lectures  of  all  the  distinguished  men  who  were  then  connected  with 
that  institution,  under  the  direction  of  Hon.  Joseph  Story  and  Simon  Greenleaf, 
he  here  pursued  the  study  of  the  law,  and  in  two  years  after  received  his  diploma 
from  that  law  school.  The  death  of  his  father  during  this  period  left  him,  on 
his  return  to  Kentucky,  without  the  guidance  and  protection  enjoyed  by  the 
older  members  of  the  family,  but  with  ample  means  to  commence  the  struggle  of 
life. 

The  successful  effort  of  the  denizens  of  that  portion  of  Mexico  now  known  as 
the  state  of  Texas  to  form  an  independent  government  was  now  in  progress,  and 
fired  with  the  movement,  after  a  few  days  passed  with  his  aged  mother  he  deter- 
mined to  join  the  army  of  Texans  and  hastened  to  the  scene,  but  being  delayed 
by  want  of  conveyance  for  several  weeks,  reached  the  shores  of  the  "lone  star" 
too  late  to  be  a  participant  in  that  revolution  in  which  his  brother  John  was 
engaged  from  its  commencement  to  its  memorable  close  at  San  Jacinto. 

He  sojourned  about  two  years  in  Texas,  during  which  time  sickness  induced 
his  return  to  Kentucky,  where  he  soon  afterward  met  the  daughter  of  King 
Strong,  of  New  York,  who  was  visiting  his  brother,  Dr.  Henry  L.  Strong,  and 
married  her,  and  immediately  settled  in  St.  Louis  and  commenced  the  practice 
of  his  profession.  He  was  soon  after  elected  city  attorney,  and  after  serving 
a  second  term  formed  a  law  partnership  with  Hon.  Uriel  Wright,  perhaps  the 
most  accomplished  lawyer  and  eloquent  advocate  at  the  bar.  This  partnership 
continued  until  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  when  Mr.  Wright  joined  the  army  of  the 
South,  and  urged  Mr.  Shreve  to  go  with  him,  but  he  refused.  And  though  in  full 
sympathy  with  the  South  and  the  justice  of  the  cause,  he  declined  to  participate 
in  the  rebellion,  and  in  a  speech  made  from  the  court-house  steps  to  an  immense 
audience  proclaimed  the  position  he  occupied  in  that  eventful  hour.  On  this 
occasion  he  declared  his  conviction  that  his  people  had  just  cause  for  complaint, 
just  even  to  resistance,  but  whatever  the  grievance  it  should  be  righted  in  the 
Union,  and  that  he  would  never  join  any  military  organization  that  did  not  wave 
the  national  emblem,  the  stars  and  stripes;  that  the  rebellion  must  be  fought  in 
the  Union,  not  out  of  it;  that  secession  was  death  to  the  cause  for  which  they 
contended;  and  firm  in  these  convictions  he  took  no  active  part  in  that  unfor- 
tunate struggle.  As  a  result  of  the  war,  prescriptive  laws  were  passed  in  Missouri, 
and  among  these  the  notorious  iron-clad  oath  which  debarred  every  lawyer  from 
practice  who  did  not  take  and  subscribe  to  it.  This  Mr.  Shreve  refused  to  take, 
and  for  some  years  was  denied  the  privilege  of  pursuing  his  profession. 

The  death  of  his  wife  during  the  last  year  of  the  rebellion  was  a  terrible  blow, 
and  for  several  years  he  devoted  more  attention  to  an  unsuccessful  culture  of 
cotton  than  to  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  in  1867  made  a  trip  to  Europe,  where 
he  renewed  acquaintance  with  and  married  his  present  wife,  Julia  P.  Aldershaw, 
the  accomplished  daughter  of  Hon.  Aldershaw,  master  in  chancery,  of  London, 
by  whom  he  has  tw.o  children  living:  Luther  and  Violet. 

While  Mr.  Shreve  positively  refused  to  enlist  beneath  the  folds  of  the  bonnie 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  149 

blue  flag,  with  equal  firmness  declined  to  join  the  army  of  the  Union,  impressed 
with  the  conviction  that  he  could  not  conscientiously  take  up  arms  against  those 
among  whom  he  was  born  and  reared,  nor  fight  their  battles  under  a  foreign  flag 
floating  upon  the  iconoclastic  principles  of  secession.  Despite  this  resolution 
firmly  adhered  to  through  the  rebellion,  he  was  court-martialed,  tried  and  con- 
victed for  treason,  the  specific  charges  being  outspoken  expression  and  aiding  the 
enemy  in  the  purchase  of  quinine  sent  to  the  South  for  the  benefit  of  southern  sol- 
diers shaking  with  the  ague.  The  only  proof  submitted  before  the  august  drum- 
head, composed  of  the  son  of  Gen.  Curtis  as  judge  advocate,  and  two  soldiers  of 
German  origin,  one  of  them  known  to  him  as  the  carriage  driver  of  Hon.  Luther 
M.  Kennett,  mayor  of  the  city  of  St.  Louis,  and  the  other  convicted  of  having 
robbed  a  stranger  in  his  saloon,  was  that  a  small  amount  of  money  had  been  sent 
to  Mr.  Shreve  to  pay  an  order  for  some  quinine,  made  upon  the  druggist  who 
furnished  it  unknown  to  him.  The  conviction  was  promptly  set  aside  by  Gen. 
Rosecrans  as  soon  as  the  facts  were  made  known  to  him.  Confiscation  of  private 
property  was  the  order  of  the  day,  and  even  the  furniture  in  the  dwellings  of 
those  who  refused  to  participate  in  the  war,  or  became  obnoxious  to  the  ruling 
provost,  was  dragged  from  their  houses  and  sold.  Such  an  order  was  resisted  by 
him,  and  when  late  in  the  evening  attempted  to  be  enforced  by  an  orderly  and  a 
few  subalterns,  he  stood  upon  the  threshold  of  his  own  house  armed  for  the  occa 
sion,  and  defied  them  with  suggestive  expression  if  they  attempted  to  enter  the 
house,  which  was  at  once  reported  to  headquarters.  The  order  was  suspended 
until  next  day  and  never  carried  out;  he  being  afterward  placed  under  bonds  of 
$40,000,  and  enjoined  not  to  leave  the  state,  which  he  had  no  purpose  of  doing. 

Amusing  incidents  sometimes  occurred  showing  the  fury  of  the  times.  On 
one  occasion,  having  been  paroled  from  imprisonment  in  the  military  prison 
upon  honor  to  his  own  house,  where  his  wife  was  lying  on  the  bed  of  sickness 
and  death,  a  lady  friend  visited  Mrs.  Shreve,  and  at  nine  o'clock  was  compelled 
to  return  home.  As  it  was  raining,  Mr.  Shreve,  with  an  umbrella,  escorted  her  to 
the  cars  two  squares  distant.  During  the  walk  he  was  observed  by  one  of  the 
spies  officiating,  the  fact  made  known  to  the  provost,  and  it  was  thirty  days 
before  he  saw  his  wife  again.  Soon  after  the  battle  of  Pea  Ridge,  knowing  the 
commotion  it  would  create  in  St.  Louis,  Mr.  Shreve  suggested  to  some  friends 
that  it  would  be  a  good  time  to  go  fishing.  John  J.  Anderson,  a  well  known 
banker  of  the  city,  and  John  Y.  Page,  a  brother  lawyer,  neither  of  whom  had 
taken  any  part  in  the  drama  enacting,  and  Hon.  Asa  Jones,  then  United  States 
district  attorney  for  that  district,  a  noble  son  of  Vermont,  and  as  ardent  a  lover 
of  the  Union  as  any  one,  were  his  companions.  Having  procured  two  buggies, 
they  proceeded  to  Mud  river,  intending  to  remain  all  night  at  the  house  at  which 
they  stopped  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  and  socially  enjoying  the  evening  retired 
to  bed,  but  before  twelve  o'clock  were  aroused  by  the  clatter  of  horses'  feet  and 
soldiers'  gear,  followed  by  the  bursting  of  the  door  of  the  large  room,  and  made 
prisoners  by  sixty  stalwarts  in  the  uniform  of  the  United  States.  The  captain 


150  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

was  much  inclined  to  release  Mr.  Shreve,  as  he  had  done  him  some  service  on  an 
occasion  in  the  criminal  court,  but  Jones  they  knew  to  be  an  arrant  rebel,  his 
lofty  mien  and  jet  black  full  beard  and  piercing  black  eyes  fully  establishing  his 
rebel  proclivities.  As  a  consequence,  they  were  all  marched  across  the  hills  of 
the  Merrimac  fourteen  miles  distant  to  the  fortress  in  the  darkness  of  night, 
riding  double  upon  the  bare  back  buggy  horses.  The  incident  was  subject  of 
amusement  to  the  newspapers,  but  never  much  enjoyed  by  the  district  attorney. 

Soon  after  his  return  from  Europe  Mr.  Shreve  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he 
is  now  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  Since  his  residence  here  he  has 
taken  no  part  in  politics.  He  is  a  democrat  in  feeling,  believing  the  principles  of 
the  democratic  party  insure  the  largest  liberty  to  the  citizen,  and  are  the  surest 
safeguard  to  the  perpetuity  of  republican  institutions. 

Although  not  a  professor  of  religion,  he  declares  that  advancing  .years  but 
more  firmly  convince  him  of  the  great  moral  truths  of  the  Bible  perhaps  better 
illustrated  in  the  teachings  of  the  Christian  denomination  than  any  other,  but 
dependent  upon  no  profession  to  determine  the  hereafter. 


ROBERT    RAE. 

ROBERT  RAE  is  an  accomplished  gentleman  of  versatile  genius,  with  a  broad, 
comprehensive  mind;  he  is  learned  in  the  law,  possesses  fine  literary  talents, 
and  holds  a  high  rank  at  the  Chicago  bar. 

He  is  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  and  is  one  of  those  refined,  pol- 
ished gentlemen,  for  the  production  of  which  that  city  has  become  famous.  He 
was  born  October  3,  1830,  and  prepared  for  college  at  David  Stroud's  Academy, 
at  Westchester,  Pennsylvania,  commencing  the  study  of  Latin  at  eight,  and  Greek 
at  eleven  years  of  age,  and  entered  Lafayette  College  in  1844.  At  eighteen,  he 
was  an  excellent  Greek  and  Latin  scholar.  He  read  law  with  John  Cadwalader, 
of  Philadelphia,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1851,  and  practiced  in  that  city 
two  years,  when  he  removed  to  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  and  edited  the  Erie  "  Chroni- 
cle" in  the  interest  of  the  Sunbury  and  Erie  railroad.  On  the  breaking  out  of 
the  Mexican  war  he  volunteered,  and  was  appointed  lieutenant  in  a  Washington 
regiment  and  remained  in  the  service  until  the  close  of  that  contest. 

In  1855  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  resumed  his  profession  and  became 
identified  with  insurance  and  admiralty  practice.  He  argued  the  case  of  Walker 
against  the  Western  Transportation  Company  successfully.  This  was  a  leading 
case,  involving  the  right  of  congress  to  limit  the  liability  of  ship  owners,  and  is 
reported  5th  Wallace.  In  the  case  of  Aldrich  vs.  Etna  Insurance  Company, 
reported  by  Wallace,  the  decision,  based  on  his  argument,  established  the  doc- 
trine of  the  exclusive  right  of  congress  to  legislate  over  the  paper  titles  to  vessels 
engaged  in  foreign  or  inter-state  commerce.  The  case  was  taken  from  the  New 
York  court  of  appeals,  where  the  right  had  been  denied,  and  he  succeeded  in  hav- 


HCCupir  Jr  S   C. 


En9  !>>•£  GWilhim  «  BrNlT 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of-'  CHICAGO.  151 

ing  the  decision  of  the  New  York  court  reversed.  This  established  the  present 
law  ruling  in  all  similar  cases.  He  was  also  counselor  for  the  Galena  Packet  Com- 
pany against  the  Rock  Island  Bridge  Company.  He  was  instrumental  in  having 
the  United  States  courts  abolish  the  twelfth  rule  in  admiralty  which  denied  the 
jurisdiction  in  rein  of  the  admiralty  court  in  cases  of  supplies  furnished  domestic 
vessels  ;  which  overruled  a  series  of  decisions  from  the  time  of  the  case  of  the 
Gen.  Smith  until  this  change  in  the  rule.  He  obtained  a  charter  from  the  state 
of  Illinois  for  the  establishment  of  the  chamber  of  commerce  for  Chicago,  which 
he  organized,  and  for  which  he  acted  as  secretary  one  year,  without  remuneration, 
taking  an  active  part  in  the  purchase  of  grounds  and  the  erection  of  buildings. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion  he  entered  the  army  as  colonel  of 
the  Douglas  brigade  in  Chicago,  and  was  in  command  of  Camp  Douglas  until 
1863,  when  he  resigned.  In  October,  1873,  he  called  a  meeting  to  organize  and 
deliberate  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  new  rail  route  from  Chicago  to  Charles- 
town;  over  three  hundred  delegates  attended,  and  the  result  of  their  delibera- 
tions was  the  organization  of  the  Chicago  and  South  Atlantic  Railroad  Company. 
Mr.  Rae  was  elected  vice-president  of  the  corporation.  This  road  when  com- 
pleted will  be  an  almost  direct  air  line  between  Chicago  and  Charlestown,  and 
the  benefit  to  be  derived  therefrom  by  both  cities,  and  the  country  traversed,  can 
hardly  be  estimated,  and  will  be  a  stronger  bond  of  union  than  the  combined 
congressional  acts  in  that  direction  since  the  war. 

Mr.  Rae  is  largely  interested  in  railroad  and  telegraph  companies.  He  was 
burned  out  in  the  fire  of  1871,  and  lost  a  large  and  valuable  library. 

In  the  spring  of  1882  he  went  to  London  and  argued  a  case  in  the  English 
court  of  commissions  involving  one  hundred  thousand  pounds  sterling  and 
interest.  He  was  employed  in  the  interests  of  the  American  Board  of  Under- 
writers, and  was  the  first  American  lawyer  who  had  ever  appeared  in  any  case  in 
that  court;  he  won  his  case  and  received  high  encomiums  for  his  effort.  He  then 
visited  Fishmongers'  Hall  and  attended  the  convention  of  the  shipbuilders  of  the 
world,  and  took  drafts  and  copies  of  models  from  the  earliest  ages.  He  wrote  a 
letter  to  the  American  government,  urging  that  photographs  be  taken  of  all  the 
principal  models  of  ships  and  regretting  that  not  a  single  American  model  was 
represented  in  the  convention,  and  also  urged  upon  the  government  to  build  a 
dozen  or  more  first  class  passenger  steamers,  suitable  to  be  used  in  time  of 
war,  for  the  defense  of  our  seaports  and  commerce,  and  to  employ  the  officers  of 
the  navy  to  navigate  them,  carrying  freight  and  passengers  in  the  time  of  peace, 
in  order  that  the  shipbuilders  of  America  might  be  justified  in  obtaining  the  most 
improved  tools  and  machinery  to  be  used  in  the  manufacture  of  vessels,  and  that 
the  earnings  of  the  vessels  which  should  carry  our  produce  and  travelers  to  for- 
eign countries,  amounting  to  over  $150,000,000  a  year,  might  be  retained  in  this 
country. 

In  1877,  in  addition  to  his  professional  duties,  Mr.  Rae  wrote  a  play  that  was 
published,  called  "  Newport,"  in  six  acts,  being  more  of  an  idyl  than  an  acting 
16 


152  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO 

play;  it  has  been  highly  spoken  of  by  dramatic  critics  for  its  pure  English.  He 
devotes  his  attention  to  fire  and  marine  insurance  law,  and  that  pertaining  to 
railroad  and  shipping,  and  sustains  the  reputation  of  being  the  leading  maritime 
lawyer  in  Chicago,  and  has  the  largest  practice  in  the  United  States  Supreme 
Court  of  any  lawyer  in  the  Northwest. 

Mr.  Rae  was  married  in  1850  to  Miss  Sarah  Moulson,  of  Philadelphia,  and  has 
a  family  of  six  children;  the  eldest  son,  Robert,  is  an  architect. 


HON.   DANIEL   W.   MUNN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Orange  county,  Vermont,  in  the  year 
1834,  and  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  town,  and  in 
Thetford  Academy,  where  he  graduated.  He  came  west  in  1852,  stopping  first  in 
Indiana,  where  he  was  engaged  in  teaching  about  two  years,  and  incidentally 
initiating  himself  into  the  theory  of  law  practice.  In  1855  he  went  to  Coles 
county,  Illinois,  and  completed  his  studies  under  Judge  Starkweather,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  1859,  and  entering  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
soon  won  the  respect  of  the  bar  as  a  young  man  of  more  than  ordinary  ability. 
In  1862,  impelled  by  that  patriotism  which  has  always  characterized  the  Green 
Mountain  boys,  wherever  they  may  be,  a  patriotism  inherited  from  their  ances- 
tors, he  entered  the  army  as  adjutant  of  the  i26th  111.  Inf.,  and  the  following  year 
was  appointed  colonel  of  the  ist  Ala.  Cav.,  an  honor  which  feeble  health  com- 
pelled him  to  decline.  Returning  to  Cairo,  Illinois,  he  resumed  practice,  and  for 
a  time  edited  the  Cairo  "Daily  News."  In  1866  he  was  elected  to  the  state  senate, 
being  the  first  and  only  republican  ever  elected  from  that  district.  His  record 
during  the  four  years  in  the  senate  was  not  an  ordinary  one.  He  delivered  a 
speech  on  the  adoption  of  the  fourteenth  amendment,  which  was  conspicuous  for 
the  ability  displayed,  and  was  pronounced  one  of  the  ablest  ever  delivered  before 
that  body.  In  1871  he  was  nominated  for  congress  on  the  republican  ticket, 
made,a  gallant  fight  against  immense  odds,  and  was  defeated  by  but  a  small 
majority,  greatly  reducing  the  usual  democratic  majority,  which  evidences  his 
popularity.  He  was  appointed  by  President  Grant  supervisor  of  internal  reve- 
nue the  same  year,  his  jurisdiction  extending  over  Illinois,  Michigan  and  Wiscon- 
sin, with  headquarters  in  Chicago. 

Mr.  Munn  is  a  natural  orator,  a  scholar  of  varied  attainments,  a  thinker  and  a 
logical  reasoner;  hence  his  services  have  been  sought  in  almost  every  important 
political  campaign  during  the  past  fifteen  years,  and  his  eloquent  voice  has  been 
heard  in  many  of  the  northern  states.  He  moved  to  Chicago  in  1875,  to  make  it 
his  permanent  residence,  since  which  time  he  has  devoted  himself  to  the  practice 
of  law,  largely  criminal  law.  His  success  in  many  important  cases  has  been 
decidedly  notable.  He  has  conducted  with  marked  ability,  and  won  some  of  the 
most  important  cases  ever  tried  in  the  Northwest.  Among  them  may  be  men- 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  153 

tioned  the  Clark-St.  Peter  murder  trial,  in  which  Col.  Munn  defended  and  cleared 
Mrs.  Clark,  charged  with  the  murder  of  her  husband  jointly  with  Joseph  St. 
Peter,  and  this  too  with  the  police  and  detective  forces  earnestly  opposing  him. 
Several  other  cases,  notable  in  criminal  annals  could  be  cited.  He  has  attained 
to  a  first  rank  among  the  leading  criminal  lawyers  of  the  Northwest. 

He  has  always  been  an  earnest,  consistent  republican,  taking  an  active  inter- 
est in  politics,  and  whatever  pertains  to  the  public  welfare.  He  is  devoted  to 
his  profession.  He  was  a  poor  boy  in  Vermont,  who  started  out  alone  for  the 
Great  West,  to  make  his  own  way  in  the  world,  comparatively  unaided  by  any 
influence  except  what  his  own  inherent  ability,  tact  and  character  could  attract 
and  secure.  How  well  he  has  succeeded,  this  brief  mention  will  partially  indicate. 


HON.  JOHN  M.  THACHER. 

JOHN  M.  THACHER  was  born  at  Barre,  Washington  county,  Vermont,  July 
J  i,  1836,  and  is  the  son  of  Rev.  Joseph  Thacher  and  Nancy  (Attwood)  Thacher, 
both  of  Woodstock,  Windsor  county,  Vermont.  His  father  was  a  well  known  cler- 
gyman of  the  Congregational  denomination,  and  descended  from  an  old  English 
family.  The  founder  of  this  branch  of  Mr.  Thacher's  family  in  America  was 
Rev.  Thomas  Thacher,  the  first  pastor  of  the  old  South  Church,  in  Boston,  Massa- 
chusetts. He  was  the  son  of  Rev.  Peter  Thacher,  minister  of  St.  Edmunds,  and 
came  to  this  country  when  a  lad  of  fifteen  years  of  age  with  an  uncle,  Anthony 
Thacher,  landing  in  Boston  in  June,  1635.  Rev.  Thomas  Thacher  was  a  noted 
scholar  and  preacher.  It  has  been  said  of  him  that  probably  no  man  of  his  time 
deserved  more  than  he  the  title  of  "universal  scholar."  He  was  the  progenitor  of 
not  a  few  worthy  descendants,  among  whom  was  Oxenbridge  Thacher,  Jr.,  an 
eminent  lawyer  of  Boston,  who  was  associated  with  James  Otis  in  the  great  con- 
troversy of  1763  respecting  writs  of  assistance,  "  which,"  says  Drake  in  his  history 
of  Boston,  "was  nothing  more  nor  less  than  the  cause  of  independence."  He 
died  in  1765,  while  yet  in  the  prime  of  life,  at  forty-five  years  of  age.  In  the 
direct  line  of  descent  down  to  Mr.  Thacher's  father  all  were  clergymen  with  but 
two  exceptions,  his  grandfather  and  great-grandfather,  the  latter  being  Capt. 
Samuel  Thacher  in  the  revolutionary  war,  who  took  his  young  son  into  the  army 
with  him. 

Mr.  Thacher  received  a  good  elementary  education  in  the  common  schools  of 
Vermont,  and  was  there  fitted  for  college  at  Barre  Academy,  in  his  native  town, 
then  under  the  charge  of  J.  S.  Spaulding,  LL.D.,  one  of  the  most  noted  instruc- 
tors of  youth  in  Vermont.  He  entered  the  freshman  class  of  1855  at  the  University 
of  Vermont,  Burlington,  and  graduated  with  honors  in  1859,  standing  fourth  in 
his  class. 

Mr.  Thacher's  father  died  when  his  son  was  a  lad  of  only  eight  years,  leaving 
his  mother  with  four  children,  two  of  them  girls  older  and  a  brother  still  younger 


154  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

than  himself,  and  with  very  little  of  this  world's  goods.  Then  commenced  the 
oft  repeated  struggle  of  life.  His  mother  possessed  the  sterling  qualities  of  a 
New  England  woman  —  a  strong  will,  indomitable  energy,  and  solid  good  sense. 
With  a  mother's  devotion  she  unhesitatingly  determined  to  keep  her  little  family 
together  and  make  them  true  men  and  women,  and  with  singleness  of  purpose 
she  pursued  this  task,  replete  with  pain  and  toil  and  suffering  known  only  to 
American  mothers  who  have  trod  the  same  thorny  way.  When  but  a  child  John 
M.  felt  that  he  must  work,  so  that  what  little  he  could  earn  might  be  of  benefit  to 
his  mother;  but  his  love  for  books  and  study  was  predominant,  always  being  first 
in  his  classes  at  school.  Though  this  early  experience  gave  him  a  gravity  and 
soberness  far  beyond  his  boyish  years,  it  did  not  quench  the  thirst  for  knowledge 
or  quell  a  youthful  ambition  in  looking  forward  to  the  future.  His  mother  incul- 
cated the  good  Puritan  habits  of  New  England,  and  home  influences  prevented 
him  from  yielding  to  evil  influences  when  away,  and  he  was  always  known  in  his 
home  village  as  a  quiet,  studious,  industrious  boy,  and  one  that  could  be  trusted 
implicitly. 

After  graduating  from  college  he  accepted  an  invitation  to  become  the  princi- 
pal of  an  academy  at  Lyndon,  Vermont,  and  being  under  the  influence  of  strong 
religious  impulses,  he  became  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church  at  Barre, 
Vermont.  Family  predilection,  and  the  influence  of  others,  added  to  some  per- 
sonal sense  of  duty,  directed  his  thoughts  to  the  ministry,  and  he  left  college  with 
the  intention  of  making  this  his  profession.  After  teaching  a  year,  he  left  Lyndon 
to  enter  the  theological  seminary  at  Andover,  Massachusetts,  in  the  autumn  of 
1860.  During  the  year  the  war  of  the  rebellion  broke  out,  financial  embarrass- 
ment obstructed  his  progress,  and  all  his  plans  were  disturbed.  He  suspended 
his  studies,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1861  accepted  an  engagement  as  associate 
principal  of  Barre  Academy  with  his  old  preceptor,  Dr.  Spaulding.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1862  came  the  call  for  300,000  volunteers  for  three  years'  service,  followed 
shortly  by  a  call  for  a  like  number  for  nine  months'  service.  This  was  just  after 
the  close  of  the  academic  year,  and  with  a  patriotic  desire  to  have  some  part  in 
the  struggle  for  national  life,  he  felt  the  time  had  come  for  him  to  go.  He 
enlisted,  and  raised  a  company  of  nine  months'  men,  known  as  Co.  I,  ijth  Vt. 
Vols.  (a  nine  months'  regiment),  and  entered  the  service  with  the  rank  of  captain. 
When  the  regiment  was  mustered  out,  in  1863,  he  returned  to  his  old  position  in 
Barre  Academy. 

The  patronage  of  all  the  higher  schools  of  learning  had  at  this  time,  owing  to 
the  war,  become  very  light,  and  Mr.  Thacher  did  not  see  his  way  clear  to  resume 
his  studies,  and  in  fact  had  begun  to  doubt  whether  the  ministry  was  his  proper 
life-work.  At  this  period  he  was  quite  unsettled  in  his  aims  and  purposes.  An 
apparent  accident  turned  his  attention  to  the  United  States  patent  office,  in  which 
he  obtained  an  appointment  in  June,  1864,  as  an  ordinary  clerk,  but  was  assigned 
to  duty  in  the  examining  corps  of  the  office  as  an  assistant  examiner.  This  duty 
he  found  suited  to  his  tastes,  and  for  which  he  seemed  to  be  well  adapted.  He 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  155 

then  determined  to  prepare  for  the  legal  profession,  and  for  the  special  depart- 
ment of  patent  law.  Diligent  study,  and  careful,  conscientious  discharge  of 
official  duties,  were  rewarded  with  remarkable  success,  promotions  following  in 
rapid  succession,  and  in  less  than  twelve  years  he  was  at  the  head  of  the  patent 
office,  having  been  appointed  first  assistant  examiner  the  last  of  1864,  principal 
examiner  in  1866,  examiner  of  interferences  in  1869,  examiner  in  chief  in  1870, 
assistant  commissioner  in  1872,  and  commissioner  in  1874,  the  last  three  presiden- 
tial appointments  requiring  confirmation  by  the  United  States  senate.  In  the 
meantime  he  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Virginia  in  April,  1870, 
at  Alexandria,  where  he  then  resided.  Promotions  had  retained  him  in  official 
life  much  longer  than  he  intended,  and  in  the  autumn  of  1875  he  resigned  the 
office  of  commissioner  of  patents  to  enter  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
having  formed  a  law  partnership  with  L.  L.  Coburn,  of  Chicago,  an  old  friend 
and  college  classmate. 

Mr.  Thacher's  duties  for  the  last  five  years  of  his  official  life  were  almost 
entirely  of  a  judicial  nature,  and  the  official  reports  of  "  Commissioner's  Deci- 
sions "  from  1872  to  1875  contain  many  of  his  opinions,  some  of  them  in  impor- 
tant cases,  which  are  recognized  as  evidencing  good  judgment  and  sound  learning- 
He  was  the  first  commissioner  of  patents  attaining  to  the  position  through  the 
ranks  of  the  examining  corps,  and  when  appointed  was  the  youngest  man  that 
had  ever  held  the  office,  his  promotions  having  been  almost  entirely  on  merit,  as 
he  had  little  political  influence,  and  was  not  disposed  to  seek  assistance  from  this 
source.  On  entering  active  practice  at  Chicago,  Mr.  Thacher  at  once  took  rank 
with  leading  members  of  the  legal  profession  in  the  West  in  the  department  of 
patent  law,  to  which  he  had  given  exclusive  attention. 

In  1871  Mr.  Thacher  was  appointed  a  member  of  the  civil  service  sub-commis- 
sion for  the  interior  department,  under  the  national  commission,  of  which  Mr. 
Geo.  William  Curtis  was  president.  The  work  of  organizing  and  practically 
carrying  into  effect  the  contemplated  reforms  in  appointments  and  promotions  in 
the  executive  departments  at  Washington  was  substantially  delegated  to  the  sub- 
commissions  under  the  general  rules  of  the  national  commission.  Mr.  Thacher 
exercised  a  controlling  influence  in-  carrying  out  this  work  in  the  interior  depart- 
ment, and  it  has  always  been  admitted  that  during  the  time  he  remained  on  the 
commission  the  experiment  was  a  decided  success,  and  a  great  benefit  to  the 
department.  In  the  year  1873  Mr.  Thacher  was  appointed  by  the  president  to 
represent  the  United  States  in  an  international  patent  congress,  held  at  Vienna, 
Austria,  during  the  exposition  of  that  year. 

Mr.  Thacher  is  a  republican  in  politics,  though  not  a  strong  partisan,  being  a 
conservative  republican.  During  most  of  his  official  life  in  the  patent  office  he 
resided  at  Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  took  a  somewhat  active  part  in  the  political 
reconstruction  of  that  state,  and  was  a  delegate  from  Virginia  to  the  national 
republican  convention  at  Chicago  in  1868  that  nominated  Grant  and  Colfax,  and 
in  1870  was  a  member  of  the  republican  state  central  committee  of  Virginia.  He 


156  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

has  been  repeatedly  asked  to  become  a  candidate  for  elective  office,  but  always 
declined. 

Although  still  retaining  his  ecclesiastical  relations  with  the  church  of  his  fore- 
fathers, Mr.  Thacher  has  kept  abreast  of  the  religious  progress  of  the  period. 
Rooted  and  grounded  in  the  fundamental  truths  of  Christianity,  he  has  outgrown 
somewhat  the  narrowness  of  earlier  life.  He  has  never  been  married.  A  gentle- 
man of  pleasing  manners,  good  conversational  and  oratorical  powers,  national 
reputation  in  the  branch  of  his  profession  to  which  he  has  devoted  himself,  and 
free  from  stain  in  record  or  character,  he  is  a  conspicuous  illustration  of  the 
higher  possibilities  open  to  every  American  youth,  however  untoward  may  be  his 
surroundings,  provided  only  he  possesses  intellectual  capacity  and  aspirations. 


AREA    N.   WATERMAN. 

A^BA  NELSON  WATERMAN  is  a  native  of  Orleans  county,  Vermont,  and 
was  born  at  Greensboro,  February  5,  1836.  His  father,  Loring  F.  Waterman, 
a  merchant,  was  born  at  Johnson,  Vermont,  and  his  mother,  whose  maiden  name 
was  Mary  Stevens,  was  born  in  Greensboro,  her  father  being  a  mill  owner  and 
prominent  business  man  in  that  town.  The  paternal  great-grandfather  of  Arba 
was  a  captain  in  the  revolutionary  army,  and  had  a  number  of  sons  who  were 
substantial  men  and  among  the  leading  citizens  of  Lamoille  county,  Vermont 
One  of  them,  Arunah  Waterman,  grandfather  of  our  subject,  was  a  woolen  manu- 
facturer at  Montpelier,  and  served  in  the  state  senate  for  several  years. 

Mr.  Waterman  received  a  first-class  academic  education  at  Johnson,  Montpe- 
lier, Georgia,  and  Norwich  military  school,  all  in  his  native  state;  taught  one 
year  in  the  Georgia  Academy;  studied  law  at  Montpelier  and  the  Albany  (New 
York)  Law  School;  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1861;  opened  a  law  office  in  Joliet, 
Illinois,  and  in  1862  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  looth  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  made 
up  in  Will  county  and  connected  with  the  department  of  the  Cumberland;  was  in 
numerous  engagements,  including  Chicamauga,  Resaca,  Dalton,  and  Altoona 
Mountains,  etc.  At  the  first  named  battle  he  had  his  horse  killed  under  him,  and 
was  afterward  shot  through  the  right  arm  and  in  the  right  side,  but  did  not  leave 
the  service  until  August,  1864,  being  mustered  out  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the 
regiment.  On  leaving  the  army  Col.  Waterman  opened  a  law  office  in  Chicago, 
with  residence  in  Waukegan  until  1868,  when  he  removed  to  this  city.  He  is 
doing  a  general  civil  business,  and  has  good  class  of  clients,  who  impose  in  him 
the  most  implicit  confidence.  He  is  a  thorough  lawyer,  and  maintains  the 
esteem  and  respect  of  both  bench  and  bar. 

Mr.  Waterman  represented  the  eleventh  ward  in  the  city  council  for  two  years, 
1873-1874,  that  being  the  only  civil  office  that  he  has  ever  held.  He  is  a  decided 
and  somewhat  active  republican  and  a  Master  Mason. 

He  married  in  December,  1862,  Ella  Louise,  daughter  of  Samuel  Hall,  formerly 
a  merchant  in  Brooklyn,  New  York. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  157 

Mr.  Waterman  has  been  a  student  all  his  life,  and  has  a  keen  relish  for  scien- 
tific studies.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Chicago  Philosophical  Society, 
before  which  he  has  lectured  on  one  or  more  occasions.  He  is  president  of  the 
Irving  Literary  Society,  which  is  composed  of  professional  men  and  others  resi- 
ding in  the  west  division  of  Chicago. 


NOAH    E.  GARY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Du  Page  county,  Illinois,  in  1844,  and 
is  the  eldest  son  of  Erastus  Gary,  now  a  wealthy  citizen  of  Wheaton,  who 
came  to  Illinois  in  1832  from  Pomfret,  Windham  county,  Connecticut,  and  is  of  old 
revolutionary  stock,  his  ancestors  having  settled  in  Roxbury,  Massachusetts,  in 
1631.  Noah  E.  was  educated  at  Wheaton  College,  and  left  there  in  1862  and 
enlisted  in  the  losth  111.  Inf.,  which  served  on  detached  duty  until  the  spring  of 
1864,  when  it  was  attached  to  the  Twentieth  Army  Corps  under  Gen.  Hooker,  and 
advanced  with  him  on  Atlanta.  Mr.  Gary  was  severely  wounded  in  four  places 
at  Resaca,  and  was  sent  to  Nashville  to  the  hospital.  He  was  mustered  out 
November  i,  1864,  and  suffered  from  the  effects  of  his  wounds  until  the  following 
spring.  He  returned  to  Wheaton  and  engaged  in  business  pursuits  and  teaching 
school  until  the  spring  of  1868,  employing  his  leisure  hours  in  the  meantime  in 
the  study  of  law.  He  then  entered  the  office  of  the  clerk  of  the  superior  court  of 
Cook  county,  and  served  there  until  October,  1872,  being  chief  deputy  during 
1871  and  1872.  Mr.  Gary  was  admitted  to  practice  by  the  supreme  court  in  Jan- 
uary, 1875,  having,  however,  been  a  partner  of  his  brother,  E.  H.  Gary,  in  practice 
of  law  since  October,  1872.  In  1879  Judge  Cody  retired  from  the  bench  and 
became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Gary,  Cody  and  Gary,  which  still  continues. 

Mr.  Gary  was  for  two  years  (1879  and  1880)  president  of  the  town  council  of 
Wheaton,  and  in  1879  was  appointed  master  in  chancery  of  Du  Page  county, 
which  office  he  still  holds.  He  is  a  republican,  and  takes  a  very  active  and  prom- 
inent part  in  the  politics  of  his  native  county.  His  life  has  been  one  of  honest, 
persistent  effort,  and  as  the  result  of  a  faithful  adherence  to  right  and  loyalty  to 
his  own  manhood,  he  sees  that  life  crowned  with  a  most  satisfactory  success. 


JOHN    H.  S.  QUICK. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  the  son  of  John  S.  Quick  (deceased),  formerly  an 
enterprising  and  prosperous  business  man  of  New  York,  and  Mary  Quick. 
He  studied  in  the  grammar  school  of  Columbia  College,  New  York,  and  afterward 
at  the  Episcopal  Academy  at  Cheshire,  Connecticut.  He  entered  Trinity  College, 
Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  the  class  of  1858. 
He  then  went  to  Europe  and  attended  lectures  at  the  University  in  Leipsic.  Re- 


158  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

turning  to  New  York  he  read  law  with  Scudder  and  Carter,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  New  York  bar  in  1861.  He  then  practiced  law  successfully  three  years, 
at  the  end  of  which  period  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  was  engaged 
in  the  practice  of  the  law  by  himself  until  1871.  He  then  formed  a  partnership 
with  George  Herbert,  a  lawyer  of  decided  ability.  In  the  great  conflagration  of 
1871  the  fine  partnership  library  and  the  large  personal  library  of  Mr.  Quick  were 
consumed.  This  partnership  continued  doing  an  extensive  general  law  business 
up  to  1876,  when  John  S.  Miller  was  admitted  as  a  partner  into  the  firm,  and  the 
name  became  Herbert,  Quick  and  Miller,  and  so  continued  until  the  sudden 
demise  of  Mr.  Herbert,  October  9,  1882,  when  it  was  changed  to  Quick  and  Miller. 

Mr.  Quick  is  a  well  read  lawyer,  who  is  patient  in  research  of  authorities.  He 
possesses  an  analytic  mind  and  is  a  sound  reasoner.  He  has  never  sought  public 
position  or  preferment,  but  has  been  fully  absorbed  in  the  work  of  his  profession 
and  the  management  of  his  estate.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement  and  culture, 
and  inspires  all  who  come  in  contact  with  him  with  confidence  and  respect. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church,  and  in  political  sentiments  is  a  dem- 
ocrat. He  has  passed  to  the  Knight  Templar's  degree  in  Masonry. 

Mr.  Quick  has  a  fine  presence,  is  of  medium  size  and  height,  with  high,  broad 
forehead,  blue  eyes,  and  a  luxuriant  growth  of  auburn  hair  slightly  tinged  with 
gray.  He  was  married  October  3,  1861,  to  an  estimable  lady  of  refinement  and 
education  in  the  person  of  Miss  Henrietta  B.  Carter,  daughter  of  H.  Kendall 
Carter,  of  Hartford,  Connecticut.  They  have  an  interesting  family,  consisting  of 
one  daughter  and  three  sons. 


NOEL    B.   BOYDEN. 

NOEL    BYRON    BOYDEN  has  been  an  attorney  in  Chicago  since  1864,  dur- 
ing which  time  he  has  been  prominently  identified  with  local  jurisprudence. 
He  was  born  in  Belleville,  Jefferson  county,  New  York,  February  18,  1824.     His 
father,   Samuel    Boyden,   was    a    manufacturer   of    potash,   and    a    tanner.       His 
mother's  maiden  name  was  Eunice  Fish. 

He  secured  his  education  at  the  public  schools  of  Belleville,  graduating  from 
the  Belleville  Academy,  a  most  excellent  institution  of  learning,  when  about 
twenty-four  years  of  age.  On  the  day  he  was  twenty-one,  he  was  nominated  by 
the  democratic  party,  and  elected,  town  superintendent  of  schools  for  his  native 
town,  and  successively  reflected  for  three  terms.  He  was  possessed  of  unusual 
talent  as  an  educator,  and  naturally  turned  his  attention  to  teaching  upon  the 
expiration  of  his  last  term  as  superintendent  of  schools.  He  pursued  this  occupa- 
tion in  his  native  town,  studying  and  teaching  till  he  was  about  twenty-five  years 
of  age,  when  he  went  to  Sackett's  Harbor,  in  the  same  county,  and  entered  the 
law  office  of  Hon.  Augustus  Ford,  a  prominent  and  successful  lawyer  of  that 
place. 


HCCinpar  Jr  *    Co 


GWiIln-.  IBrN  Y 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  l6l 

After  having  had  some  practice  in  Sackett's  Harbor,  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  New  York,  at  Albany  in  May  1849.  He  first  opened 
a  law  office  in  Watertown,  New  York,  where  he  practiced  for  about  eighteen 
months,  when,  in  1851,  he  removed  to  the  West,  and  settled  in  Mineral  Point, 
Wisconsin.  Here  he  remained  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  until  the  year 
1857,  when  he  received  the  appointment  of  receiver  of  public  moneys,  at  the  land 
office  in  Eau  Claire,  Wisconsin,  from  the  President  of  the  United  States,  James 
Buchanan.  Dr.  W.  T.  Galloway  received  an  appointment  as  register,  and  together 
they  organized  that  district.  After  discharging  the  duties  of  this  position  for 
three  years,  he  resigned,  and  opened  a  law  office  in  the  town,  where  he  practiced 
several  years  successfully.  At  the  end  of  that  time,  in  1864,  he  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, and  there  resumed  his  profession. 

In  1871  he  was  appointed  justice  of  the  peace,  for  Chicago,  by  Hon.  John  M. 
Palmer,  then  governor  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  and  served  his  term  of  four  years 
with  more  than  ordinary  ability.  In  1873  he  was  appointed  by  the  then  mayor, 
Hon.  H.  D.  Colvin,  police  magistrate  of  Chicago,  serving  the  full  term  of  his 
appointment.  In  July,  1875,  Mayor  Colvin  appointed  him  prosecuting  attorney, 
and  in  connection  with  the  last  appointment  the  board  of  county  commissioners 
appointed  him  a  prosecuting  attorney,  that  there  should  be  a  conformity  in  the 
prosecution  of  cases  in  the  criminal  court,  as  well  as  before  justices  of  the  peace. 

After  the  expiration  of  his  last  appointment,  he  engaged  in  the  practice  of 
law  until  the  fall  of  1882,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  high  and  important  office  of 
coroner  of  Cook  county,  and  is  now  serving  his  official  term. 


JULIUS    S.  GRINNELL. 

THE  designs  and  purposes  of  the  boy  are  the  beginning;  the  results  and 
difficulties  met  with  in  the  execution  of  these  purposes  are  the  middle;  the 
resolution  and  unraveling  of  them,  the  end  of  a  man's  career.  What  a  man 
accomplishes,  and  what  he  develops  into,  are  the  outcome  of  his  inherent  nature, 
modified  by  the  direction  given  by  himself,  and  not  the  result  of  chance.  In  this 
mention  of  Julius  S.  Grinnell,  it  is  correct  to  say  that  he  has  so  controlled  and 
directed  his  own  course  that  he  has  attained  to  a  creditable  success;  first,  because 
he  had  the  necessary  native  elements  in  him,  and  second,  because  he  has  made 
good  use  of  his  capabilities  and  opportunities,  as  the  details  will  evidence. 

He  was  born  in  Massena,  St.  Lawrence  county,  New  York,  in  the  year  1842, 
and  is  of  French-Welsh  extraction  as  to  remote  ancestry,  but  thoroughly  New 
England  as  to  immediate  ancestry.  His  father  was  Dr.  J.  H.  Grinnell,  of  New 
Haven,  Vermont;  his  mother,  formerly  Alvira  Williamson,  also  a  native  of  Ver- 
mont. The  Grinnell  family  is  among  the  oldest  and  best  families  in  the  East. 
It  may  be  traced  back  to  its  ancestral  town  of  Grinnelle,  now  a  considerable 
manufacturing  town,  just  within  the  new  fortifications  eastward  from  Paris, 
17 


1 62  T1IK   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

France;  the  town  named  after  the  family.  The  monumental  fountain  there  is 
also  named  from  them.  They  emigrated  to  Wales,  thence  to  this  country,  one 
branch  settling  in  New  York,  where  the  name  is  a  distinguished  one,  Moses 
Grinnell  and  others  being  descendants;  another  branch  in  Connecticut;  a  third 
in  Vermont,  and  from  this  latter  the  subject  of  this  sketch  is  descended,  all  fam- 
ilies of  note.  His  early  education  was  obtained  in  the  common  schools  in  his 
native  town.  He  fitted  for  college  in  Potsdam  Academy,  St.  Lawrence  county, 
New  York,  and  entered  Middlebury  (Vermont)  College  in  1862,  and  graduated  in 
the  fall  of  1866,  ranking  high  in  his  classes,  and  during  his  young  manhood  fore- 
shadowed future  success  in  whatever  profession  he  might  engage,  and  his  career 
up  to  the  present  time  has  been  a  fulfillment  of  this  early  promise.  He  chose  the 
profession  of  law,  and  to  that  end  engaged  in  studying  (after  he  graduated)  in 
the  office  of  Hon.  William  C.  Brown,  in  Ogdensburg,  and  was  admitted  to  prac- 
tice by  the  supreme  court  of  New  York  in  1868,  and  commenced  practice  in  that 
city,  which  he  continued  two  years;  taught  the  Ogdensburg  Academy  one  year, 
giving  excellent  satisfaction  in  that  capacity.  In  December,  1870,  he  came  to 
Chicago,  and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  depending  upon  his  own 
energy  and  abilities  to  obtain  success.  He  was  an  almost  entire  stranger  here, 
there  being  but  two  persons,  so  far  as  he  knew,  with  whom  he  had  had  any  pre- 
vious acquaintance.  He  had  faith  in  himself,  and  in  the  future  of  Chicago,  and 
trusted  to  his  own  efforts  to  attain  success  at  this  bar,  contending  with  able  and 
older  practitioners.  One  of  the  decided  characteristics  of  his  nature  is  self- 
reliance,  backed  by  decision  of  character,  and  the  public  accord  him  the  credit  of 
possessing  integrity  and  sincerity.  He  has  won  a  success  few  men  of  his  age  win. 

When  the  great  fire  came,  and  swept  the  main  business  portion  of  Chicago 
out  of  existence,  he  had  scarcely  gained  a  foothold  in  his  practice,  but  in  the 
reorganization  and  reestablishment  of  business,  he  was  one  of  the  number  who 
had  the  force,  courage  and  confidence  in  the  rebuilding  of  the  city,  to  assert  him- 
self and  resume  practice  with  renewed  energy.  He  has  come  to  the  front,  and 
must  be  accorded  a  position  at  the  bar  among  the  foremost  of  young  Chicago 
attorneys. 

In  the  municipal  election  of  1879  he  was  nominated  by  the  democratic  party 
for  the  important  office  of  city  attorney,  over  competitors  older  in  years  and 
time  of  residence  in  the  city,  which  facts  indicate  his  popularity  with  the  people. 
At  this  time  the  democratic  party  was  not  in  power,  and  the  city  largely  repub- 
lican, but  he  was  elected  by  a  handsome  majority,  and  served  with  such  universal 
acceptance  that  he  was  renominated  in  1881,  and  reflected  by  a  still  larger 
majority,  indeed,  led  the  ticket  in  point  of  number  of  votes,  with  the  single 
exception  of  Mayor  Harrison,  and  but  a  few  votes  short  of  his  total.  In  this 
capacity  he  is  acknowledged  by  all  to  be  an  efficient  and  vigilant  law  officer  of 
this  great  city,  with  its  multiplicity  of  interests,  which  the  city  attorney  is 
expected  to  protect.  He  has  discharged  his  duties  well.  He  succeeds  some  of 
the  oldest  and  ablest  members  of  the  Chicago  bar,  and  has  maintained  the  dig- 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  163 

nitv  and  prestige  of  the  office,  and  proven  the  equal  of  any  of  his  predecessors, 
which  is  a  deserved  compliment,  and  carries  with  it  its  own  significance. 

He  married  Miss  Augusta  Hitchcock,  daughter  of  Dr.  William  Hitchcock,  of 
Shoreham,  Addison  county,  Vermont,  October  5,  1869.  They  have  two  chil- 
dren, a  boy  and  a  girl,  and  a  pleasant  home.  Mr.  Grinnell  is  a  gentleman  of 
unexceptionable  habits.  In  those  walks  of  life  in  which  intelligence,  honor  and 
manliness  are  regarded  for  what  they  are  worth,  he  has,  by  the  practice  of  these 
virtues,  achieved  an  honorable  and  influential  position  in  the  community,  and  is 
respected  by  all  who  know  him,  either  personally  or  by  repute.  He  is  in  the 
prime  of  life,  and  has  a  future  full  of  promise  before  him. 


HENRY    M.  MATTHEWS. 

HENRY  M.  MATTHEWS  was  born  in  Covington,  Wyoming  county,  New 
York,  April  16,  1845.  His  father,  Isaac  V.  Matthews,  was  a  farmer,  and  a 
prominent  man  in  that  county.  His  maternal  grandfather,  although  not  a  law- 
yer, was  one  of  the  first  judges  of  the  county  court  of  Genesee  county,  New  York. 
His  great-grandfather,  David  Brooks,  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  was  a  clergy- 
man, but  before  he  settled  over  any  congregation,  became  an  officer  of  the 
revolutionary  army,  and,  after  peace  with  England,  served  in  several  important 
civil  capacities. 

Henry's  preliminary  education  was  obtained  in  the  schools  in  and  about  his 
native  place.  During  the  civil  war,  he  enlisted  as  a  soldier  in  the  I36th  N.  Y. 
Inf.,  and  served  to  the  close  of  the  war.  He  was  wounded  at  the  battle  of 
Resaca.  His  leisure  hours  in  camp  were  spent  in  study,  principally  of  mathe- 
matics, for  which  he  had  a  liking.  When  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  service,  he 
entered  Union  College  at  Schenectady,  where  he  remained  three  years,  when  he 
went  to  Amherst  College,  and  joining  the  senior  class,  graduated  in  1869  among 
the  few  of  first  rank  in  his  class.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Alpha  Delta  Phi  Fra- 
ternity. From  college  he  went  to  the  Columbia  (New  York)  Law  School,  under 
charge  of  the  eminent  Theodore  Dwight,  after  which  he  read  law  with  Lanning, 
Fulsom  and  Willett,  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1872, 
when  he  became  managing  clerk  in  the  office  of  Dorscheimer  and  Lansing,  of 
Buffalo. 

He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1873,  a  stranger,  and  engaged  as  a  law  clerk  for  a 
time,  before  commencing  practice  on  his  own  account.  By  steady,  hard  work,  he 
has  attained  to  a  business  which  will  compare  favorably,  in  extent  and  quality, 
with  that  of  any  of  the  younger  attorneys  at  this  bar.  He  has  been  successfuly 
engaged  in  some  important  corporation  suits,  notably  that  of  the  Singer  and  Tal- 
cott  Stone  Company  vs.  Wheeler;  the  Hinsdale  Granite  Company  vs.  Tilley  and  the 
city  of  Chicago;  the  Union  Foundry  Works  case  in  United  States  courts,  and 
others  of  importance.  He  is  engaged  in  general  practice.  He  is  a  pains-taking 


164  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO. 

and  reliable  attorney  and  counselor,  and  has  the  confidence  of  a  first-class  client- 
age. Such,  in  brief,  has  been  the  career  of  Henry  M.  Matthews.  What  a  man  is, 
and  what  he  accomplishes,  are  but  the  solidification  and  outcome  of  his  real  prin- 
ciples, directed  and  controlled  by  himself;  an  evolving  of  himself  by  himself. 
The  man  who  attains  success,  having  unlimited  opportunities,  and  surrounded 
with  the  most  favorable  circumstances  and  conditions,  is  not  entitled  to  the  same 
credit  as  he  who  is  obliged  to  make  the  circumstances,  and  submit  to  the  condi- 
tions and  surroundings,  and  make  the  most  of  them.  To  the  latter  class  Mr. 
Matthews  belongs.  He  had  the  capacity  to  comprehend  and  measure  himself, 
and  the  conditions  surrounding  him,  and  has  turned  his  abilities  into  the  channel 
of  his  natural  inclinations,  and  made  the  most  of  his  opportunities,  and  developed 
in  himself  a  true  manhood.  He  is  industrious  in  his  profession,  and  is  respected 
by  the  bar  and  the  courts.  He  is  now  senior  member  of  the  firm  of  Matthews 
and  Dicker. 


ALFRED    S.  TRUDE. 

A  MONG  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago  bar  who  have  within  a  few  years 
L\.  been  brought  prominently  before  the  public  is  Alfred  S.  Trude,  an  illustri- 
ous example  of  self-made  fame  and  promising  greatness,  possessing  rare  talents 
and  all  the  qualifications  which,  with  native  genius,  place  him  among  the  leading 
criminal  lawyers  of  Illinois.  He  is  of  English  descent,  the  son  of  Samuel  and 
Sallie  (Downs)  Trude.  The  latter  is  of  a  family  well  known  in  British  history,  her 
father  having  been  an  officer  of  rank  in  the  British  navy  and  her  brothers  now 
being  in  that  service.  His  parents  were"  natives  of  England,  and  there  engaged  in 
agricultural  pursuits.  They  emigrated  to  the  United  States  in  1847,  and  Alfred 
was  born  on  shipboard  April  21,  while  the  vessel  on  which  they  made  the  journey 
was  lying  in  quarantine  off  the  New  York  port.  After  landing  they  settled  in 
Lockport,  New  York,  where  Alfred  first  attended  school.  Subsequently  he 
entered  Union  College,  graduated  at  the  age  of  17;  removed  to  Chicago,  and 
entered  the  Union  College  of  Law  under  Hon.  Henry  Booth,  at  the  same  time 
studying  under  the  tuition  of  Mr.  A.  B.  Jenks,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1871,  and  at  once  entered  enthusiastically  into  the  work  of  his  profession. 

Mr.  Trude  has  always  been  a  close  student  and  zealous  worker,  always  enter- 
ing into  all  his  duties  with  his  whole  heart,  body  and  soul.  He  has  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  the  law,  is  well  educated  and  read  on  all  points,  is  quick  of  percep- 
tion and  firm  and  imperative  in  his  actions.  He  is  a  fluent  speaker,  powerful  in 
argument,  and  possesses  a  peculiarly  powerful  magnetism  which  invariably  makes 
him  one  of  the  most  successful  jury  lawyers  and  a  dangerous  opponent  on  the 
merits  of  a  case.  Mr.  Trude,  by  'energy  and  perseverance,  has  become  one  of  the 
most  successful  criminal  lawyers,  having  conducted  thirty-four  murder  cases, — 
thirty-three  men  and  one  woman, —  all  of  which,  with  one  exception,  he  tried 
alone,  and  in  all,  with  the  exception  of  three,  he  secured  verdicts  of  acquittal. 
Some  of  these  were  the  most  noted  cases  of  the  kind  now  on  record. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  165 

The  most  recent  case  of  notoriety,  in  which  there  was  displayed  more  talent 
and  skill  than  in  almost  any  other  case  on  record,  was  that  of  the  woman,  Theresa 
Sturla,  or  the  Stiles  case,  in  which  Mr.  Trude  defended  the  murderess  against  the 
strongest  efforts  of  States  Attorney  Mills,  who  made  a  vigorous  attempt  for  her 
conviction  with  death  penalty  sentence.  Mr.  Trude  displayed  great  talent, 
research,  perseverance  and  adaptation,  almost  accomplishing  a  complete  victory, 
she  being  sentenced  to  only  one  year  in  the  penitentiary. 

The  first  case  of  importance  in  which  Mr.  Trude  appeared  prominently  before 
the  public  was  the  Linden  divorce  case,  where  Linden,  a  coachman,  married  the 
daughter  of  Mr.  Hancock,  a  rich  packer,  Linden  representing  himself  to  be  a 
British  lord  while  in  pursuit  of  his  victim.  In  this  case  the  question  of  marriage 
was  discussed  at  great  length,  there  being  found  a  misrepresentation  in  the 
inducements  to  marry.  The  validity  of  the  marriage  was  determined  by  the 
question  of  cohabitation  and  decided  in  favor  of  the  husband,  and  a  divorce 
denied.  The  question  was  as  novel  as  it  was  delicate,  and  stands  alone  as  a 
precedent  in  the  wide  domain  of  legal  literature. 

Another  was  the  defense  of  the  Reno  brothers,  who  were  arrested  at  various 
places  and  finally  at  Seymour,  Indiana.  Mr.  Trude  first  cleared  Saul,  who,  on  his 
acquittal,  was  seized  by  a  mob  and  lynched,  and  afterward  the  other,  who  took 
refuge  in  the  jail,  but  was  sought  after  and  treated  in  a  similar  manner.  Another 
was  the  defense  of  Joe  Tansey,  alias  Johnson,  for  killing  Albert  Gates,  a  well 
known  case.  Another  was  the  defense  and  acquittal  of  William  Gerbick,  who 
was  charged  with  arson  and  murder,  he  having  been  accused  of  setting  fire  to  a 
house  and  burning  his  alleged  mistress.  Another  was  the  defense  and  acquittal 
of  Thomas  Mangaw,  indited  for  the  killing  of  Kelly  on  St.  Patrick's  day.  Another 
important  case  was  the  defense  and  acquittal  of  Maguire,  McGarey  and  O'Brien 
for  killing  three  Bohemians  at  a  dance.  He  first  obtained  permission  for  a  sepa- 
rate trial,  and  by  a  vigorous  effort  and  strong  fight  secured  the  acquittal  of 
McGarey,  and  after  he  was  out  of  the  reach  of  the  law,  and  once  in  jeopardy,  put 
him  on  the  stand,  and  by  his  confession  of  the  crime  and  evidence  cleared  the 
other  two.  Another  case  was  the  defense  and  acquittal  of  Father  Forhan,  a 
Catholic  priest  charged  with  stealing  $3,600  from  the  parish  of  St.  Mary.  Another 
was  the  defense  and  acquittal  of  M.  C.  McDonald,  who  was  charged  under  nine- 
teen different  indictments,  one  of  which  was  with  intent  to  kill.  Another  was  the 
defense  and  acquittal  of  Jim  Martin,  charged  with  killing  St.  James,  on  Clark 
street.  He  was  also  attorney  in  the  'Lizzie  Moore  diamond  robbery  case,  when 
ex-Chief  of  Police  Hickey  was  a  supposed  accomplice.  He  was  also  the  attorney 
for  a  number  of  conductors  in  1875  when  they  were  charged  with  larceny  from 
the  railroad  companies  with  which  they  were  connected.  He  was  also  attorney 
for  Clem  Periolat  and  the  county  commissioners,  better  known  as  the  "  court- 
house ring  crowd,"  all  of  whom  were  acquitted.  He  was  also  attorney  for  R.  K. 
Turner  and  Howard  Turner,  in  the  celebrated  land-forgery  case,  in  which  over 
three  millions  of  dollars  were  involved,  and  for  which  he  succeeded  in  obtaining 


I  66  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

an  acquittal  for  both.  He  is  the  attorney  for  several  railroad  associations,  and  in 
connection  with  Pinkerton  has  conducted  different  noted  cases  in  which  persons 
were  charged  with  various  crimes  against  the  railroads,  with  eminent  success. 
He  is  now  attorney  for  the  Chicago  City  Railway  Company,  and  is  one  of  the 
attorneys  for  the  Chicago  and  Alton  Railroad  Company. 

Mr.  Trude  has  figured  with  a  great  many  extradition  cases,  one  of  which  was 
the  "Newburg  poker  case,"  in  which  $150,000  was  won  from  Weed  by  Scott  and 
Hedges.  The  defendants'  attorneys  attempted  by  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  in  the 
circuit  court  of  Cook  county  to  procure  the  discharge  of  the  defendants,  but 
through  the  efforts  of  Mr.  Trude  they  were  remanded.  In  1876  Mr.  Trude  became 
attorney  for  the  Chicago  "Times,"  and  defended  the  editor,  Mr.  Wilbur  F.  Story, 
in  the  celebrated  extradition  case,  when  Mr.  William  Beck,  chief  of  police  of 
Milwaukee,  appeared  for  the  prosecution,  together  with  his  attorneys.  In  this 
case  an  effort  was  made  to  take  Mr.  Story  to  Wisconsin  to  answer  to  the  crime  of 
libel  against  the  laws  of  that  state.  The  point  raised  by  Mr.  Trude  was  that  as 
Mr.  Story  had  not  fled  from  the  requiring  state  under  the  act  of  congress  relating 
to  fugitives  from  justice,  he  could  not  be  sent  to  that  state  without  a  plain  viola- 
tion of  the  law.  Gov.  Beveridge,  who  was  governor  at  the  time,  discharged  Mr. 
Story,  and  the  attorney  general,  Edsall,  concurred.  Mr.  Trude  has  tried  on  behalf 
of  the  Chicago  "Times"  fifty-two  libel  cases,  most  of  the  verdicts  being  "not 
guilty,"  while  others  varied  from  one  cent  to  a  dollar,  except  in  the  case  of  Alice 
E.  Early  against  Mr.  Story,  when  a  verdict  was  rendered  against  Mr.  Story  for 
$500.  On  a  previous  occasion,  when  Messrs.  E.  A.  Storrs  and  Wirt  Dexter 
defended,  the  verdict  was  $25,000,  and  it  was  immediately  following  this  verdict 
that  Mr.  Trude  became  the  attorney  for  the  "Times."  Two  years  ago  Mr.  Trude 
became  attorney  for  the  Chicago  "Tribune,"  also,  and  has  tried  several  cases  for 
that  paper  with  perfect  success. 

Mr.  Trude  was  married  in  1868  to  Miss  Algenia  D.  Pearson,  of  Lockport,  New 
York,  a  young  lady  of  great  musical  attainments  and  of  high  social  qualities. 


F.   W.    TOURTELLOTTE. 

MR.TOURTELLOTTE  was  born  in  Thompson,  Windham  county,  Connecticut, 
in  1837;  the  son  of  Joseph  Tourtellotte  and  Amy  (Joslin)  Tourtellotte.  The 
family  was  prominent  in  that  locality,  the  father  and  sons  having  held  important 
positions  of  trust  for  a  succession  of  years.  Young  Tourtellotte  pursued  his  pre- 
paratory studies  mainly  at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  and  was  afterward  a  student 
in  Brown  University,  which  he  left  in  1856,  being  among  the  foremost  in  his  class. 
He  then  attended  the  Albany  Law  School,  where  he  graduated,  and  was  admitte 
to  the  bar  in  1858.  The  following  year  he  settled  in  Chicago  and  commenced 
the  practice  of  law,  in  which  he  has  since  been  constantly  engaged,  with  the 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  l6j 

exception  of  a  few  months  while  in  the  military  service  as  major  of  the  I2;th  111. 
Inf.,  connected  with  the  Army  of  the  Tennessee.  Mr.  Tourtellotte  has  attained  a 
wide  reputation  as  a  painstaking,  safe,  able  and  successful  lawyer,  and  ranks  high 
at  the  Chicago  bar.  During  his  practice  he  has  been  engaged  in  some  of  the 
most  important  cases  that  have  come  before  the  higher  courts,  notably  the  Craig- 
Sprague  breach  of  promise  case,  in  which  the  largest  verdict  ($100,000)  ever 
obtained  was  given  by  the  jury  in  favor  of  his  client;  also  the  noted  meat  canning 
case,  which  was  won  after  laborious  trials,  in  which  the  opposition  employed  some 
of  the  most  distinguished  counsel  at  this  bar.  Mr.  Tourtellotte  eschews  politics, 
and  devotes  himself  closely  to  his  profession.  He  has  a  large  and  varied  practice, 
both  before  the  state  and  United  States  courts.  He  is  a  safe  counselor  and  an 
earnest  and  convincing  advocate,  being  an  interesting  and  forcible  speaker  before 
court  or  jury. 

In  1861  he  was  married  to  Miss  Julia  Isabella  Judson,  only  child  of  Dr.  Judson, 
a  wealthy  citizen  of  Chicago,  and  has  one  son,  Frederick  Judson,  about  fifteen 
years  of  age. 

WILLIAM    L.  MITCHELL. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Monroe  county,  New  York,  and  is  now 
fifty  years  of  age.  His  family  moved  to  Janesville,  Rock  county,  Wiscon- 
sin, in  1846,  where  his  father,  who  is  now  living,  and  widely  known,  formerly 
was  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  that  of  a  physician.  William 
chose  the  profession  of  law,  and  to  that  end  fitted  himself  by  a  thorough 
course  of  study,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  city,  where  he  practiced  sev- 
eral years.  He  has  always  been  a  decided  democrat  in  politics,  but  when  the 
civil  war  broke  out,  he  was  a  war  democrat,  and  with  Hon.  Matt  H.  Carpenter, 
who  then  lived  in  Rock  county,  and  was  also  a  war  democrat,  he  was  active  in 
urging  enlistments,  and  made  many  speeches  in  support  of  the  prosecution  of  the 
war  for  the  suppression  of  the  rebellion  and  the  preservation  of  the  Union.  In 
1866  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  soon  secured  an  extensive  and  lucrative  prac- 
tice, mainly  of  admiralty  or  maritime  law  in  the  admiralty  courts,  and  attained 
to  a  position  among  the  foremost  in  this  specialty.  He  has  made  some  especially 
happy  and  effective  arguments  before  the  United  States  courts  in  the  course  of 
his  practice  in  Chicago,  notably  his  argument  in  what  is  known  as  the  Kate 
Hinchman  (name  of  a  vessel)  case  in  the  United  States  circuit  court,  before  Judge 
Drummond,  in  which  he  reviewed  the  opinion  of  Judge  Bradley,  of  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court,  in  the  noted  Lottawana  case.  The  argument  was  at  once 
able,  unique,  classical,  clear  and  forcible,  and  attracted  the  attention  of  the  court  and 
those  who  heard  it,  and  Mr.  Mitchell  was  complimented  by  the  court  on  account 
of  it.  He  lost  largely  in  the  great  fire,  and  after  that  disaster,  and  the  succeed- 
ing financial  crisis,  this  class  of  business  declined  to  a  degree  that  made  it  of 
little  consequence,  and  Mr.  Mitchell  engaged  in  general  practice. 


1 68  THE   BENCH  AND   RAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  is  a  man  of  literary  taste  and  attainments,  and  an  author  and  lecturer. 
His  temperance  lecture,  "  Chicago  by  Gaslight,"  was  well  received  by  the  public 
and  the  press,  both  as  to  matter,  and  manner  of  delivery.  He  is  author  of  a 
pamphlet,  "Humors  of  the  Times,"  a  satire  upon  the  political  corruptions  of 
1876-7;  a  play,  "The  Conscript,"  in  six  acts,  founded  upon  Dumas'  "Conscript,"  as 
to  characters  only;  he  contributes  to  the  press,  and  evidences  ability,  humor  and 
sarcasm  in  a  measure  which  the  majority  of  professional  writers  do  not  possess. 
His  descriptions  of  scenes  and  events  have  been  compared  by  the  critics  to  some 
of  the  best  efforts  of  Dickens.  On  the  platform  he  is  an  actor  as  well  as  orator. 

Mr.  Mitchell  is  a  bachelor,  and  will  probably  remain  so.  He  devotes  himself 
to  his  profession,  to  the  exclusion  of  politics,  with  an  occasional  venture  in  the 
literary  field  for  recreation. 


JOHN    M.    GARTSIDE. 

JOHN  M.  GARTSIDE  was  born  in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  August  24, 
1849.  His  parents,  Benjamin  and  Caroline  (Measey)  Gartside,  are  both 
natives  of  Lancashire,  England.  They  immigrated  to  the  United  States  early  in 
life,  and  for  many  years  lived  in  Philadelphia,  where  the  father  became  an  adept 
in  the  delicate  art  of  steel  engraving,  and  for  a  number  of  years  pursued  that 
occupation.  In  order  the  better  to  provide  for  his  growing  family  he  removed  to 
the  West,  and  settled  at  Iowa  City,  in  the  state  of  Iowa.  This  was  in  1855.  Two 
years  later  came  the  financial  crash  that  swept  over  the  country.  His  means  were 
limited;  the  change  of  climate  and  other  causes  incident  to  settlement  in  a  new 
country,  combining,  so  wrought  upon  his  health,  that  during  the  succeeding  year 
and  a  half  he  was  prostrated  upon  a  bed  of  sickness,  leaving  the  care  and  support 
of  his  family  to  his  devoted  wife  and  oldest  son,  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  The 
lot  was  a  hard  one;  but  young  as  the  boy  was,  he  faced  it  with  a  cheerful  and 
brave  heart,  and  during  the  six  years  that  followed,  chopped  wood,  worked  on 
a  farm,  often  filling  a  man's  place  and  doing  a  man's  work,  and  never  allowing  an 
opportunity  to  go  unimproved,  whereby  he  might  contribute  to  the  needs  of  the 
family.  In  1861  the  family  removed  to  Davenport,  Iowa,  where  John  was,  in  a 
measure,  enabled  to  gratify  his  ardent  longing  for  an  education.  He  at  once 
obtained  work  in  the  merchant  tailoring  establishment  of  Mr.  P.  L.  Cone,  at  one 
dollar  per  week,  reserving  a  portion  of  his  time  for  study.  In  this  manner,  for 
some  four  years,  he  worked  and  attended  the  public  schools,  and  pursued  a  course 
in  the  high  school  of  Davenport,  and  later  attended  the  evening  sessions  of  the 
Bryant  and  Stratton  Business  College  of  that  city.  He  was  a  good  scholar,  with 
a  clear,  comprehensive  mind,  and  a  retentive  memory;  was  fond  of  reading,  and 
by  economizing  his  time,  and  faithfully  improving  his  opportunities,  gained  a 
good  knowledge  of  the  English  branches,  and  a  thoroughly  practical  business 
education. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  169 

He  remained  with  Mr.  Cone  about  seven  years,  and  during  that  period  was 
promoted  from  time  to  time,  until  at  its  close,  in  1868,  he  had  almost  the  entire 
charge  and  control  of  the  business. 

During  the  next  two  years  he  was  employed  as  book-keeper,  cashier  and  office 
manager  of  the  Davenport  agency  of  the  Mutual  Life  Insurance  Company  of 
Chicago.  The  change  was  to  him  most  opportune,  and  the  performance  of  the 
duties  of  his  responsible  position,  in  a  marked  degree,  developed  his  latent  abili- 
ties. The  boy  became  a  man.  Catching  glimpses  of  the  busy  world  lying  out- 
side and  beyond  the  limits  of  that  to  which  his  life  thus  far  had  been  confined, 
and  discovering  in  himself  a  peculiar  tact  and  skill  to  deal  with  men,  he  was 
unable  longer  to  content  himself  in  the  narrow  routine  of  clerical  life,  and 
resolved,  at  any  cost  of  self-sacrifice  or  labor,  to  fit  himself  for  the  practice  of 
law.  He  had  formed  several  business  acquaintances  in  Chicago,  and  knowing  its 
importance  as  a  commercial  center,  was  attracted  thither.  Arriving  October  i, 
1870,  with  a  well  defined  and  determined  purpose,  he  at  once  set  about  its  accom- 
plishment. His  desire  was  to  place  himself  under  the  tuition  of  some  able  lawyer, 
where,  in  addition  to  the  privileges  of  study,  and  the  benefit  of  his  preceptor's 
experience,  he  could,  at  the  same  time,  receive  a  salary  sufficient  to  defray  his 
expenses.  This  he  found  after  a  week  of  weary  and  anxious  searching,  a  week  of 
anxiety  such  as  those  only  can  appreciate  who  have  passed  through  similar  expe- 
riences, in  the  law  office  of  Dent  and  Black,  his  duties  being  to  keep  the  books  of 
the  firm,  and  to  perform  other  general  office  work,  his  salary  being  fixed  at 
$7.00  per  week.  He  went  to  his  task  with  a  will,  and  soon  became  a  proficient 
law  clerk.  In  addition  to  his  law  studies,  he  devoted  his  attention  assiduously  to 
other  branches  under  private  tutors,  and  thus  early  and  late  applied  himself  to 
study  and  work.  In  June,  1873,  being  thoroughly  prepared,  he  went  before  the 
supreme  court,  sitting  at  Mt.  Vernon,  Illinois,  and,  passing  a  rigid  examination, 
was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  continued  with  Dent  and  Black  until  February, 
1876,  as  chief  clerk  of  their  office,  and,  being  thoroughly  qualified,  was  entrusted 
with  many  important  matters  in  the  courts,  and  during  the  last  year  of  his  clerk- 
ship received,  aside  from  the  privilege  of  practicing  on  his  own  account,  a  salary 
of  $1,200.  To  most  young  lawyers  this  would  have  seemed  most  favorable  and 
satisfactory;  but  Mr.  Gartside,  with  characteristic  independence,  felt  that  he 
would  rather  devote  his  entire  energies  to  establishing  a  reputation  and  practice 
for  himself,  and  accordingly  resigned  his  position,  and  opened  an  office  on  his 
own  account.  The  decision  proved  a  wise  one  in  every  respect.  The  few  clients 
who  had  entrusted  their  business  to  him  while  a  law  clerk,  continued  with  him, 
and  brought  others,  and  from  the  first  he  had  a  fair  practice,  which  has  gradually 
grown,  each  year  exhibiting  a  marked  increase  of  business. 

As   a   lawyer  he  shows   thorough  and  careful  professional  training;    readily 

analyses  and  comprehends  the  bearing  of  questions  presented;    quickly  applies 

his  knowledge,  and  in  whatever  he  undertakes  shows  himself  a  skillful  master  of 

the  situation.     As  a  counselor  his  advice  and  opinions  are  reliable;    as  a  special 

18 


I7O  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

pleader  he  excels;  while  as  an  advocate  before  court  or  jury,  he  ranks  among  the 
most  successful. 

Personally,  Mr.  Gartside  is  amiable,  companionable,  genial  and  generous. 
Domestic  in  his  tastes  and  habits,  he  finds  his  chief  delight  outside  of  his  busi- 
ness, in  the  comforts  and  pleasures  of  his  own  home,  and  is  a  friend  always  and 
everywhere  to  be  relied  on. 

His  wife,  Annie  Louise  (Davis)  Gartside,  is  a  daughter  of  Levi  and  Elizabeth 
(Fory)  Davis,  of  Davenport,  Iowa;  an  intelligent,  charming  and  thoroughly 
accomplished  lady,  who  presides  with  dignity  over  her  own  home,  and  among  her 
many  friends  and  acquaintances  is  most  highly  esteemed.  They  were  married  in 
September,  1874,  and  have  one  child,  Lillie  Claribel,  an  interesting  and  charming 
little  miss  of  five  years. 


JUDGE  JOHN  C.  CHUMASERO. 

THOUGH  a  late  acquisition  to  the  bar  of  Chicago,  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
is  a  lawyer  of  long  established  standing  and  reputation.  John  C.  Chumasero 
removed  from  New  York  with  his  parents  to  Rochester  in  1832.  He  is  descended 
from  an  old  Dutch  family.  Being  protestants,  his  ancestors  were  driven  from 
Spain  by  the  inquisition,  during  the  dark  days  of  the  sixteenth  century,  finding 
for  a  time  a  refuge  in  Holland,  but  eventually  going  to  England,  whence  descend- 
ants of  these  heroes  of  protestantism  in  its  rise  emigrated  to  America.  He 
received  his  education  in  the  public  schools  of  New  York,  and  at  an  early  age  com- 
menced to  seek  his  own  maintenance,  entering  a  business  house  as  clerk,  where 
he  remained  until  he  attained  the  age  of  eighteen.  His  parents  having  moved 
to  Rochester  in  1832,  and  his  tastes  leaning  toward  professional  life,  he  aban- 
doned business  pursuits,  and  entering  the  office  of  Bishop  and  Sampson,  began 
the  study  of  law.  He  was  admitted  to  ihe  bar  at  Albany,  October  8,  1838,  and 
the  same  day  was  united  in  marriage  to  Miss  Tryon,  daughter  of  Moses  Tryon, 
of  Hartford,  Connecticut.  Mr.  Chumasero  at  once  started  in  practice  in  Roches- 
ter, forming  with  a  Mr.  Bishop  a  partnership  which  existed  until  the  death  of  Mr. 
Bishop  in  1843.  In  1844  Mr.  Chumasero  was  elected  justice  of  the  peace,  which 
office  he  held  four  years.  He  was  alderman  of  the  city  of  Rochester  from  1848  to 
1850,  and  was  thereafter  elected  a  member  of  the  board  of  education,  and  later 
was  appointed  master  in  chancery,  which  latter  appointment  he  held  for  four 
years.  In  the  meantime  Judge  Chumasero  had  formed  a  law  partnership  with 
Joseph  A.  Eastman,  and  continued  in  practice  until  the  year  before  the  opening 
of  the  civil  war. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  Judge  Chumasero  was  appointed  county  judge  of 
Monroe  county,  New  York,  and  held  office  for  ten  years,  and  after  his  retirement 
from  the  bench,  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  was  referee  in  many 
important  cases,  where  as  well  as  on  the  bench,  his  decisions  were  marked  by  an 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  171 

acute  grasping  of  the  salient  points  in  the  matters  at  issue,  and  a  clear  and  con- 
cise reasoning.  In  May  1879,  his  wife  dying,  Judge  Chumasero  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, and  has  been  practicing  here  since  then.  He  is  a  staunch  republican,  and 
was  at  the  head  of  his  party  in  Monroe  county,  New  York,  for  many  years. 

During  the  administration  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  as  judge  of  Monroe 
county,  and  while  he  at  the  same  time  occupied  the  positions  of  chairman  of  the 
war  committee  and  drafting  commissioners,  in  the  arduous  duties  of  which  he  was 
greatly  assisted  by  the  services  and  patriotic  efforts  of  Hon.  Addison  Gardiner, 
lieutenant  governor,  and  subsequently  chief-justice  of  the  court  of  appeals  of  New 
York,  who  was  also  a  member  of  the  war  committee.  Many  thrilling  incidents, 
illustrative  of  the  soul  stirring  times  of  the  great  rebellion,  and  constituting  part 
of  its  unwritten  history,  occurred.  It  will  doubtless  be  remembered,  that  during 
the  hottest  period  of  the  war,  when  bands  of  traitors,  under  the  name  of  Golden 
Circles,  were  established  in  every  northern  city,  meeting  and  concocting  their 
nefarious  and  treasonable  plans  for  the  subjugation  of  the  North  in  darkened 
rooms  at  midnight,  and  by  all  means  within  their  power,  embarrassing  the  admin- 
istration, and  lending  aid  and  comfort  to  its  enemies,  one  Andrews,  with  a  band 
of  choice  conspirators,  had  arranged  the  plan  of  firing  the  city  of  New  York,  and 
other  northern  cities,  and  laying  them  in  ashes.  Rochester  was  among  those 
marked  by  the  fiendish  gang,  and  included  in  its  destruction  was  the  contem- 
plated massacre  of  the  most  prominent  citizens,  who  were  most  conspicuously 
active  in  the  support  of  the  government  and  the  Union.  The  conspirators  met  in 
secret,  and  marked  for  death  on  a  scroll  the  names  of  their  selected  victims. 
Judge  Chumasero,  who  was  at  that  time  president  of  the  Union  League,  had,  by 
by  his  active  measures,  officially  and  otherwise,  entitled  himself,  in  the  opinions  of 
Andrews  and  his  colleagues,  to  a  high  place  on  the  condemned  list,  and  was  marked 
for  vengeance.  He  had  in  his  service  at  that  time  an  Irish  girl  as  a  domestic, 
who  was  strongly  attached  to  the  family,  and  proved  herself,  in  this  instance  par- 
ticularly, to  be  a  good  and  faithful  servant.  This  girl  happened  to  have  for  her 
sweetheart  one  who  had  been  thoughtlessly  drawn  into  the  conspiracy,  and  whose 
humanity  and  good  nature  revolted  at  the  crimes  he  was  called  upon  to  partici- 
pate in,  and  to  her  he  disclosed  the  plot.  She  of  course  communicated  the  intelli- 
gence to  the  judge,  and  the  whole  thing  was  thus  nipped  in  the  bud.  About  this 
time,  a  traitor  in  the  camp  disclosed  to  Judge  Chumasero,  as  president  of  the 
Union  League,  that  there  was  to  be  a  general  rising  of  the  supporters  of  the 
rebellion  in  Rochester,  which  was  to  involve  the  slaughter  of  the  obnoxious  ones, 
and  the  burning  of  the  city.  The  Union  League,  at  this  time,  consisted  of 
five  hundred  members,  who  met  together  every  evening  for  purposes  of  con- 
sultation, and  perfecting  themselves  in  drill  and  military  discipline.  They 
had  been  engaged  in  the  service  for  months,  and  had  been  fortunate  enough  to 
secure  as  drill  master  and  disciplinarian  the  noble  Captain  Gardner,  of  Fort 
Sumter  fame.  Under  his  tuition  and  instruction  they  had  become  in  point  of 
fact  a  well  drilled  band  of  soldiers,  well  able  to  cope  with  any  mob,  in  case  neces- 


I  72  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

sity  might  demand  it.  The  occasion  fixed  upon  for  the  contemplated  rising  was 
one  evening  when  Senator  Nye,  of  Nevada,  was  announced  to  address  the  people 
on  the  subject  of  the  struggle,  and  to  deliver  one  of  his  famous  war  speeches.  The 
meeting  was  to  be  held  in  the  open  air,  in  the  court-house  yard.  The  wide  spread 
reputation  of  the  orator,  and  the  intense  excitement  then  prevailing,  were  expected 
to  draw  together  an  immense  assemblage.  The  plan  of  the  rebel  sympathizers 
was,  to  mix  up  with  the  crowd,  and  at  a  given  signal  commence  the  riot,  while 
their  outside  coadjutors  were  to  fire  the  city  at  once  in  different  places.  The 
Union  League  assembled  together  before  the  time  fixed  for  the  public  gathering, 
and  it  was  resolved  that  each  member,  thoroughly  armed,  should  attend  the  meet- 
ing as  though  nothing  was  known,  and  without  any  apparent  concert  of  action 
but  that  the  moment  the  court  house  bell  tolled  one,  which  was  the  signal  agreed 
on,  each  man  should  leave  the  crowd  and  fall  into  rank,  presenting  a  band  of 
five  hundred  well  armed,  thoroughly  drilled  men,  ready  for  any  emergency,  and 
prepared  effectually  to  dispose  of  any  unorganized  mob  of  twice  their  number,  on 
the  shortest  possible  notice.  But 

"  The  best  laid  schemes  o'  mice  and  men 
Gang  aft  aglee." 

Whether  a  traitor  in  our  camp,  or  whether  cowardice  prevailed  in  theirs,  01 
whatever  the  cause  was,  we  never  knew,  and  all  passed  off  quietly.  Nye  made  a 
glowing  speech,  and  true  patriots  imbibed  new  vigor  and  enthusiasm  on  the  occa- 
sion. But  it  would  require  a  large  volume  to  portray  all  the  thrilling  scenes 
occurring  even  in  Rochester  and  vicinity  during  the  progress  of  the  terrific  strug- 
gle between  treason  and  the  Union,  and  the  foregoing  must  suffice. 


HENRY    McKEY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  rising  Chicago  lawyer,  and  a  member  of  the 
well  known  firm  of  Doolittle  and  McKey.  He  was  born  December  8, 
1846,  and  is  a  son  of  the  late  Edward  McKey,  an  enterprising  merchant  and 
capable  business  man  of  Janesville,  Wisconsin.  Upon  the  death  of  his  father, 
which  occurred  at  the  time  of  Henry's  early  manhood,  the  business  of  settling  a 
large  estate  was  left  to  his  charge,  thus  giving  him  large  business  experience.  At 
an  early  age,  he  discharged  the  duties  of  his  responsible  trust  with  energy  and 
faithfulness,  and  out  of  that  and  numerous  other  matters  many  thousands  of 
dollars  have  passed  through  his  hands  by  which  he  has  gained  the  reputation  of 
being  a  man  of  strict  integrity  and  rare  business  talent.  He  graduated  from 
Racine  College  in  the  class  of  1867,  and  received  the  degree  of  A.  M.  from  the 
same  college  in  1870.  He  pursued  a  course  of  law  studies  in  the  law  department 
of  the  Michigan  University,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  the  class  of  1869. 
Five  years  later,  in  1874,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Chi- 
cago, associating  himself  with  Hon.  James  R.  Doolittle  and  J.  R.  Doolittle,  Jr., 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  173 

both  gentlemen  of  eminence  in  their  profession.  Mr.  McKey  has  been  employed 
in  the  settlement  of  several  very  large  estates,  and  gives  special  attention  to  real 
estate  and  probate  law  and  to  chancery  practice,  in  which  he  is  an  expert.  He 
has  the  confidence  of  all  who  know  him,  and  is  held  in  high  esteem  by  all  of  the 
members  of  the  bar,  who  are  favored  with  his  acquaintance.  He  is  a  thorough 
lawyer,  and  a  man  of  great  industry,  and  energy  of  character,  which,  combined 
with  his  keen  perception  and  unqualified  integrity,  render  him  a  man  in  whom 
implicit  confidence  may  be  placed.  He  was  married  October  25,  1876,  to  Adella 
S.  Parkhurst,  daughter  of  William  S.  Parkhurst,  an  eminent  lawyer,  late  of  Rome, 
New  York. 


M.  A.  DELANY. 

MARTIN  A.  DfiLANY  was  born  of  Irish  parentage,  October  4,  1844,  in  New- 
port township,  Lake  county,  Illinois.  His  father,  John  DeLany,  came  to 
Chicago  in  the  year  1840,  while  yet  a  young  man;  after  working  a  short  time  as 
a  laborer  on  the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  he  went  to  Lake  county,  Illinois, 
then  a  part  of  McHenry  county,  and  selected  a  tract  of  wild  land,  which  he  pur- 
chased from  the  United  States  government,  when  it  came  into  market.  Here  he 
settled,  and  shortly  afterward  marrying,  with  his  wife,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Maher,  undertook  the  privations  and  hardships  of  a  pioneer  life,  seldom  seeing  the 
outside  world,  except  when  they  visited  Chicago,  some  forty  miles  distant,  for  the 
purpose  of  securing  their  family  supplies.  In  this  pioneer  home  grew  up  a  large 
family  of  children,  of  whom  Martin  A.  was  the  second  eldest,  and  who,  as  they 
advanced  in  years,  took  part  with  their  parents  in  the  work  of  clearing  and  devel- 
oping the  land,  by  no  means  a  light  task.  The  settlement  being  new  there  were 
no  schools;  nor  were  there  township  or  even  county  organizations,  except  so  far 
as  that  territory  was  considered  a  part  of  McHenry  county,  and  Mr.  DeLany  took 
an  active  part  in  all  the  preliminary  movements  which  resulted  in  the  creation  of 
Lake  county,  and  in  the  township  and  school  district  organizations.  In  his  house 
was  held  the  first  meeting  of  settlers  for  the  purpose  of  building  a  school  house  in 
that  neighborhood,  a  work  which  was  accomplished  by  voluntary  subscriptions  of 
small  amounts  of  money  and  the  joint  labor  of  the  people,  the  building  being 
located  on  Mr.  DeLany's  farm  some  eight  miles  northwest  of  the  present  site  of 
Waukegan,  that  place  being  then  known  as  a  steamboat  landing  and  called  Little 
Fort.  In  this  school  house  the  subject  of  this  sketch  obtained  what  education  he 
could  in  the  common  branches,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  commenced  a  course  of 
study  at  an  academy  in  Waukegan,  which,  however,  he  did  not  complete,  as  his 
services  were  required  on  the  farm.  Being  of  a  studious  mind  he  utilized  all  his 
spare  time  at  home,  eagerly  reading  all  the  books  within  his  reach.  At  the  first 
opportunity  he  returned  to  the  academy,  but  soon  left  it  to  take  charge  of  a  dis- 
trict school,  which  he  taught  during  two  winter  terms,  in  the  meantime  reading 
law  from  books  borrowed  from  lawyers  in  Waukegan;  after  two  years  reading  in 


174  THE   BENCH  A^D   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

this  way,  he  in  1866  entered  the  law  department  of  Michigan  University,  and  pur- 
sued the  full  course  of  study.  Graduating  in  1868,  he  went  to  Chicago,  and  in 
the  spring  of  that  year  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  after  which  he  tried  the  practice 
of  law  in  Elgin  and  St.  Charles.  Meeting  with  little  success,  he  soon  returned  to 
Chicago,  and  opened  an  office  on  Dearborn  street  where  he  remained  but  a  short 
time.  His  means  being  exhausted,  he  again  resorted  to  teaching,  this  time  at 
Libertyville,  in  Lake  county,  during  the  winter  of  1868-69.  In  May  following  he 
returned  to  Chicago,  and  opened  a  law  office,  firmly  determined  to  succeed.  In 
the  great  fire  of  October,  1871,  he  suffered  the  loss  of  all  his  personal  effects,  but 
immediately  after  the  fire  reopened  business,  and  up  to  the  present  time  has  been 
very  successful,  his  practice  being  chiefly  in  probate,  commercial  and  real  estate 
law,  and  the  law  of  contracts. 

In  1876  Mr.  DeLany  was  elected  to  the  Illinois  state  senate,  from  the  sixth 
senatorial  district,  North  Chicago,  and  served  in  that  body  during  the  sessions  of 
the  3<Dth  and  3ist  general  assemblies,  being  active  as  a  democrat  in  the  memora- 
ble struggle,  which  resulted  in  the  election  of  Hon.  David  Davis  to  the  United 
States  Senate.  He  also  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  passage  of  the  laws  estab- 
lishing the  appellate  courts  in  Illinois;  and,  besides  being  the  author  of  the  act 
creating  the  probate  court,  was  chiefly  instrumental  in  securing  its  passage. 

He  was  in  1879  appointed  a  member  of  the  Chicago  board  of  education,  and 
after  one  year's  service  in  that  body,  was  elected  its  president,  and  at  the  expira- 
tion of  one  term  of  office  was  unanimously  reflected  to  the  same  position.  Dur- 
ing his  term  as  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  he  was  active  in  advocating 
all  measures  tending  to  the  welfare  of  the  public  schools  of  the  city,  and  a  leading 
spirit  in  the  movement  which  resulted  in  the  election  of  Mr.  George  Howland  as 
superintendent  of  schools  in  1880.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Chicago  bar 
association.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  faithful  to  his  clients,  and  in  all  his  dealings  sus- 
tains the  dignity  and  honor  of  his  profession.  Mr.  DeLany  was  married  in  De- 
cember of  1870,  to  Miss  Kate  Wetzel,  daughter  of  Nicholas  Wetzel,  of  Waukegan, 
by  whom  he  has  three  daughters.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Roman  Catholic  church. 


COL.    DAVID    QUIGG. 

DAVID  QUIGG  was  born  in  Litchfield,  New  Hampshire,  December  17,  1834. 
His  father  was  a  farmer.  He  commenced  his  preparatory  studies  at  the 
age  of  thirteen,  and  three  years  later  entered  Dartmouth  College  and  graduated 
in  the  class  of  1855.  He  soon  afterward  removed  to  the  West,  and  studied  law  in 
the  office  of  Swett  and  Orme  at  Bloomington,  Illinois,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  1857.  At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion  he  enlisted  in  the  4th 
111.  Cavalry,  serving  as  second  lieutenant  until  the  summer  of  1862,  when  he 
was  made  major  of  the  i4th  111.  Cavalry,  of  which  regiment  he  subsequently 
became  lieutenant-colonel,  and  with  which  he  remained  until  the  close  of  the  war, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  175 

being  mustered  out  of  the  service  in  July,  1865.  Settling  in  Chicago,  he  became 
a  partner  in  the  law  firm  of  Higgins,  Swett  and  Quigg,  and  remained  in  that 
connection  until  1873,  when  Mr.  Higgins  retired  and  the  firm  was  dissolved. 
Mr.  Quigg  then  formed  a  partnership  with  Cyrus  Bentley,  which  continued 
until  1877.  In  1878  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Col.  Richard  S.  Tuthill,  which 
continues  to  the  present  time  (1883). 

His  army  service  was  mainly  in  Tennessee.  He  was  seven  months  a  prisoner 
of  war,  held  in  Charleston  and  Columbus,  South  Carolina. 

As  a  lawyer  he  ranks  high,  and  has  a  large  and  lucrative  practice. 


MAJOR    LUMLEY    INGLEDEW. 

EMLEY  INGLEDEW  was  born  in  Bradford,  England,  November  28,  1837, 
on  the  father's  side  of  Scotch,  on  the  mother's  English,  extraction.  When 
he  was  eight  years  of  age  his  parents  came  to  this  country  and  settled  in  West 
Troy,  Walworth  county,  Wisconsin,  engaging  in  farming.  He  worked  on  the 
farm  until  sixteen  years  of  age,  when  he  determined  to  obtain  a  better  education 
than  the  schools  in  that  vicinity  afforded,  and  went  to  Milton  (Wisconsin)  College, 
where  he  graduated  in  1861,  working  his  way  through  college  by  teaching  win- 
ters. Thence  he  went  to  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  and  commenced  the  study  of  law, 
and  was  in  the  offices  of  the  late  Judge  H.  S.  Conger  and  of  Henry  K.  Whiton, 
after  which,  in  1863,  he  was  examined  and  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Madison.  During 
the  same  year  he  was  commissioned  by  President  Lincoln  commissary  of  subsis- 
tance,  with  rank  of  captain,  and  assigned  to  duty  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland, 
where  he  remained  during  the  war,  with  the  exception  of  nine  months  when  he 
was  prisoner  of  war  under  circumstances  which  would  try  the  metal  of  any  man. 
During  three  months  of  this  time  he  was  one  of  the  six  hundred  Union  officers  in 
Charleston,  South  Carolina,  who  were  placed  by  the  confederate  authorities,  in 
buildings  exposed  to  the  fire  of  our  own  batteries,  a  stratagem  resorted  to  by  them 
for  the  purpose  of  deterring  our  batteries  from  opening  fire  on  them,  knowing  the 
buildings  to  be  occupied  by  their  comrades.  This  was  during  the  siege  and  bom- 
bardment of  Charleston  by  the  Union  army.  He  was  subsequently  promoted  by 
Mr.  Lincoln  to  the  rank  of  brevet  major  in  the  same  branch  of  the  service,  in 
which  he  made  an  honorable  and  creditable  record.  He  was  mustered  out  in  the 
fall  of  1865,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  took  a  course  in  book-keeping  in  the 
Eastman  Business  College,  and  was  subsequently  principal  of  book-keeping  and 
commercial  law  in  that  institution  for  eighteen  months.  In  1867  he  engaged  in 
the  real  estate  and  law  business  in  Chicago,  and  has  been  so  engaged  since,  doing 
an  extensive  business.  He  has  won  the  confidence  and  regard  of  those  who  have 
had  dealings  with  him,  and  established  a  reputation  for  honorable  dealing,  and 
won  the  respect  of  all  as  being  a  reliable  and  trustworthy  gentleman.  He  has 
won  this  success  by  his  quiet  industry,  energy,  careful  habits  and  application  to 
business. 


176  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

In  April,  1866,  he  married  Ella  E.  Wheeler,  then  a  teacher  in  the  Janesville, 
Wisconsin,  high  school.  While  in  Janesville  he  was  one  of  the  originators  and 
promoters  of  the  young  men's  literary  society,  and  took  an  interest  in  whatever 
tended  to  improve  and  elevate. 


SIMEON  W.  KING. 

THE  life  history  of  him  whose  name  heads  this  sketch,  while  possessing  many 
points  in  common  with  that  of  every  self-made  man,  has  yet  many  charac- 
teristics peculiarly  its  own,  and  fairly  illustrates  what  may  be  achieved  by  hard 
work  in  the  prosecution  of  a  determined  and  persistent  purpose. 

His  parents,  Hiram  Rogers  King  and  Deborah  (Woodrow)  King,  who  were 
highly  esteemed  members  of  the  Society  of  Friends,  at  the  time  of  their  marriage 
settled  on  a  section  of  land  in  Penn  township,  Morgan  county,  Ohio,  which  the 
grandfather  of  our  subject  had  given  to  his  children,  and  which  is  still  known  as 
King's  Section.  Here  Simeon  was  born,  August  18,  1838.  Both  his  paternal 
and  maternal  ancestors  were  descended  from  William  Penn's  colony,  and  all 
belonged  to  the  Society  of  Friends.  In  this  society  Mr.  King  still  retains  his 
birthright,  although  early  in  life  he  identified  himself  with  the  Methodist  Episco- 
pal church.  When  with  Quakers  he  speaks  their  plain  language,  but  when  absent 
from  them  no  one  would  suspect  that  he  had  ever  seen  a  Friend.  Aside  from  our 
subject,  there  were  in  the  family  two  brothers  and  five  sisters.  The  former, 
William  Thomas  and  Hiram  R.,  enlisted  in  their  country's  service  in  the  early 
part  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  one  in  the  yth  Maryland,  and  the  other  in  the 
i  goth  Pennsylvania  "  Bucktail  "  regiment.  Both  were  captured  at  Weldon  Cross 
Roads,  Virginia,  whence  they  were  taken  to  Belle  Island  and  Libby  prisons,  and 
then  to  Andersonville  prison,  Georgia,  of  infamous  memory,  where  William 
perished  of  starvation.  Hiram  was  subsequently  removed  to  Florence,  Alabama, 
and  there  suffered  the  same  unhappy  fate,  thus  leaving  Mr.  King  the  only  sur- 
viving brother. 

When  Simeon  was  about  five  years  old  his  father  engaged  in  an  extensive 
speculation  in  peaches,  which  ultimately  caused  his  pecuniary  ruin,  owing  to 
which  misfortune  the  family  was  broken  up  and  scattered,  our  subject  being  put 
in  charge  of  his  grandmother  King,  who  lived  at  Little  Britton,  Pennsylvania. 
Two  years  later  he  was  virtually  cast  upon  his  own  resources,  being  put  out  to 
work  for  one  Nathan  Blake,  a  farmer,  with  whom  he  lived  two  years,  attending 
school  a  part  of  the  time.  During  the  next  three  years  he  lived  with  an  uncle  on 
a  farm,  where  he  was  privileged  to  spend  a  portion  of  the  winter  season  in  school. 
He  was  now  twelve  years  old  ;  and  with  a  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  an  ambition 
to  push  his  way  in  the  world,  he  sought  employment  that  would  bring  him  some 
pecuniary  compensation.  With  this  purpose  in  view  he  went  to  work  for  Mr. 
Edwin  Haines,  at  Rising  Sun,  Cecil  county,  Maryland,  also  a  farmer,  receiving 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAK   OF   CHICAGO.  I  79 

a  year  and  his  board,  and  buying  his  own  clothes.  He  was  thus  em- 
ployed three  years,  and  during  that  time  attended  school  about  three  weeks 
of  each  winter,  paying  his  own  tuition.  The  dull  monotony  of  such  a  life  was 
wholly  unsuited  to  his  tastes,  and  finding  in  it  little  opportunity  for  acquiring  an 
education,  which  he  felt  he  must  have  at  any  sacrifice,  he  resolved  to  abandon  it. 
Making  known  to  his  employer  his  decision,  he  received  the  small  sum  of  money 
that  was  due  him,  viz.,  $30,  and  with  his  little  bundle,  containing  all  his  earthly 
possessions,  on  his  back,  he  set  out  barefooted  and  ragged  for  Wilmington,  Dela- 
ware, some  thirty  miles  distant.  There  he  found  employment  during  the  summer, 
and  in  the  fall  entered  the  academy  of  T.  Clarkson  Taylor,  a  Friends  School, 
where  he  spent  two  years,  making  rapid  and  permanent  progress  in  his  studies, 
and  working  for  his  board  out  of  school  hours.  It  was  while  here  that  he  first 
determined  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  the  desire  to  do  so  being  awakened  by 
listening  to  an  eloquent  address,  delivered  in  a  criminal  case,  by  Hon.  David  Paul 
Brown,  a  celebrated  lawyer  of  Philadelphia.  With  the  hope  of  bettering  his  con- 
dition, and  the  determination  to  gratify  this  desire,  young  King,  at  the  age  of 
seventeen  years,  now  started  for  the  West,  arriving  in  Chicago  October  19, 
1855,  with  sixteen  dollars  in  his  pocket.  In  his  search  for  employment  his  money 
became  exhausted,  and  in  addition  he  had  contracted  a  board  bill  of  $70,  for 
which  his  note  was  accepted.  He  finally  secured  a  temporary  situation  in 
the  grocery  house  of  George  C.  Cook  and  Company,  and  afterward  was  given 
employment  in  a  planing  mill,  by  a  friend,  Isaac  P.  Pointer,  more  from  sympathy 
than  anything  else,  at  seventy-five  cents  per  day,  from  which  he  was  able,  after 
paying  his  board,  to  save  one  dollar  per  week.  Thus  he  struggled  and  met  his 
obligation,  with  interest.  In  the  midst  of  all  he  kept  up  a  brave  heart,  never 
for  an  instant  relinquishing  his  purpose  to  prepare  himself  for  the  legal  profes- 
sion. Previous  to  this  he  frequently  visited  a  free  soup-house,  then  situated 
where  now  stands  Marshall  Field  and  Company's  wholesale  dry-goods  house,  and 
was  only  too  glad  to  enjoy  that  privilege.  Soon  afterward  he  obtained  a  position 
as  clerk  in  the  office  of  Wilsee  Brothers,  sewer  contractors,  in  addition  to  which 
he,  in  the  following  winter,  with  Rev.  Robert  Collyer  and  Miss  Linda  Gilbert, 
taught  an  evening  school  held  under  the  auspices  of  the  ministry  at  large. 
At  this  time  he  was  borrowing  law-books,  reading  the  same  and  returning  them 
with  thanks.  In  the  spring  following  he  secured  the  privilege  of  studying  six 
months  in  the  office  of  a  lawyer,  but  not  admiring  the  manner  in  which  he  did 
business,  left  him,  and  soon  after  formed  the  acquaintance  of  William  James,  then 
coroner  of  Cook  county,  whom  he  found  a  true  and  sympathizing  friend,  and 
now  mourns  his  recent  death. 

Although  too  young,  Mr.  King,  at  the  time  the  Lady  Elgin  was  wrecked  on 
Lake  Michigan,  involving  the  loss  of  hundreds  of  lives,  was  chosen  by  his  late 
friend  as  one  of  the  coroner's  jury.  The  investigation  lasted  two  weeks,  and  the 
compensation  which  he  received  for  these  sad  services  really  gave  him  his  start  in 
life.  He  next  secured  a  position,  with  a  small  salary,  in  the  law  office  of  Good- 
'9 


l8o  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

rich,  Farwell  and  Smith,  with  whom  he  remained  four  years,  occasionally  attend- 
ing lectures  at  the  Union  Law  College,  and  after  passing  a  very  creditable 
examination  by  the  committee  appointed  for  that  purpose,  April  4,  1863,  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  likewise  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  the  United  States  courts. 

During  Mr.  King's  struggles  with  poverty,  it  may  be  added  that  he  kept  his 
purposes  a  secret  from  his  relatives  at  the  East,  and  when  the  news  of  his  admis- 
sion to  the  bar  and  his  subsequent  appointment  to  office  reached  them,  it  found 
at  first  somewhat  incredulous  listeners,  they  saying,  "  It  is  only  one  of  his  jokes," 
but  pleased  with  his  success,  and  rejoicing  with  him  to  know  that  he  was  try- 
ing, under  such  adverse  circumstances,  to  make  himself  a  name. 

In  the  summer  of  1864,  by  the  death  of  Col.  John  A.  Bross,  a  vacancy  occurred, 
and  through  the  kindness  and  influence  of  his  preceptors,  Goodrich,  Farwell  and 
Smith,  Mr.  King  was  appointed  by  Judge  Thomas  Drummond  United  States 
commissioner  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois,  being  as  was  then  stated,  the 
youngest  man  ever  appointed  to  that  office.  As  an  evidence  of  his  fitness  for  this 
position,  it  need  only  be  said  that  he  still  holds  the  office.  He  is,  besides,  com- 
missioner of  deeds  for  every  state  and  territory  in  the  Union,  commissioner  for 
the  United  States  court  of  claims  at  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  United 
States  passport  officer  at  Chicago,  and  notary  public.  On  November  20,  1882, 
Mr.  King  was  selected  as  a  commissioner  of  the  court  of  commissioners  of 
Alabama  claims,  a  responsible  office  to  which  is  attached  great  discretionary 
power,  and  on  December  23,  following,  was  appointed  by  President  Arthur,  unso- 
licited, commissioner  of  deeds  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  at  Chicago,  Illinois. 

During  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  Mr.  King,  as  notary,  swore  into  the  United 
States  service,  without  compensation,  company  after  company  with  a  "God  bless 
you,"  while  others  insisted  on  having  their  pay.  He  was  not  able  to  enter  the 
service  himself,  owing  to  his  father  and  mother  having  departed  this  life  and 
leaving  a  sacred  duty  devolving  upon  him,  that  of  caring  as  best  he  could  with 
the  scanty  means  at  hand  for  those  wholly  dependent  upon  him  for  support;  but, 
although  there  was  no  draft  in  his  ward,  he  employed,  paid  for  and  sent  to  the 
front  a  worthy  representative,  who  was  killed  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness. 
He,  himself,  while  a  student,  in  1862,  spent  several  weeks  caring  for  the  wounded 
after  the  terrible  battle  of  Shiloh,  and  for  his  commendable  service  was  appointed 
by  Gov.  Richard  Yates  a  member  of  his  staff.  In  politics  he  is  a  firm  and  uncom- 
promising republican,  and  ever  since  he  has  been  a  voter  has  taken  an  active 
interest  in  the  affairs  of  that  party.  In  this,  as  in  every  other  department  of  work 
to  which  he  has  been  called,  his  abhorrence  of  shams  and  pretenses,  together  with 
his  loyalty  to  principle,  have  secured  to  him  the  highest  esteem  and  admiration 
of  his  fellow  citizens,  who  have  rewarded  him  with  many  offices  of  public  trust. 
The  first  elective  office  which  he  was  called  to  fill  was  that  of  assistant  supervisor 
of  the  town  of  South  Chicago,  which  under  the  then  law  made  him  a  member  of 
the  board  of  supervisors  of  Cook  county.  This  was  in  1866.  In  the  following 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  l8l 

year  he  was  reelected  to  the  same  office,  and  by  the  board  of  supervisors  selected 
county  attorney.  In  the  fall  of  1869  he  was  elected  supervisor  of  the  town  of 
South  Chicago,  and  became  president  of  the  board  of  auditors  and  treasurer  of 
the  town  funds.  He  was  also  made  chairman  of  the  judiciary  committee  of  the 
old  county  board  of  supervisors,  and  again  chosen  county  attorney,  filling  that 
office  three  terms  in  all,  of  one  year  each.  Mr.  King  has  also  served  as  clerk  of 
the  town  of  South  Chicago,  and  besides  has  received  from  his  party,  unsolicited, 
the  nomination  for  representative  in  the  state  legislature,  and  other  honorable 
offices,  which  he  declined. 

While  Mr.  King  was  serving  in  the  county  board  he  rendered  valuable  service 
toward  organizing  and  perfecting  the  normal  school  system  of  Cook  county,  he 
being  one  of  its  first  advocates  and  earnest  supporters  at  a  time  when  the  project 
was  not  looked  upon  with  general  favor,  but  was  frequently  denounced  by  the 
press  as  being,  in  a  manner,  worthless  and  too  expensive;  but  after  much  conten- 
tion and  labor  in  the  interest  of  education,  this  important  educational  system  was 
first  established  at  Blue  Island,  and  afterward  at  Englewood,  where  the  school 
and  its  management  now  reflect  honor  upon  Cook  county,  and  also  speak  well 
for  those  who  had  the  foresight  to  establish  such  an  institution  for  the  benefit 
of  the  young,  irrespective  of  sex,  who  may  be  desirous  of  becoming  thorough 
teachers. 

A  leading  characteristic  of  our  subject  is  his  thought  and  care  for  others,  and 
it  must  be  said,  to  his  honor,  that  while  yet  struggling  with  poverty,  and  after  he 
had  established  himself  in  business,  his  care  for  his  sisters  prompted  him  to 
gather  them  together,  educate  them,  and  provide  for  their  wants,  one  of  them 
Mary,  an  idolized  sister,  being  for  fifteen  years  bed-ridden  and  a  helpless  invalid; 
after  those  long  and  weary  years  of  great  suffering  borne  with  Christian  fortitude 
and  faith,  she  has  but  recently  passed  to  her  reward,  in  the  blessed  hope  of  an 
immortality  and  lasting  peace,  where  pain  and  sorrow  come  not,  and  death  is 
unknown  ;  yet  her  brother  has  not  become  reconciled  to  his  loss,  so  deeply  was 
and  is  the  attachment  for  this  loved  one.  He  is  a  man  of  high  social  attainments 
and  generous  impulses,  and  in  his  professional  or  official  capacity,  prompt,  ener- 
getic, conscientious  and  careful. 

Prior  to  the  great  fire  of  1871,  Mr.  King  had  accumulated  a  handsome  prop- 
erty, but  came  out  of  that  dire  calamity  with  nothing,  save  his  fair  reputation. 
His  own  life  was  providentially  saved  at  the  time  of  the  fire;  but  for  an  un- 
accountable impulse  to  spend  the  night  with  friends  in  another  portion  of  the 
city,  he  certainly  would  have  perished  in  that  awful  conflagration,  it  being  then 
his  unbroken  custom  to  sleep  over  his  office,  in  furnished  apartments  he  had  for 
years  occupied.  The  building  in  which  were  his  rooms  was  destroyed  early  on 
that  memorable  morning  of  October  9,  and  lives  lost.  One  of  the  earliest  tele- 
grams that  left  the  city  that  day  for  the  East  was  the  following,  sent  by  Mr.  King 
to  his  sisters  :  "Lost  all,  but  saved."  He  afterward  made  favorable  investments 
in  real  estate,  and  was  on  the  eve  of  retrieving  his  losses,  when  the  financial  crisis 


1 82  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

of  1873  involved  him,  the  second  time,  in  the  loss  of  all  he  possessed.  In  addition 
to  his  other  misfortunes,  he  was,  in  1876,  made  the  object  of  a  dastardly  and 
unprovoked  assault  which  so  impaired  his  health  that  for  several  years  he  was 
unable  to  attend  to  his  business,  and  from  the  effects  of  which  he  has  but  very 
recently  fully  recovered. 

Mr.  King  is  a  man  of  indomitable  will;  whatever  he  does  is  prompted  by  the 
most  conscientious  motives,  and  having  well  considered  and  entered  upon  the 
prosecution  of  any  plan  or  purpose,  nothing  can  change  or  swerve  him.  He  began 
life  with  nothing  save  his  own  native  talents,  and  by  honest,  persistent  and 
unaided  effort,  has  risen  to  an  honest  position  in  business,  political  and  social 
circles. 

COL.  LOREN   H.  WHITNEY. 

T  OREN  H.  WHITNEY,  an  attorney  at  the  Chicago  bar,  was  born  in  Berlin, 
J ^  Erie  county,  Ohio,  September  12,  1839,  the  oldest  son  of  James  W.  Whit- 
ney who  came  from  Yates  county,  New  York,  and  settled  in  Berlin  in  1825, 
and  married  Miss  Betsey  Harper,  a  young  lady  of  fine  natural  abilities,  a  relative 
of  the  famous  Harper  Brothers,  New  York.  In  1848  the  family  moved  to  DeKalb 
county,  Illinois,  where  Loren  H.  received  his  early  education,  until  he  was  about 
sixteen  years  of  age,  when,  lured  by  the  glowing  representations  made  of  the 
attractions  and  advantages  of  Mississippi,  he  joined  a  number  of  young  men  in 
his  neighborhood  in  a  resolution  to  go  to  that  state  and  seek  a  fortune,  but  when 
the  time  came  all  changed  their  purpose  excepting  young  Whitney,  who  started 
on  foot  with  staff  and  carpet  bag  alone,  with  but  $1.75  in  his  pocket.  His  father 
refused  him  assistance,  hoping  to  deter  him  from  going,  but  he  was  not  "  made 
of  the  stuff  that  yields  "  when  he  had  once  formed  a  purpose.  In  two  and  a  half 
days  he  walked  to  Peru,  seventy  miles  from  home,  and  after  paying  for  a  meal 
he  balanced  his  cash  account  and  found  but  ten  cents  in  his  favor;  something 
had  to  be  done  in  the  emergency.  He  offered  his  services  to  the  engineer  of  a 
little  steamer  lying  at  the  wharf,  and  about  to  move  out;  he  represented  that  he 
could  do  anything  and  everything,  and  was  engaged  as  a  boy  of  all  work,  with 
the  stipulation  that  he  would  be  paid  whatever  his  services  were  considered 
worth;  continued  in  this  employ  five  weeks  and  was  paid  $28  and  promised  $50 
per  month  to  continue,  but  declined  the  offer  and  went  to  Bolivar  county,  Mis- 
sissippi, where  he  passed  the  winter.  He  contracted  with  a  planter  to  throw  up  a 
levee  on  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi  river  and  made  a  handsome  amount  of 
money  on  his  contract  —  perhaps  the  youngest  contractor  on  record;  this  indi- 
cated his  independent  and  self-reliant  nature.  He  went  to  California  in  1855  with 
a  company  of  gold  hunters,  across  the  plains,  and  there  worked  a  gold  mine  and 
made  money  enough  to  enable  him  to  return  and  complete  a  college  course, 
which  was  the  object  of  his  young  ambition  —  completing  a  four  years'  course  in 
two  years.  He  was  a  bright  and  apt  student,  always  among  the  foremost  in  his 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  183 

class.  He  then  entered  the  law  office  of  the  late  Gen.  Stephen  A.  Hurlbut,  Belvi- 
dere,  Illinois,  and  subsequently  attended  Asbury  University,  Indiana,  and  still  later 
was  admitted  to  the  bar,  the  committee  which  examined  him  complimenting  him 
highly  on  his  proficiency,  though  he  had  read  law  but  one  year.  When  the  war 
broke  out  he  was  engaged  in  practice,  but  entered  the  army  as  captain  in  the  8th 
111.  Cavalry,  one  of  the  best  regiments  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  a  fact  largely 
due  to  his  exertions.  When  McClellan  advanced  on  Manassas,  Capt.  Whitney,  at 
the  head  of  Sumner's  Cavalry,  led  the  way.  While  sitting  on  one  of  the  Quaker 
cannons  at  Manassas  he  conceived  the  idea  of  writing  for  the  press,  but  before 
an  hour's  thought,  concluded  to  write  a  full  history  of  the  war  and  carried  this 
purpose  into  execution  and  his  first  volume  was  published  in  1863.  He  served 
with  valor  and  bravery  in  the  Peninsular  campaign  and  in  the  battles  around 
Richmond,  and  was  offered  the  position  of  major  on  Gen.  Sumner's  staff,  but 
declined,  to  accept  an  offer  of  colonelcy,  as  he  understood,  of  one  of  the  new 
regiments  of  this  state;  but  when  he  returned,  it  proved  to  be  a  lieutenant  colo- 
nelcy that  was  intended,  and  he  declined  it,  but  was  instrumental  afterward  in 
organizing  two  more  regiments,  which  went  to  the  field.  During  this  time  he 
wrote  and  published  the  first  volume  of  his  history  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion, 
a  work  which  will  compare  favorably  with  the  best  of  the  many  histories  of  the 
great  conflict.  It  is  a  clear  setting  forth  of  the  inciting  causes  and  philosophy  of 
the  rebellion,  and  an  accurate  and  full  history  of  the  facts  and  incidents  attending 
its  prosecution  and  culmination.  Gov.  Yates  requested  him  to  organize  another 
regiment  of  infantry,  which  he  did  in  three  weeks'  time,  and,  being  made  its 
colonel,  led  it  to  .the  front  in  Mississippi.  In  1864  he  was  put  in  command  of  a 
force  sent  out  to  intercept  and  drive  away  Gen.  Forrest,  who,  at  the  head  of  a 
large  force  of  cavalry,  was  committing  depredations  on  our  railroad  and  tele- 
graph lines,  and  destroying  our  communications,  and  Col.  Whitney  was  not 
defeated  in  a  single  contest  with  the  noted  rebel  chieftain,  though  he  had  many 
fights  and  skirmishes,  and  succeeded  in  driving  him  away.  From  there  he  went 
to  Missouri  with  his  command  and  was  engaged  against  Gen.  Price  in  1864. 
During  his  service,  he  participated  in  twelve  great  battles  and  forty  skirmishes, 
and  was  wounded  twice.  As  an  evidence  of  the  appreciation  of  his  bravery  and 
of  the  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  as  an  officer  and  man,  his  officers  and  men 
presented  him  with  an  elegant  sword,  case  of  pistols  and  a  field  glass,  the  sword, 
blood-stained,  is  still  retained  as  a  reminder  of  the  great  conflict. 

When  returning  from  Washington  in  1866,  where  he  had  been  to  settle  his 
accounts,  he  became  acquainted  with  Miss  Mary  Munson,  who  was  on  her  way 
home  from  college,  and  a  year  later  married  her.  After  leaving  the  service  he 
settled  at  Chicago  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  and  has  been  successful,  stand- 
ing well  at  the  bar  as  an  honorable  and  faithful  attorney  and  counselor.  In 
1875,  on  account  of  his  wife's  health,  he  went  to  Topeka,  Kansas,  and  while  there 
wrote  a  compendium  of  Kansas  Reports,  making  an  octavo  volume  of  900  pages, 
which  added  to  his  reputation  as  an  able  and  thorough  lawyer.  He  was  solicited 


184  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO. 

to  run  for  congress  while  there,  but  declined.  He  returned  to  Chicago  in  1877 
and  resumed  the  practice  of  law  and  is  now  so  engaged.  He  is  a  stalwart  repub- 
lican, a  fluent,  ready,  graceful  and  forcible  speaker,  and  his  voice  is  heard  in 
advocacy  of  the  principles  and  platform  of  that  party  in  all  important  campaigns. 
He  has  a  commanding  presence,  is  six  feet  two  inches  in  height  —  the  regulation 
height  of  a  genuine  Buckeye  —  and  is  one  who,  even  on  first  sight,  leaves  the 
impression  of  being  more  than  an  ordinary  man  in  all  respects.  He  stands  well 
in  the  community  and  has  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  all  who  know  him 
intimately. 

In  July,  1882,  he  presided  at  the  Cook  county  convention  which  elected  dele- 
gates to  the  republican  state  convention,  and  was  the  following  fall  nominated 
for  the  legislature  from  the  twelfth  ward,  but  declined  to  be  a  candidate, 
although  he  received  the  largest  majority  of  any  one  ever  nominated  in  that 
ward.  He  is  yet  a  young  man,  but  his  life  work  up  to  the  present  time,  so  far  as 
it  is  known  and  read  of  men,  is  to  his  credit. 


ADOLPH    MOSES. 

ADOLPH  MOSES  was  born  February  27,  1837,  in  Speyer,  the  capital  of  the 
Palatinate,  Germany.  He  attended  the  public  and  Latin  schools  of  his 
native  city,  until  he  immigrated  to  the  United  States,  October  19,  1852,  arriv- 
ing at  New  Orleans,  Louisiana.  Following  the  wish  of  his  father,  he  intended  to 
fit  himself  in  his  native  country  for  the  bar,  but  the  disabilities  prevailing  against 
Israelites,  were  the  moving  cause  for  his  emigration  to  America.  After  following 
the  occupation  of  bookkeeping  in  Clinton,  Louisiana,  Mr.  Moses  felt  an  awaken- 
ing inclination  to  fit  himself  for  the  practice  of  jurisprudence,  and  for  that  pur- 
pose entered  the  law  office  of  Francis  W.  Kernan,  prominent  at  the  Clinton  bar, 
where  he  progressed  far  enough  to  enter  the  Louisiana  University  at  New 
Orleans,  where  he  finished  his  legal  education  under  Randall  Hunt,  Christian 
Roselius  and  McCaleb,  graduating  in  the  month  of  March,  1861.  He  was  finally 
admitted  to  the  bar,  by  the  supreme  court  of  Louisiana,  presided  over  by  Chief 
Justice  Merrick.  During  the  presidential  election  of  1860,  Mr.  Moses  took  an 
active  interest  in  behalf  of  Judge  Douglas,  and  voted  with  the  minority  of  7,000, 
headed  by  Pierre  Soule,  ex-senator  of  the  United  States.  Like  all  Southerners, 
Mr.  Moses  was  drawn  into  the  civil  war,  and  served  a  time  as  an  officer  in  the 
2ist  La.  regiment,  but  came  north  in  1863,  and  settled  in  Quincy,  Illinois,  where 
he  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  1869  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and 
engaged  in  an  active  and  successful  general  practice. 

Mr.  Moses  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association,  and  has 
been  diligent  in  the  prosecution  of  irregular  members  of  the  bar  before  the 
supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  has  always  stood  up  for  a  proper  esprit  de  corps 
among  the  fraternity.  Mr.  Moses  evinces  a  strong  interest  in  the  welfare  of  his 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  185 

profession,  and  is  ardently  devoted  thereto,  paying  attention  to  the  progress  of 
jurisprudence,  being  a  great  reader  of  legal  literature. 

Mr.  Moses  has  never  held  a  political  office,  but  holds  at  present  a  directorship 
in  the  Chicago  Public  Library.  His  acceptance  of  this  position,  and  his  devotion 
to  its  duties,  furnish  added  proofs  of  the  public-spiritedness  which  has  marked 
his  entire  career  in  Chicago.  He  is  an  active  member  of  several  benevolent  soci- 
eties, and  has  done  much  for  the  advancement  of  music  and  the  arts.  The  Beet- 
hoven Society  in  particular  has  found  in  him  an  ardent  promoter  and  participant. 
Several  public  addresses  delivered  by  Mr.  Moses  have  produced  a  favorable 
impression  of  his  literary  and  oratorical  powers. 

Mr.  Moses  has  an  extended  acquaintance  among  the  various  nationalities  in 
Chicago,  his  familiarity  with  the  leading  foreign  languages  having  become  well 
known.  The  supreme  and  appellate  court  reports  of  this  state  show  that  Mr. 
Moses  has  long  been  a  diligent  and  successful  practitioner  in  cases,  frequently  of 
considerable  interest  and  importance.  He  also  practices  in  the  Supreme  Court  of 
the  United  States,  having  been  admitted  to  that  court  some  years  ago.  Many 
creditable  briefs  and  arguments  have  been  filed  by  him  in  all  these  courts,  some 
of  which  are  among  the  collection  preserved  in  the  library  of  the  Chicago  Law 
Institute,  of  which  body  Mr.  Moses  is  a  member. 

While  the  bankruptcy  law  was  in  operation  he  had  an  extensive  practice  in 
the  United  States  courts  in  that  department,  and  it  was  generally  conceded  that 
no  member  of  the  Chicago  bar  was  more  familiar  with  the  administration  of  that 
branch  of  the  law  in  all  its  details.  Although  not  restricted  in  the  range  of  his 
practice,  which  is  general  and  miscellaneous,  Mr.  Moses  notably  excels  on  ques- 
tions of  commercial  law  and  court  practice. 

In  the  contests  of  the  forum  he  is  courteous  and  candid,  more  ready  to  sacri- 
fice some  measure  of  his  own  right  than  to  take  any  unfair  or  questionable 
advantage  of  his  adversary.  The  bent  of  his  mind  is  analytical  and  critical. 


HON.  JOSEPH    EMERSON  SMITH. 

JOSEPH  EMERSON  SMITH  was  born  in  Augusta,  Maine,  in  March,  1835; 
was  the  son  of  ex-Governor  Samuel  E.  Smith.  He  graduated  at  Bowdoin 
College,  in  1854,  read  law  with  Henry  Ingalls,  of  Wiscasset,  and  after  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  became  a  partner  with  him  in  1857.  He  was  collector  of 
customs  of  the  port  of  Wiscasset  in  1858-9.  While  holding  this  position  he  built, 
or  supervised  the  building  of  the  custom-house  there,  for  which  he  received 
special  credit  for  his  faithfulness  and  efficiency  in  caring  for  the  interests  of  the 
public.  In  1864  he  was  one  of  the  delegates  from  the  third  district  of  Maine 
to  the  national  democratic  convention  in  Chicago,  which  nominated  Gen.  Mc- 
Clellan  for  the  presidency,  and  represented  the  state  on  the  committee  to  notify 
him  of  his  nomination.  He  sprang  from  a  distinguished  ancestry,  and  was  a 


1 86  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

prominent  man  in  Maine.  In  1869  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  formed  a  partner- 
ship in  the  practice  of  law  with  his  cousin,  Hon.  Melville  W.  Fuller,  which 
became  one  of  the  prominent  and  successful  law  firms  of  Chicago.  In  1876  he 
was  elected  to  the  legislature  of  Illinois,  and  served  his  constituents  to  their  sat- 
isfaction. While  in  the  legislature  he  originated,  introduced  and  carried  through 
the  bill  appropriating  $50,000  to  build  a  monument  to  his  distinguished  friend, 
Stephen  A.  Douglas,  to  whose  interests  and  success  he  was  devoted  when  that 
statesman  was  alive.  Through  Mr.  Smith's  persistent  efforts  and  direct  super- 
vision this  monument  has  been  erected.  Again  he  was  candidate  for  judge  of 
the  county  court  —  the  nomination  having  been  urged  upon  him.  He  was,  at 
the  time  of  his  death,  jury  commissioner  of  the  federal  courts  for  the  northern 
district  of  Illinois.  Mr.  Smith  was  married  three  times;  his  first  wife  was  the 
daughter  of  William  Cooper,  of  Pittston,  Maine,  a  well  known  shipbuilder;  his 
second,  a  daughter  of  John  Babson,  of  Wiscasset,  now  of'  Boston,  by  whom  he 
had  three  children;  his  third  wife,  and  now  widow — an  accomplished  woman 
whom  he  married  in  1877 — is  a  daughter  of  Col.  W.  W.  Bowie,  of  Baltimore, 
and  a  niece  of  the  noted  Gov.  Bowie,  of  Maryland.  He  had  an  interesting 
family  and  a  beautiful  home  on  the  south  side  of  the  city.  The  widow  and  two 
children  survive  him. 

Mr.  Smith  died  suddenly  June  16,  1881.  He  was  a  man  held  in  high  esteem, 
and  his  death  was  universally  regretted.  He  was  a  genial  and  whole-souled  com- 
panion, an  excellent  lawyer  and  a  good  citizen. 


WILLIAM    S.    FORREST. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Baltimore,  Maryland,  and  was 
born  July  9,  1852.  As  a  boy  he  was  energetic  and  industrious,  fond  of 
study,  and  among  his  companions  a  leader  in  their  boyish  sports.  His  native 
tastes  inclined  him  toward  the  legal  profession,  and  early  in  life  he  determined  to 
prepare  himself  for  its  duties.  After  a  careful  and  thorough  preparation,  William 
entered  the  freshman  class  of  Dartmouth  College,  in  New  Hampshire,  where  he 
pursued  the  regular  classical  course,  of  study,  and  graduated  with  the  class  of 
1875.  In  college  he  was  popular  among  his  fellow-students,  ranked  high  as  a 
scholar,  and  was  honored  with  an  election  to  the  Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity. 

Soon  after  leaving  college  he  began  reading  law  in  the  office  of  Gaston, 
Field  and  Jewell,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  whence  in  1878  he  removed  to 
Chicago,  where,  in  October  of  the  same  year,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illi- 
nois. Although  his  professional  career  may  be  said  to  have  only  begun,  Mr. 
Forrest  has  already  attained  a  wide  and  worthy  reputation  at  the  Chicago  bar. 
He  has  a  clear,  logical  and  judicial  mind,  and  is  a  forcible  and  eloquent 
speaker.  Although  well  versed  in  the  various  branches  of  American  jurispru- 
dence, and  thoroughly  qualified  and  eminently  successful  in  the  general  practice 


EGW.Uii-i-l 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  189 

of  his  profession,  he  has  devoted  his  special  attention  to  the  study  and  practice 
of  criminal  law,  and  achieved,  as  the  result  of  his  efforts,  a  most  satisfactory 
success.  In  this  practice  he  has  been  called  to  defend  men  charged  with  almost 
every  crime  known  to  the  law,  and  has  carried  to  the  supreme  court  of  the  state 
many  cases  that  have  been  remanded  for  a  new  trial.  Among  the  more  impor- 
tant cases  with  which  he  has  been  identified  as  attorney  may  be  mentioned  that 
of  The  People  vs.  Charles  Schank.  This  man  was  indicted  for  the  killing  of 
Fredrick  Kandzia.  The  defense,  which  was  interposed,  and  upon  which  the 
defendant  was  fully  acquitted,  was  that  the  deceased  came  to  his  death  not  by 
the  dagger  of  Schank,  but  by  the  malpractice  of  the  surgeon  after  the  stabbing. 
Another  case  exciting  public  attention  was  that  of  The  People  vs.  Wing  Lee,  a 
Chinaman.  Upon  the  trial  of  this  case  a  plea  of  self-defense  was  interposed,  and 
the  jury,  standing  eight  for  acquittal  and  four  for  conviction,  were  discharged  in 
the  absence  of  the  defendant,  Wing  Lee  being  at  the  time  of  their  discharge  a 
prisoner  in  the  custody  of  the  sheriff.  When  the  case  was  again  called  for  trial  a 
plea  of  former  jeopardy  was  interposed  and  sustained  by  the  court,  on  the  ground 
that  the  jury  was  illegally  discharged  and  the  trial  unlawfully  ended.  Wing  Lee 
was  discharged.  Mr.  Forrest  was  also  one  of  the  attorneys  for  Mrs.  Ada  Roberts, 
on  her  application  for  discharge,  under  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus,  from  the  insane 
asylum  where  she  had  been  confined  two  years,  having  been  adjudged  insane  and 
sent  thither  by  the  jury  upon  her  trial  for  the  killing  of  Theodore  Webber.  But 
a  case  which  attracted  perhaps  as  much  public  attention  as  any  on  the  criminal 
calendar  of  Illinois  was  that  of  The  People  vs.  John  Lamb,  who  was  indicted  for 
burglary  and  for  the  murder  of  Albert  Race,  a  member  of  the  Chicago  police 
force.  Mr.  Forrest  was  Lamb's  attorney  from  the  time  of  his  arrest  until  his  final 
acquittal,  a  period  of  three  years.  Lamb  was  first  tried  for  murder,  and  con- 
victed and  sentenced  to  be  hanged,  but  upon  appeal  to  the  supreme  court  the 
case  was  remanded  for  a  new  trial.  Lamb  was  subsequently  tried  for  burglary, 
and  acquitted.  He  was  then  tried  a  second  time  for  murder,  and  acquitted.  The 
prosecution  in  these  cases  was  most  vigorous  and  relentless.  Public  opinion  was 
wrought  up,  a  general  belief  prevailing  that  Lamb  was  the  real  murderer.  A 
cloud  of  witnesses  appeared  for  the  state,  two  testifying  that  Lamb  was  the  man 
who  actually  fired  the  fatal  shot,  one  of  them  being  an  accomplice.  Lamb  him- 
self had  been  known  to  the  detectives  of  the  Northwest  as  a  notorious  character 
for  twenty  years. 

The  case  has  a  special  interest  to  lawyers,  from  the  fact  that  in  their  decision 
the  supreme  court  passed  fully  and  fairly  on  the  extent  of  the  liability  of  a  con- 
spirator for  the  acts  of  a  co-conspirator. 

Mr.  Forrest  is  now  in  the  full  vigor  and  strength  of  manhood,  and,  with  his 
present  achievements,  may  hopefully  look  to  the  future.  Untiring  in  his  efforts, 
and  zealous  in  all  his  undertakings,  he  cannot  but  attain  a  first  rank  in  his  chosen 
profession.  He  is  a  member  of  the  masonic  fraternity,  and  in  politics  adheres  to 
the  principles  of  the  democratic  party.  He  was  married  at  Chicago,  April  17, 
20 


i  go 


THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO 


1879,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Whitney,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  daughter  of  the 
late  Melvin  Whitney,  for  many  years  a  prominent  merchant  in  New  York  city. 

Mr.  Forrest  is  a  man  of  fine  social  and  personal  qualities,  and  is  known  among 
his  friends  as  a  genial  companion.  He  is  domestic  in  his  tastes,  and  with  his 
native  fondness  for  study  and  literary  culture,  finds  in  his  own  home  the  most 
pleasant  and  agreeable  respite  from  his  professional  cares. 


CORNELIUS   VAN    SCHAACK. 

/CORNELIUS  VAN  SCHAACK  is  a  member  of  one  of  the  old  Knickerbocker 
V^^  families,  and  is  the  youngest  son  of  Hon.  Henry  Cruger  Van  Schaack,  one 
of  the  oldest  and  most  distinguished  lawyers  in  New  York,  having  been  in  prac- 
tice sixty  years.  He  is  also  a  grandson  of  Hon.  Peter  Van  Schaack,  LL.D.,  one 
of  the  most  distinguished  jurists  this  country  has  ever  produced,  and  of  whom 
the  Chicago  "Legal  News"  of  March  4,  1882,  thus  speaks: 

"The  statutes  of  New  York  were  revised  but  once  before  the  revolution,  and 
Peter  Van  Schaack  was  appointed  sole  revisor  of  the  same.  The  revised  laws  of 
Van  Schaack  were  published  in  1775,  in  two  portly  folios.  A  copy  of  the  work, 
with  the  signature  of  Van  Schaack  on  the  title  page,  in  the  law  library  of  Hon. 
Aaron  J.  Vanderpoel  of  New  York  city,  is  justly  prized  by  him,  for  it  was  inherited 
by  his  wife  from  her  grandfather,  the  revisor.  Peter  Van  Schaack  was  a  remark- 
able man,  a  learned  and  profound  lawyer,  an  accomplished  scholar,  and  is  one  of 
the  worthies  of  New  York  legal  history.  While  temporarily  residing  in  London, 
he  was  designated  by  the  attendants  at  his  lodgings  as  'the  gentleman  with  a 
hard  name.' 

"He  was  born  in  March  1747.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  he  entered  the 
Freshman  class  of  King's  (now  Columbia)  College,  in  the  city  of  New  York.  It 
was  there  he  formed  an  interesting  and  valuable  acquaintance  with  John  Jay, 
Egbert  Benson,  Richard  Harrison,  Gouverneur  Morris,  Robert  R.  Livingston,  and 
many  other  illustrious  men,  whose  enviable  reputations  now  constitute  the  richest 
property  of  their  country.  Between  the  four  first  named  individuals  and  the 
subject  of  this  sketch,  the  greatest  intimacy  existed,  and  an  uninterrupted  friend- 
ship continued  through  life. 

"As  an  illustration  of  Mr.  Van  Schaack's  friendship  with  Gov.  Jay,  the  first 
chief-justice  of  the  United  States,  no  better  evidence  can  be  given  than  Jay's  own 
letter  penned  at  Paris,  in  1782.  It  was  while  the  latter  was  engaged  on  his  mis- 
sion as  one  of  the  five  commissioners  to  negotiate  peace  with  Great  Britain,  and 
while  the  former  was,  with  heroic  fortitude,  suffering  from  the  fear  of  total  blind- 
ness that  constantly  stared  him  in  the  face,  that  Jay  wrote  his  old  college  chum: 
'While  I  have  a  loaf,  you  and  your  children  may  freely  partake  of  it.  Don't  let 
this  idea  hurt  you.  If  your  circumstances  are  easy,  I  rejoice  ;  if  not,  let  me  take 
off  their  rougher  edges.'  Mr.  Van  Schaack's  'circumstances  were  easy,'  but  Mr. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  19! 

Jay  had  good  reason  to  think  otherwise,  and  it  is  certainly  a  rare  instance  of  ele- 
vated and  disinterested  friendship. 

"  Mr.  Van  Schaack  survived  his  old  friend  three  years,  and  Mr.  Jay's  epitaph 
fell  from  the  blind  man's  lip.  While  at  college  he  received  several  premiums  for 
scholarship,  and  ranked  first  in  his  class,  and  sixty  years  after  his  graduation  the 
following  toast  was  drunk  at  the  anniversary  meeting  of  the  alumni  of  his  alma 
mater,  and  which  deserves  to  be  mentioned  for  its  appropriateness  and  classic 
beauty:  'Peter  Van  Schaack,  admired  for  his  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  for  his 
classical  attainments,  and  beloved  for  the  virtues  which  adorn  our  nature.  Quis 
jure  peritior,  quis  virtute  prcestantior  ? ' 

"At  the  January  term,  1769,  of  the  New  York  supreme  court,  after  a  shorter 
period  of  study  than  was  required  by  the  strict  rules  of  court,  he  was  licensed  to 
practice  as  an  attorney.  It  was  considered  a  very  remarkable  circumstance  at 
the  time,  that  three  young  gentlemen  should  have  been  admitted  to  the  bar  at 
one  term.  In  November,  1770,  the  lawyers  in  the  city  of  New  York  formed  an 
association  called  The  Moot,  at  which  disputed  points  of  law  were  formally 
debated  for  their  mutual  improvement.  In  these  discussions,  which  were  con- 
ducted with  great  regularity  and  order,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  took  a  conspic- 
uous part,  and  to  him  was  intrusted  the  keeping  of  their  records.  Some  of  these 
are  still  preserved,  and  are  matters  of  curious  reference  for  a  modern  lawyer. 

"  The  deliberations  of  the  club  were  rendered  highly  useful  by  the  regular 
attendance  of  the  elder  members  of  the  bar,  who  participated  in  the  debates  upon 
a  footing  of  perfect  equality  with  their  juniors.  And  the  names  of  those  veteran 
lawyers,  William  Smith,  Samuel  Jones,  John  M.  Scott,  Richard  Morris,  William 
Livingston  and  Benjamin  Kissam  (not  to  specify  others)  need  but  be  mentioned 
to  prove  that  the  debates  in  which  they  participated,  could  not  have  been  barren 
of  legal  sagacity,  or  of  profound  research  into  the  hidden  wisdom  of  the  common 
law.  Among  the  junior  members  we  find  the  names  of  John  Jay,  Egbert  Benson, 
Robert  R.  Livingston,  Jr.,  James  Duane,  Gouverneur  Morris  and  Peter  Van  Schaack. 

"  The  decisions  made  upon  these  debates  acquired  great  authority,  and  the 
law  on  several  points  in  particular,  which  had  been  thus  discussed  and  decided, 
was  considered  as  settled  by  the  bar  generally,  and  The  Moot  almost  acquired  the 
authority  of  a  court  of  the  last  resort. 

"At  an  early  period,  Mr.  Van  Schaack  gave  evident  proof  that  he  was  destined 
to  become  a  profound  lawyer.  His  ideas  of  business,  and  of  the  proper  manner 
of  doing  it,  were  distinguished  for  precision  and  accuracy  from  the  commence- 
ment of  his  professional  career.  In  writing  to  a  brother  of  the  profession,  he  thus 
rebukes  the  carelessness  of  his  friend:  'Permit  me  to  observe  that  the  deed 
drawn  in  your  office  was  rather  slovenly  copied,  and  by  its  many  alterations 
afterward  looked  rather  out  of  the  way.  There  was,  besides,  in  several  parts  of 
it  an  etc.,  which  I  cannot  think  proper,  as  it  is  merely  nugatory,  and  cannot,  I 
think,  make  the  deed  better  than  it  would  otherwise  be.  Excuse  the  freedom  of 
these  hints,  but  we  cannot  be  too  attentive  to  matters  of  this  kind.  A  lawyer's 


IQ2  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

reputation,  like  a  woman's,  is  often  lost  by  one  error.  If  any  part  of  my  letter  is 
exceptionable,  point  it  out.  Nothing  clears  difficulties  like  candid  reasoning.  By 
collision  of  sentiment,  the  truth  is  struck  out  like  fire  from  flint  and  steel.' 

"  He  formed  an  early  matrimonial  alliance  with  the  ancient  and  distinguished 
Cruger  family,  of  New  York  city.  His  brother-in-law,  Henry  Cruger,  the  col- 
league of  Edmund  Burke,  in  the  British  Parliament,  was  the  first  American  mem- 
ber of  that  most  august  assembly,  having  been  elected  with  Burke  in  1774,  to 
represent  the  city  of  Bristol  in  the  English  House  of  Commons,  while  sojourning 
in  England.  Shortly  after  his  admission  to  the  bar,  unlike  most  young  attorneys 
he  found  a  rapidly  increasing  business  intrusted  to  his  charge.  Respected  for  his 
talents,  and  with  an  ambitious  nature,  and  a  reputation  unsullied,  bringing  to  the 
profession  habits  of  industry,  and  a  disciplined  mind,  and  having  also  an  exten- 
sive and  influential  family  connection,  the  world  looked  bright  upon  the  dawn  of 
his  professional  career,  and  little  he  thought  of  the  gloomy  night  of  darkness  in 
store  for  him.  It  is  rare  that  a  young  attorney  has  entered  upon  his  professional 
career  under  such  flattering  circumstances,  but  rarer  still  that  human  nature  has 
met  life's  vicissitudes  with  such  heroic  fortitude. 

"In  1773  Peter  Van  Schaack  was  appointed  to  the  important  and  responsible 
office  of  collecting  and  revising  the  statute  laws  of  the  colony  of  New  York.  The 
execution  of  the  work  was  intrusted  to  him  solely,  and  it  was  performed  in  a 
manner  highly  creditable  to  his  judgment  and  industry.  At  this  time  he  was 
only  twenty-six  years  old.  His  revision  embraced  the  legislation  of  the  colony 
from  the  year  1691  to  1773,  inclusive,  being  a  period  of  upwards  of  eighty  years. 
The  assiduity  with  which  he  applied  himself  to  this  work  had  an  unfavorable 
effect  upon  his  vision,  and  he  was  always  of  the  opinion  that  it  was  a  leading 
cause  of  his  subsequent  blindness,  with  which  he  was  threatened  soon  after  the 
completion  of  this  work,  and  the  dread  of  which  was  ever  before  him.  At  an 
early  day,  his  vision  had  become  so  much  impaired  as  to  render  necessary  the 
employment  of  an  amanuensis.  He  continued,  however,  in  the  active  practice  of 
his  chosen  profession,  for  twenty  years  afterward,  by  which  time  the  dreaded 
storm  had  overtaken  him.  But  he  still  clung  to  the  life  boat,  and  lived  up  to  his 
chosen  family  motto,  ' superanda  fortuna  ferendo,'  which  was  the  philosophy  of  his 
life,  and  as  interpreted  in  his  own  language,  means  '  that  fortune  is  to  be  over- 
come by  enduring  it  with  patience  and  fortitude.' 

"  During  a  good  portion  of  his  life  he  was  totally  blind,  and  occupied  himself 
with  training  others  for  the  profession  which  he  had  practiced  for  more  than 
forty  years.  One  of  his  pupils  was  Judge  William  Kent,  the  only  son  of  the 
chancellor.  Another  is  the  venerable  Frederic  de  Peyster,  president  of  the  New 
York  Historical  Society,  and  to  whom  he  wrote  in  his  eighty-third  year:  'You  see 
that  like  an  old  coachman,  who  loves  the  smack  of  his  whip,  I  still  have  some  pro- 
fessional regards  ;  indeed,  I  have  some  professional  occupations,  as  I  have  two 
students  on  whom  I  bestow  much  of  my  time  and  attention,  of  which,  I  trust, 
they  will  enjoy  the  fruits.' 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  193 

"  He  continued  to  give  counsel  in  his  profession,  and  occasionally  gave  a  writ- 
ten opinion  in  critical  cases,  until  he  had  reached  four  score.  He  might  be  seen 
in  his  study,  with  his  law  students  around  him,  imparting  instruction  nearly  up 
to  the  time  of  his  death.  His  blindness  did  not  shorten  his  days,  for  he  lived 
until  September  27,  1832,  dying  at  his  native  Kinderhook  in  the  eighty-sixth  year 
of  his  age. 

"  Nearly  a  hundred  young  gentlemen  were  educated  at  the  feet  of  this  learned 
lawyer,  including  the  sons  of  Theodore  Sedgwick,  William  W.  Van  Ness  and 
Ambrose  Spencer.  It  was  the  latter  who  wrote  to  his  son,  while  studying  law 
with  Mr.  Van  Schaack:  'It  has  been  my  pride  to  be  marked  with  the  friendship 
of  such  a  man.  I  have  never  been  his  pupil,  and  yet  I  must  acknowledge  that  I 
have  caught  much  from  him,  and  his  example  has  materially  influenced  my  legal 
attainments.' 

"To  see  him  seated  in  his  study,  surrounded  by  his  pupils,  and  imparting  to 
them  from  the  rich  store  of  his  knowledge,  one  was  reminded  of  the  lines  of  his 

favorite  Pope: 

'Though  blind,  a  boldness  in  his  looks  appears; 
In  years  he  seera'd,  but  not  impaired  by  years.' 

"  Mr.  Van  Schaack  was  extensively  familiar  with  English  literature,  and  was 
probably  the  finest  Latin  scholar  in  the  state  of  New  York,  and  was  extremely 
partial  to  the  writers  of  the  Augustan  age  —  of  these  Virgil  was  his  favorite.  He 
could  repeat  many  of  the  Eclogues,  and  a  great  portion  of  the  ^Eneid,  and  he  had 
the  minutest  parts  of  the  story  at  his  tongue's  end.  So,  also,  he  could  recite  large 
portions  of  the  odes  and  epistles  of  Horace,  and  of  the  orations  of  Cicero  in  the 
original.  His  opinions  and  other  papers  on  legal  subjects  were  always  drawn  up 
with  logical  precision,  and  in  a  style  of  peculiar  purity  and  elegance.  These 
accomplishments,  so  rare  in  the  legal  profession,  and  so  ornamental  when  pos- 
sessed, in  connection  with  his  profound  knowledge  of  the  law,  procured  for  him 
from  Columbia  College  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  It  was  said  of  Mr.  Van 
Schaack,  as  a  lawyer,  by  Egbert  Benson,  the  first  attorney  general  of  the  state  of 
New  York,  that  'he  never  erred.'  As  a  jurist,  he  was  distinguished  by  the  extent 
and  depth  of  his  learning,  and  Alexander  Hamilton  expressed  his  admiration  of 
Mr.  Van  Schaack's  manner  of  speaking,  and  of  the  soundness  and  accuracy  of  his 
views  on  all  questions  of  civil  jurisprudence.  Hon.  Henry  C.  Van  Schaack,  of 
New  York,  is  his  sole  surviving  child.  This  son  has  been  in  active  practice  as  a 
lawyer  for  nearly  three  score  years,  and  is  one  of  the  oldest  lawyers  in  New  York, 
and  has  frequently  lectured  before  the  historical  societies  of  New  York  and  Chi- 
cago. Cornelius  Van  Schaack,  the  grandson  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  is  a 
counselor-at-law  of  many  years'  standing  in  Chicago,  and  Henry  Cruger  Van 
Schaack,  a  great-grandson,  is  now  a  member  of  the  Chicago  Law  School.  There 
are  also  numerous  other  descendants  of  this  distinguished  jurist  in  this  city." 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Manlius,  New  York,  August  18,  1842,  and 
graduated  at  Hobart  College,  Geneva,  New  York,  in  1863.  He  then  entered  the 


194  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

army,  soon  rising  to  the  rank  of  captain,  serving  through  the  war  under  Sheridan, 
and  was  on  the  picket  line  with  Gen.  Custer  at  Appomattox  Station  the  day  before 
Gen.  Lee  surrendered.  He  was  mustered  out  of  the  service  at  the  close  of  the 
war,  and  having  begun  the  study  of  law  with  his  father,  removed  to  Chicago,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1866,  and  has  acquired  a  large  and  lucrative  practice. 
During  the  same  year  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Joseph  P.  Clarkson,  which 
was  dissolved  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Clarkson  in  1877.  Immediately  thereafter,  Mr. 
Van  Schaack  formed  a  partnership  with  William  H.  Barnum,  which  continued 
until  1879,  when  Mr.  Barnum  was  elected  to  the  bench,  since  which  time  he  has 
been  practicing  alone.  Mr.  Van  Schaack  has  been  prominently  connected  with, 
and  has  been  very  successful  in  dramatic  litigation,  having  been  attorney  alone, 
and  in  connection  with  his  late  partner,  Mr.  Clarkson,  in  most  of  the  leading 
dramatic  cases  before  the  courts  in  Chicago.  He  inherits  one  trait  that  was 
very  strongly  marked  in  his  illustrious  grandfather,  viz.,  accuracy  and  talent  for 
preparing  legal  documents,  and  has  no  superior  in  this  respect  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


GEN.  ISRAEL  N.  STILES. 

T  SRAEL  N.  STILES  is  an  advocate  who  has  few  peers  at  the  Chicago  bar;  a 
J.  gentleman  of  excellent  traits  of  character  and  of  high  personal  worth.  He 
has  made  his  impress  upon  the  times  in  which  he  has  lived.  He  was  born  in 
Suffield,  Connecticut,  in  1833.  His  father,  Anson  Stiles,  was  a  farmer  and  Israel 
worked  at  farming  summers  and  attended  public  schools  winters,  and  finally 
attended  the  Connecticut  Literary  Institute.  When  he  was  about  nineteen  years 
of  age  he  moved  to  Lafayette,  Indiana,  where  he  studied  in  a  law  office,  having 
read  law  one  year  before  he  came  west.  Later  he  engaged  in  teaching  school 
near  Lafayette,  teaching  singing  school  nights  and  at  the  same  time  pursuing  his 
law  studies.  The  following  year  he  opened  a  private  school  and  continued  his 
law  studies  until  1854,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  commenced  practice. 
He  soon  attracted  wide  attention  as  a  public  speaker  of  rare  oratorical  qualities. 
About  this  time  "  Bleeding  Kansas  "  was  attracting  public  attention  and  sym- 
pathy, and  Mr.  Stiles  made  public  speeches  which  astonished  all  who  heard  or 
read  them.  From  that  time  he  came  rapidly  into  prominence  as  an  orator,  and 
is  now  ranked  among  the  most  eloquent,  fluent  and  entertaining  public  speakers 
in  the  West.  Running  through  his  speeches  and  addresses  is  a  vein  of  wit, 
humor  and  sarcasm,  which  cuts  to  the  quick  and  lays  bare  fallacy  and  sophistry, 
and  convinces  his  hearers  of  the  merits  of  what  he  advocates.  During  the 
Freemont-Buchanan  campaign  he  made  a  great  number  of  effective  speeches 
throughout  the  country  to  large  and  pleased  audiences.  He  was  prosecuting 
attorney  two  years,  and  a  member  of  the  Indiana  legislature  in  1857-8. 

When   the  war  broke  out  he  was  engaged  in   successful  practice,  but  was 
among    the  first  to   raise  a  company   of  soldiers;    however,   someone   else   was 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 


195 


elected  to  the  captaincy,  and  he  himself  enlisted  as  a  private,  but  was  made 
adjutant  of  the  2oth  Ind.  Inf.  He  was  taken  prisoner  at  Malvern  Hill  and  was 
confined  in  Libby  prison  six  weeks,  when  he  was  exchanged.  He  was  then  made 
major  of  the  63d  Ind.  regiment  and  was  rapidly  promoted  to  the  ranks  of  lieu- 
tenant-colonel, and  colonel  of  the  same  regiment,  and  finally  brevet  brigadier- 
general  for  gallantry  in  battle  at  Franklin,  Tennessee.  These  promotions  were 
for  bravery  and  merit  as  a  soldier  and  officer.  After  the  war  closed  he  settled  in 
Chicago,  and  practiced  law  alone  until  he  formed  a  partnership  with  W.  K.  Mc- 
Allister in  1867;  when  the  latter  was  elected  to  the  bench  the  partnership  was 
dissolved.  In  1869  he  was  elected  city  attorney  of  Chicago  and  served  as  such 
until  1873,  when  was  formed  the  partnership  of  Tuley,  Stiles  and  Lewis,  which 
was  one  of  the  strongest  law  firms,  at  the  time,  in  Chicago.  Mr.  Tuley  being 
elected  to  to  the  bench  later,  Mr.  Stiles  continued  practice  under  the  firm  of 
Stiles  and  Lewis.  He  has  always  done  a  large,  first-class  law  business,  and  is 
doing  such  now. 

Gen.  Stiles  has  remarkable  versatility,  great  energy  and  perseverance,  and  is 
studious  and  painstaking  in  his  cases,  leaving  little  undone  which  may  enable 
him  to  win  the  cause  of  his  client.  He  is  an  advocate  of  great  power  before 
court  or  jury — the  peer  of  any  at  this  brilliant  bar;  logical  and  convincing,  often 
humorous,  again  pathetic  and  always  sarcastic.  When  he  presents  a  case  it  is 
understood  by  the  court,  so  thorough  and  accurate  is  he  in  presenting  it.  In  his 
management  of  cases  he  is  adroit  and  sagacious,  and  is  seldom  outwitted  by 
opposing  counsel;  he  has  a  power  and  quickness  of  repartee,  and  an  ability  to 
avail  himself  of  emergencies,  that  are  decidedly  effective.  He  generally  quits 
with  a  victory  or  ends  with  a  salient  point  in  which  he  gains  an  advantage,  and 
wins  so  handsomely  that  each  victory  brings  new  clients.  He  is,  withal,  honora- 
ble in  his  methods  and  detests  machination  and  trickery  in  practice.  He  knows 
how,  to  examine  a  witness  and  when,  and  does  it  artfully;  he  knows  when  to 
cross-examine,  and  above  all  when  not  to  cross-examine.  He  is  earnest  and  sin- 
cere; often  brilliant  and  rhetorical;  vivid  and  graphic  in  illustration,  with  a  fund 
of  anecdote  and  story — a  gifted  advocate,  clear,  ringing  and  forcible;  ready,  flu- 
ent and  logical,  with  an  incomparable  power  of  mimicry,  pathos  and  sarcasm. 
His  friends  are  loud  in  their  praises  of  his  studiousness  and  correctness  of  his 
habits,  the  quickness  of  his  apprehension,  the  modesty  of  his  demeanor,  the 
firmness  and  decision  of  his  character,  stability  and  sagacity,  which  make  him  a 
leader  in  his  profession.  He  has  signalized  himself  by  his  achievements  in  liti- 
gation, as  an  advocate,  and  in  his  forensic  efforts.  He  has  the  true  elements  of 
oratory  seldom  combined  in  a  lawyer. 

In  personal  appearance  he  is  slender,  of  medium  height,  with  gray  hair  and 
beard,  and  keen,  full  dark  eyes.  He  is  much  liked  socially  for  his  ready  conver- 
sational powers,  which  are  tinged  with  a  flavor  of  satire,  wit,  humor  and  apt 
illustration  which  are  enjoyable.  He  is  liberal  in  his  views  of  religion,  politics 
or  any  other  subject;  is  a  polished  and  genial  gentleman. 


196  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  has  been  twice  married.  First,  in  1860,  to  Jennie  Coney,  of  Sag  Harbor, 
New  York,  who  died  in  Chicago  in  1877;  second,  in  April,  1881,  to  Miss  Antoin- 
ette C.  Wright.  He  has  three  children,  one  daughter  and  two  sons. 


WILLIAM    J.  MANNING. 

A3  an  example  of  what  may  be  attained  by  persistent,  hard  work,  the  life- 
history  of  him  whose  name  heads  this  sketch,  is  well  worthy  of  a  place 
among  the  prominent  and  successful  members  of  the  Chicago  bar.  A  native 
of  Waterloo,  Seneca  county,  New  York,  he  was  born  April  15,  1838.  The  son  of 
Rockwell  Manning  and  Sarah  (Warner)  Manning,  the  latter  a  daughter  of  Col. 
Seth  Warner. 

His  paternal  ancestors  were  of  English  descent,  and  settled  in  this  country  at 
an  early  day,  and  for  several  generations  prior  to  our  subject's  birth  had  lived  at 
Waterloo.  His  father,  a  farmer  by  occupation,  was  a  man  of  sterling  worth, 
highly  esteemed  in  his  community,  and  for  many  years  held  the  office  of  justice 
of  the  peace.  In  1849  he  removed  with  his  family  to  Warrenville,  in  Dupage 
county,  Illinois,  where  he  was  engaged  in  a  general  merchandizing  business. 
William  possessed  a  natural  fondness  for  reading  and  study,  and  being  fortunate 
in  having  good  educational  advantages,  made  the  most  of  his  opportunities.  At 
Warrenville,  he  pursued  the  full  course  of  study  in  the  Warrenville  Seminary, 
graduating  in  1859,  being  then  twenty-one  years  old.  During  the  next  two  years, 
he  was  employed  in  his  father's  store,  and  having  previously  decided  to  enter  the 
legal  profession,  devoted  all  his  spare  time  to  the  study  of  law.  At  the  age  of 
twenty-three,  he  engaged  in  the  dry  goods  trade  on  his  own  account,  at  Aurora, 
Illinois,  and  afterward  removed  to  Chicago,  and  there  continued  the  same  line  of 
business.  During  these  years,  still  adhering  to  his  determination  to  make  the 
practice  of  the  law  his  business,  he  kept  up  his  legal  studies,  and  in  1870,  after 
graduating  from  the  Union  College  of  Law  at  Chicago,  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
and  opened  an  office  on  his  own  account. 

For  some  three  years  after  the  great  fire  of  October  9,  1871,  besides  attending 
to  a  large  commercial  business,  which  he  had  built  up,  he  devoted  much  time  to 
the  adjustment  of  fire  losses,  insomuch  that  it  became  somewhat  of  a  specialty, 
and  gained  him  a  fine  reputation  for  proficiency  in  insurance  matters.  Since 
1874  his  practice  has  been  general  in  its  character,  and  yearly  increasing,  and 
to-day  he  ranks  among  the  ablest  chancery  and  real  estate  lawyers  at  the  Chicago 
bar.  An  important  case  with  which  Mr.  Manning  was  actively  connected,  was 
that  of  the  United  States  vs.  Henry  Feuerstein  and  Charles  Pfluger.  These  par- 
ties were  jointly  indicted  for  defrauding  creditors  in  violation  of  certain  pro- 
visions of  the  bankrupt  law,  Mr.  Manning  representing  the  creditors.  The  trial 
of  the  case  occupied  four  days,  and  resulted  in  the  conviction  of  both  the  defend- 
ants, Feuerstein  being  sentenced  to  one  year  in  the  penitentiary,  and  Pfluger  to 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  [99 

six  months  in  the  county  jail.  The  case  is  worthy  of  mention,  since  it  was  the 
only  case  of  conviction  and  sentence  under  the  bankrupt  law  ever  had  in  Chicago. 

Mr.  Manning  has  always  given  especial  attention  to  the  collection  of  accounts, 
and  numbers  among  those  for  whom  he  does  business  in  this  particular  depart- 
ment, many  of  the  leading  firms  of  New  York,  and  other  eastern  cities.  As  a 
lawyer,  he  honors  his  profession.  Prompt,  sagacious  and  watchful  of  a  client's 
interests,  he  is  withal  upright  and  honorable  in  his  dealing,  careful  and  conscien- 
tious as  a  counselor,  and  firm  in  his  adherence  to  honest  conviction.  His  per- 
sonal and  social  qualities  are  of  a  high  order,  and  have  attracted  to  him  a  wide 
circle  of  warm  friends,  who  esteem  him  for  his  genial  manners,  his  gentlemanly 
candor  and  his  true,  manly  merit. 

In  politics  he  is  an  active,  earnest  republican,  and  for  a  period  of  ten  years 
was  a  member  of  the  Dupage  county  central  committee.  Although  Mr.  Manning 
was  reared  under  Baptist  influences  he  is  not  a  member  of  any  church  organiza- 
tion. Liberal  and  generous  in  his  views  and  opinions,  he  is  ready  to  recognize 
the  right  and  denounce  the  wrong,  wherever  he  may  find  them  and  in  his  judg- 
ments of  others,  grants  that  same  freedom  of  opinion  which  he  asks  for  himself. 
Mr.  Manning  was  married  on  August  15,  1877,  to  Miss  Ellen  P.  Curtis,  a  daughter 
of  N.  B.  Curtis,  formerly  a  prominent  banker  of  Peoria,  Illinois. 

Although  he  has  scarcely  reached  the  meridian  of  life,  Mr.  Manning  has 
achieved  a  most  satisfactory  success,  and  may  justly  be  proud  of  his  attainments. 
In  the  face  of  many  obstacles,  he  persevered  in  the  pursuit  of  a  persistent  pur- 
pose, and  gained,  as  his  reward,  that  success  which  inevitably  follows  continued 
application  of  honest  effort  to  the  accomplishment  of  an  honest  purpose. 


DAVID   M.   HILLIS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Decatur  county,  Indiana,  February  15, 
1841,  and  is  the  son  of  David  Hillis,  and  Patsy  (McConnell)  Hillis,  both 
natives  of  Bourbon  county,  Kentucky.  Their  ancestors  were  from  Virginia,  and 
originally  from  England.  His  father  was  an  early  settler  in  Decatur  county,  and 
the  early  life  of  our  subject  was  spent  on  a  farm,  working  in  summer  and  going 
to  country  school  in  winter,  giving  him  early  in  life  good  physical  and  moral 
training.  At  seventeen  years  of  age  he  entered  what  was  then  known  as  the  North- 
western Christian  University,  now  the  Butler  University,  of  Indianapolis,  gradu- 
ating in  the  regular  classical  course  in  1864.  He  stood  well  in  his  classes  and 
high  in  the  literary  societies,  and  whenever  a  speech  was  to  be  made  he  was  usu- 
ally chosen.  He  made  and  delivered  the  valedictory  of  his  class  on  commence- 
ment day,  and  gained  considerable  notoriety  as  a  speaker  even  at  that  earlv  age. 
He  then  read  law  one  year  with  Cumback  and  Bonner,  at  Greensburg, 
Indiana,  and  then  spent  one  year  at  Yale  College  Law  School.  In  November  1865, 
he  went  into  the  law  office  of  Polk  and  Hubbell,  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  and  there 

21 


2OO  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

had  the  benefit  of  two  years  of  thorough  law  practice.  In  January  1868,  he 
opened  an  office  on  his  own  account  in  Chicago,  where  he  has  been  in  the  general 
practice  of  the  law  ever  since,  doing  an  extensive  business. 

Mr.  Hillis  is  a  lawyer  of  discrimination  in  his  legal  practice,  a  good  judge  of 
human  nature,  and  an  eloquent  advocate.  He  has  an  excellent  flow  of  language, 
and  his  arguments  abound  in  logic  and  apt  illustrations.  His  practice  is  largely 
in  real  estate  matters,  and  in  cases  where  the  titles  to  real  estate  are  in  question. 
He  has  the  utmost  confidence  of  all  who  know  him,  and  is  entrusted  with  large 
estates  involving  millions,  where  parties  depend  upon  his  honor  and  strict  integ- 
rity as  a  sufficient  security  to  insure  faithful  performance  in  all  matters,  however 
large  and  important.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  fine  presence,  being  of  medium  size 
and  height,  having  a  splendid  physique  and  an  intellectual  countenance. 

December  28,  1871,  he  was  married  in  Chicago,  to  Miss  Dora  E.  Knights,  an 
estimable  lady,  daughter  of  Darius  Knights,  one  of  the  oldest  settlers  of  Chicago. 

In  religion  Mr.  Hillis  believes  in  the  principles  of  the  reformation  as  promul- 
gated by  Alexander  Campbell,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Disciples,  or  as  otherwise 
known,  the  Christian  church. 

In  politics,  when  a  boy,  he  entertained  anti-slavery  sentiments,  and  has  always 
been  a  firm  believer  in  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  republican  party,  though 
not  a  partisan,  and  has  never  taken  an  active  interest  in  politics. 


MYRON    A.    DECKER. 

MYRON  A.  DECKER  was  born  February  21,  1837,  in  Livingston  county, 
New  York.  His  ancestors  on  the  paternal  side  belonged  to  an  ancient 
and  eminent  family  in  Holland,  a  branch  of  which  about  the  middle  of  the  seven- 
teenth century  immigrated  from  Amsterdam  and  settled  in  New  York  on  the 
Hudson  river,  from  which  branch  his  father,  Henry  Decker,  descended.  In  1816 
his  father  married  and  settled  in  the  Genesee  valley,  in  western  New  York,  and 
was  largely  engaged  in  agriculture,  and  ranked  among  the  ablest  and  most 
highly  respected  citizens  of  Livingston  county.  His  mother,  Martha  (Mather) 
Decker,  traced  her  descent  through  the  Connecticut  branch  of  the  Mather  family 
to  the  Massachusetts  branch,  and  to  Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  whose  history 
is  a  part  of  the  early  annals  of  New  England. 

His  mother  died  when  Myron  was  fourteen  years  of  age,  and  his  father 
removed  to  Lima,  where  were  located  the  Genesee  College  and  Genesee  Wes- 
leyan  Seminary,  in  order  that  his  family,  of  whom  Myron  was  the  youngest, 
might  receive  a  liberal  education  at  these  popular  institutions.  Here  Myron 
pursued  his  studies  till  he  was  nineteen  years  of  age,  when  he  resolved,  owing  to 
some  financial  embarrassments  into  which  his  father  had  fallen,  to  rely  wholly 
upon  himself,  and  from  that  time  till  the  completion  of  his  literary  and  legal 
studies  he  had  to  encounter  and  overcome  difficulties  which  invariably  prove  the 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  201 

best  school  for  training  a  youth  to  habits  of  sturdy  self-reliance  and  confidence 
so  essential  to  success  in  after  life. 

In  the  spring  of  1860,  at  the  age  of  twenty-three,  he  was  admitted  to  the  prac- 
tice of  law  by  the  supreme  court  of  New  York,  at  the  city  of  Auburn.  He  at  once 
entered  upon  the  practice  of  law  at  Lima,  and  met  with  flattering  success  for 
nearly  two  years,  when  the  war  of  the  rebellion  began,  and  as  legal  business  was 
generally  suspended  he  accepted  a  position  which  was  tendered  him  in  the  United 
States  treasury  at  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  where  he  remained  till  the 
war  closed.  When  he  left  the  department  he  held  the  highest  grade  and  had 
charge  of  a  division.  During  this  period  he  pursued  with  untiring  assiduity  fur- 
ther legal  studies,  and  in  February  1865  was,  upon  motion  of  Senator  Howe,  now 
postmaster  general,  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  at  Washington,  District  of  Columbia. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  and  the  general  resumption  of  business  he  resigned 
his  position  in  the  treasury,  inspired  by  a  laudable  ambition  to  establish  himself 
in  the  profession  of  his  choice,  and  soon  thereafter  accepted  a  retainer  to  procure 
the  setting  aside  of  fraudulent  titles  procured  from  the  United  States  to  some 
large  and  valuable  tracts  of  pine  land  in  northern  Wisconsin,  and  his  success  was 
such  that  he  received  numerous  other  retainers  in  the  same  line  of  business, 
which  kept  him  in  constant  service  for  more  than  three  years  in  Wisconsin  and 
Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  and  his  success  for  his  clients  proved  a  finan- 
cial success  for  himself. 

Mr.  Decker  was  married  April  29,  1869,  in  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  to  Miss  Kittie 
L.  Knox,  daughter  of  Hon.  Thomas  M.  Knox,  deceased,  formerly  judge  in  the 
city  of  Watertown,  Wisconsin. 

Early  in  1870  Mr.  Decker  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  upon  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  and  soon,  by  his  energy  and  ability,  acquired  a  lucrative  prac- 
tice. In  the  great  fire  of  1871  his  office  and  his  library,  with  many  valuable 
papers,  were  consumed.  In  1873  Mr.  Decker  was  prostrated  by  the  extreme  heat 
while  in  Baltimore,  and  shortly  after,  in  New  York  city,  met  with  an  accident 
which  caused  internal  injury.  From  these  causes  his  nervous  system,  already 
severely  strained  by  the  cares  and  anxieties  of  his  large  practice,  was  for  the  time 
completely  prostrated,  and  he  was  compelled  to  take  a  partner  to  meet  the  urgent 
demands  of  his  increasing  business.  He  therefore  associated  with  himself  in 
Chicago  Henry  Decker,  then  of  Lima,  New  York,  and  the  firm,  under  the  name 
of  Decker  and  Decker,  continued  for  about  two  years,  when  Myron  found  that  it 
was  absolutely  imperative  that  he  should  have  complete  relaxation  from  all  busi- 
ness cares,  and  devote  himself  to  the  restoration  of  his  health.  He  therefore  sur- 
rendered his  entire  business  to  Henry  Decker,  and  passed  three  years  in  travel 
and  recreation.  In  1879  his  health  was  sufficiently  restored  to  warrant  his  resum- 
ing the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  he  again  opened  his  office  in  Chicago, 
where  his  ability  and  integrity  being  fully  recognized,  he  at  once  attracted  to 
himself  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  which  he  now  enjoys. 


2O2  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Decker  is  an  attorney  of  rare  tact  and  sound  judgment,  fertile  in  resources 
and  untiring  in  energy.  These  qualities,  united  with  marked  financial  ability 
and  an  unusual  skill  in  delicate  negotiations,  cause  his  services  to  be  in  much 
request  by  corporations  and  large  companies,  to  which  class  of  practice  his  time 
is  mainly  devoted.  He  is  the  owner  of  considerable  improved  city  property,  and 
with  the  requisite  attention  given  to  its  management  and  to  the  interests  of  some 
eastern  capitalists,  the  care  of  whose  investments  is  entrusted  to  him,  Mr.  Decker 
finds  little  time  for  recreation. 

In  politics  he  is  a  staunch  republican,  but  has  ever  confined  himself  strictly  to 
his  profession,  and  whenever  his  name  has  been  mentioned  for  any  office  or  polit- 
ical preferment  has  invariably  declined.  Throughout  all  his  business  and  pro- 
fessional engagements,  involving  frequently  sums  of  great  magnitude,  he  has 
ever  sustained  the  highest  character  for  integrity,  veracity  and  unblemished 
honor. 

GEORGE    WILLARD. 

S~*  EORGE  WILLARD  was  born  in  the  village  of  Natural  Bridge,  Jefferson 
V_J  county,  New  York.  His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Margaret  Becker. 
She  was  a  daughter  of  Conrad  Becker,  a  native  of  Kinderhook,  New  York,  but 
who  for  many  years  was  a  resident  of  the  village  above  named.  His  father, 
Johnson  Willard,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  northern  New  York,  he  having  moved 
from  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  his  native  place,  to  the  town  of  Le  Ray,  in  Jeffer- 
son county,  as  early  as  1805.  Johnson  Willard  was  fifth  in  the  line  of  descent 
from  Simon  Willard,  who  was  born  in  Horsmonden,  Kent  county,  England,  in 
1605,  and  immigrated  to  Boston,  Massachusetts,  in  1634. 

Mr.  Willard  removed  from  his  native  village  to  Chicago,  arriving  in  1858,  and 
after  a  temporary  absence  in  Wisconsin  and  Kansas,  returned  in  1861  and  entered 
upon  a  course  preparatory  to  the  study  of  law.  Two  years  later  he  became  a 
student  in  the  law  office  of  Sanford  B.  Perry,  and  in  1864  engaged  as  a  law  clerk 
in  the  law  office  of  Blodgett  and  Winston.  He  attended  a  course  of  lectures 
before  the  law  school  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  graduated  therefrom  in  1865, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  year.  He  remained  with  the  firm  until  1870, 
when  he  was  appointed  local  attorney  for  the  Chicago  and  North  Western  Rail- 
way Company,  and  in  1873  became  assistant  solicitor  for  the  Pennsylvania  Com- 
pany, operating  the  Pittsburgh,  Fort  Wayne  and  Chicago  railway.  He  held  both 
positions  until  1875,  and  the  latter,  with  slight  intermission,  until  1881,  when  he, 
in  company  with  Mr.  George  Driggs,  late  assistant  counsel  for  the  Pennsylvania 
Company  at  Pittsburgh,  were,  under  the  firm  name  of  Willard  and  Driggs,  ap- 
pointed solicitors  for  the  Pennsylvania  Company  and  the  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati 
and  St.  Louis  Railway  Company  at  Chicago.  The  business  of  the  firm  is  not 
wholly  confined  to  those  two  railway  corporations,  but  includes  attention  to 
other  corporate  and  individual  interetss. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2O3 

In  the  month  of  June  1864  Mr.  Willard  temporarily  laid  aside  his  books  and 
enlisted  as  a  private  in  Co.  B,  i32d  regiment  111.  Vol.,  under  the  ninety  days'  call, 
and  served  therein  until  the  regiment  was  mustered  out  in  October  following. 
He  was  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Western  Railroad  Association  for  five  years, 
master  in  chancery  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county  for  six  years,  and  was  twice 
elected  treasurer  of  the  village  of  Hyde  Park,  where  he  has  resided  since  1868. 

On  November  6,  1865,  Mr.  Willard  was  married  to  Miss  Fannie  J.  Rodden, 
daughter  of  William  and  Margaret  (Wiggins)  Rodden,  of  Burlington,  Vermont. 
They  have  four  children,  named  respectively,  George  Rodden,  William  Blodgett, 
Bessie  and  Grace.  William  Rodden  was  a  native  of  Belfast;  immigated  to  Bur- 
lington, Vermont,  when  a  young  man,  and  made  the  latter  place  his  home  during 
the  remainder  of  his  life.- 

In  politics  Mr.  Willard  is  republican,  but  has  not  taken  any  active  part  therein 
beyond  recording  his  vote,  his  first  vote  being  cast  for  the  late  Abraham  Lincoln 
in  1860. 

JOHN    T.    DALE. 

« 

JOHN  T.  DALE  was  born  at  Sandbach,  in  Cheshire,  England,  April  25,  1841, 
„'  and  is  the  only  son  of  Thomas  and  Jane  Dale,  the  latter  a  daughter  of  an  old 
and  respected  Cheshire  family  named  Burgess.  His  father  was  a  master  machin- 
ist, one  of  those  men  endowed  by  nature  with  mechanical  and  mathematical 
genius,  who,  when  in  his  prime,  delighted  to  figure  out  and  calculate  the  relation- 
ship of  cogs,  levers,  fly-wheels  and  pinions  to  distances  and  powers.  He  was 
gifted  with  a  fine  musical  ear,  and  when  a  boy  of  sixteen  made  a  violin  with  the 
rude  tools  at  his  father's  house,  and  learned  to  play  upon  it.  While  holding  a 
responsible  and  lucrative  position  in  a  large  manufacturing  establishment,  the 
reports  from  many  friends  who  had  emigrated  to  distant  lands  made  him  long 
for  a  broader,  freer  life,  and  he  determined  to  remove  to  a  foreign  land.  He  at 
first  thought  of  going  to  Natal  in  South  Africa,  but  was  influenced  by  friends  in 
America  to  change  his  purpose,  and  in  1849  removed  with  his  family  to  the  then 
territory  of  Wisconsin,  and  settled  in  Salem,  Kenosha  county,  where  he  purchased 
a  farm.  The  community  was  composed  mainly  of  intelligent  people  from  the  New 
England  and  middle  states,  who  were  interested  in  having  as  good  a  district 
school  as  their  means  and  circumstances  would  allow. 

John  lived  at  home  until  he  attained  his  majority,  working  on  the  farm  in 
summer  and  attending  district  school  in  winter.  In  the  common  school,  together 
with  a  limited  attendance  at  an  academy  in  the  neighborhood,  he  obtained  a  good 
practical  English  education,  with  some  of  the  higher  mathematics;  but  his  higher 
education  was  obtained  from  books,  he  being  intensely  fond  of  literature.  At 
fourteen  years  of  age  he  gained  the  prize  for  the  best  English  composition  and 
recitation  of  the  same.  The  production  was  a  poem  of  considerable  length  on 
"The  Glories  of  Ancient  Greece  and  Rome";  and  before  he  was  sixteen  he  had 


2O4  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

read  most  of  the  English  poets  and  many  other  standard  works.  His  experience 
in  early  life  was  similar  to  that  of  most  farmer  boys,  hard  work  and  plenty  of  it ; 
but  this  did  not  prevent  him  from  improving  his  leisure  moments  with  study,  and 
laying  the  foundation  of  a  solid  and  firm  character.  As  with  others  who  have 
risen  to  eminence,  the  knowledge  gained  and  imparted  in  teaching  district  school 
was  of  great  advantage  to  him,  and  this  he  did  for  two  winters. 

In  the  spring  of  1863  he  removed  to  Chicago  with  only  a  few  dollars  in  his 
possession,  without  friends  or  influence,  but  with  that  energy,  hope  and  courage 
that  belongs  to  youth,  and  a  determination  to  win.  For  about  twelve  months  he 
obtained  temporary  employment  in  various  ways,  and  in  the  latter  part  of  1863 
entered  the  law  office  of  D.  C.  and  I.  J.  Nicholes  as  a  student  and  law  clerk.  He 
remained  with  them  two  years,  and  in  the  spring  of  1865  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
He  afterward  attended  a  course  of  lectures  on  real  estate  law  in  the  Chicago  Law 
School,  given  by  Hon.  Henry  Booth,  then  professor  in  that  institution.  Out  of 
that  class  of  about  fifty  students  many  have  become  bright  ornaments  in  their 
profession,  and  some  have  already  obtained  eminence  in  public  life,  among  others 
Hon.  Robert  Lincoln,  now  secretary  of  war.  In  1867  Mr.  Dale  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Judge  E.  S.  Holbrook,  a  lawyer  of  ripe  experience  in  chancery  practice 
and  real  estate  law,  and  continued  that  partnership  till  the  great  fire  of  1871. 
Their  practice  was  principally  in  real  estate  matters,  besides  which  they  conducted 
several  important  patent  cases.  In  common  with  almost  every  other  law  firm  in 
the  city,  they  lost  in  the  great  fire  their  library  and  nearly  all  their  papers,  and  as 
a  result  the  partnership  was  dissolved.  Some  time  after  the  fire  Mr.  Dale  opened 
an  office  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Sidney  Thomas,  which  lasted  for  about 
one  year,  and  since  that  time  he  has  been  alone  in  the  practice. 

In  1870  he  removed  to  Winnetka,  a  beautiful  suburb  within  forty-five  minutes' 
ride  of  the  city,  and  identifying  himself  in  the  interests  of  the  village  was  elected 
for  two  years  president  of  the  board  of  trustees,  and  for  four  years  also  was  one 
of  its  most  useful  and  active  members.  In  1864  he  became  a  member  of  the  inde- 
pendent order  of  Odd-Fellows.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church 
He  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  decided  republican,  but  has  not  taken  any  very 
active  part  in  politics. 

He  was  married  in  September  1880,  to  Miss  Leila  W.  Graves,  of  Chicago,  a 
young  lady  of  fine  musical  tastes,  who  had  spent  several  years  in  the  best  conser- 
vatories of  Paris  and  Stuttgardt  to  acquire  a  thorough  musical  education. 

Mr.  Dale  is  a  man  of  fine  literary  taste  and  ability,  and  in  1876,  after  a  visit  to 
the  centennial  exposition  in  Philadelphia,  wrote  a  book  entitled  "What  Ben 
Beverley  Saw  at  the  Great  Exhibition."  The  work  was  published  by  subscription, 
but  owing  to  the  embarrassment  of  its  publisher,  did  not  meet  with  the  sale  that 
was  anticipated  ;  it,  however,  reached  three  editions  of  about  2,500  copies.  As  a 
lecturer,  also,  he  has  shown  himself  of  no  mean  ability;  his  lecture  on  "The  Rise 
and  Romance  of  the  Common  Law,"  and  other  addresses  on  various  subjects,  he 
has  delivered  before  various  literary  societies  in  Chicago. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  205 

Having  faith  in  the  future  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Dale  has,  by  judicious  investments 
and  close  attention  to  business,  acquired  a  handsome  fortune.  He  is  a  man  of 
sterling  qualities,  fond  of  good  companionship,  generous  and  benevolent,  and  a 
worthy  member  of  many  charitable  institutions.  His  aim  in  life  has  been  to 
make  the  most  of  himself,  and  to  reflect  in  all  his  acts  the  dignity  and  honor  of  a 
genuine  manhood.  He  is  a  lawyer  who  honors  his  profession,  and  by  his  daily 
intercourse  with  men  furnishes  an  example  worthy  of  admiration  and  emulation. 


JOHN   M.   ROUNTREE. 

JOHN  M.  ROUNTREE  was  born  February  13,  1836,  at  Plattville,  Grant  county, 
Wisconsin.  His  parents,  Hon.  John  H.  Rountree,  and  Mary  Grace  (Mitchell) 
Rountree,  were  early  settlers  in  the  West,  and  his  father,  who  was  one  of  the  earliest 
and  most  distinguished  pioneers  of  the  Wisconsin  bar,  held  many  promnient  offices 
during  his  professional  career.  John  received  his  early  education  at  Plattville 
Academy,  and  subsequently,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  went  to  Hamilton  College, 
New  York.  After  finishing  his  collegiate  education,  he  began  the  study  of  law  at 
Galena,  Illinois,  under  Hon.  John  M.  Jewel,  and  when  twenty-three  years  of  age 
was  admited  to  the  bar  of  this  state.  In  1856,  Mr.  Rountree  went  to  Milwaukee, 
and  began  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  the  office  of  Hon.  H.  L.  Palmer,  where 
he  remained  until  November  i,  1857,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago.  He  at  first 
entered  the  office  of  Scammon,  McCagg  and  Fuller,  where  he  remained  until 
the  spring  of  1858,  when  he  formed  a  copartnership  with  Alexander  C.  Car- 
penter, a  well  known  member  of  the  Chicago  bar.  This  partnership  continued 
until  1864,  and  during  its  existence  Mr.  Rountree  was  engaged  in  many  very 
important  cases,  of  which  may  be  mentioned  Kingsbury  vs.  Chicago  and  North 
Western  Railway  Company,  involving  the  title  of  the  river  front  and  the  depot 
ground,  which  was  decided  in  favor  of  the  railroad  company,  he  at  that  time 
being  their  attorney.  Mr.  Rountree  was  president  of  the  Chicago  Law  Institute  in 
the  years  1864  and  1865,  and  continued  an  active  member  of  the  bar  until  1867 
when,  by  reason  of  impaired  health,  he  was  compelled  to  abandon  his  profes- 
sional labors,  and  under  the  advice  of  his  physician  traveled  through  various  por- 
tions of  the  United  States  in  search  of  a  suitable  climate.  With  proper  care  and 
respite  from  all  labor,  he  was  again  restored  to  his  normal,  healthy  and  vigorous 
condition,  and  returned  to  Chicago,  which  has  since  been  his  home.  Resuming 
his  practice  at  the  Chicago  bar,  he  has  met  with  even  more  brilliant  success  than 
before.  Soon  after  his  return  to  Chicago  he  was  nominated  and  elected  by  the 
democratic  party,  to  the  state  legislature,  by  a  very  satisfactory  majority,  and  per- 
formed the  duties  of  his  office  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  his  constituents.  In 
the  fall  of  1872  he  was  one  of  the  committee  on  the  revision  of  the  statutes  of  Illi- 
nois, whose  work  was  not  completed  until  the  season  of  1873.  In  the  fall  of  1873 
Mr.  Rountree  was  elected  attorney  for  Cook  county,  for  a  term  of  four  years. 


2O6  THK   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

During  these  years  there  was  a  vast  amount  of  tax  litigation,  a  branch  of  law 
in  which  Mr.  Rountree  displayed  great  skill  and  ability,  as  well  as  in  other 
departments  of  work  attaching  to  his  office.  At  the  close  of  his  term  of  office  he 
resumed  the  general  practice  of  his  profession,  being  the  attorney  for  numerous 
large  corporations,  railroad  companies,  banks,  etc.  Mr.  Rountree  has  always  been 
a  democrat,  except  in  the  Grant  and  Greeley  campaign,  when  he  supported  the 
republican  ticket.  As  a  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  Mr.  Rountree  is  recognized 
as  an  able  lawyer,  and  a  man  of  right  purposes,  who  is  governed  in  all  his  doings 
by  a  conscientious  adherence  to  principle  and  manly  dealing. 


WILLIAM    P.    BLACK. 

WILLIAM  P.  BLACK,  a  lawyer,  residing  and  doing  business  in  Chicago, 
Illinois,  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Dent  and  Black,  was  born  in  Woodford 
county,  Kentucky,  November  n,  1842. 

The  family  dates  back  in  this  country  to  ante-revolutionary  times,  when  the 
Scotch  ancestry  found  homes  in  the  colonies;  first  in  South  Carolina,  and,  mov- 
ing thence,  afterward  in  Westmoreland  county,  Pennsylvania.  In  the  revolution- 
ary struggle  they  were  on  the  patriot  side,  contributing  their  share  alike  of  blood 
and  their  scant  treasure  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  In  those  days  the  family  was 
represented  in  Pennsylvania  by  Rev.  John  Black,  a  Presbyterian  minister,  whose 
son  and  great-grandson  followed  the  same  calling.  The  last  mentioned,  Rev. 
John  Black,  D.D.,  was  the  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Dr.  Black,  last 
named,  passed  his  ministerial  life  mostly  in  the  South,  and  closed  a  short  but 
brilliant  life  in  his  thirty-eighth  year,  dying  at  that  age,  February  13,  1847,  in 
Allegheny  City,  Pennsylvania,  at  which  time  he  was  pastor  of  the  Fifth  Presbyte- 
rian Church  of  that  place.  The  maternal  great-grandfather  was  William  Findley, 
for  twenty  years  a  member  of  the  United  States  senate  and  house  of  representa- 
tives from  Pennsylvania  ;  a  man  of  marked  ability,  and  descended  from  the 
Scotch-Irish  dissenters,  the  family  removing  to  this  country  from  North  Ireland 
long  prior  to  the  revolution. 

Mr.  Black's  mother  was,  prior  to  marriage,  a  Miss  Josephine  L.  Culbertson, 
of  the  family  located  at  Culbertson's  Row,  Pennsylvania,  whence  her  father 
removed  and  settled  in  Madison,  Indiana,  where  they  resided  at  the  time  of  her 
marriage  to  Rev.  John  Black,  in  1834.  Born  in  1813,  this  minister's  widow  was 
left,  in  1847,  with  a  family  of  four  children,  the  eldest  but  eight,  and  William,  the 
second  son,  then  but  little  more  than  four  years  old.  She  removed  the  same  year 
with  her  little  ones  to  Danville,  Illinois,  and  there  in  1850  married  Dr.  William 
Fithian,  an  eminent  and  worthy  gentleman,  reputed  an  able  speaker  and  politi- 
cian, and  successful  business  man.  To  the  care,  affection  and  ability  of  his  noble 
mother,  aided  by  her  husband,  is  Mr.  Black  indebted  for  much  that  is  elevated 
and  meritorious  in  his  life. 


Eng  by  E.  LJ  Willi  a  m  a  4  Br  NY 


THE   BENCH   AND   BAR   Of-'  CHICAGO.  2OQ 

From  childhood  he  was  a  close  and  successful  student,  his  zeal  having  to  be 
held  in  check  on  account  of  delicate  health  and  a  frail  body.  He  entered  Wabash 
College,  Crawfordsville,  Indiana,  an  institution  justly  esteemed  for  its  thorough 
course  and  honorable  alumni,  in  the  fall  of  1860.  He  at  once  took  a  leading 
place  in  his  class  as  a  diligent  and  conscientious  student,  and  in  the  societies  as 
a  clear,  powerful  and  brilliant  speaker,  and  was  affectionately  esteemed  by  all. 
At  this  time,  having  joined  the  Presbyterian  church  at  fifteen  years  of  age,  he 
was  studying  with  reference  to  entering  the  ministry. 

But  the  outbreak  of  the  war  interrupted  the  collegiate  course,  never  to  be 
resumed.  April  15,  1861,  Mr.  Black  enlisted,  with  about  forty  other  students 
of  the  college,  including  his  only  brother,  as  a  private  soldier  in  Co.  I,  nth  Ind. 
Zouaves,  commanded  by  Col.  (afterward  Maj.-Gen.)  Lew.  Wallace.  Sharing 
with  this  regiment  in  its  three  months'  campaign,  chiefly  in  western  Virginia, 
he  was  mustered  out  as  corporal,  and  at  once  engaged  in  assisting  in  the  work 
of  recruiting  a  company  in  Vermilion  county,  Illinois,  for  the  three  years'  ser- 
vice, of  which  company  he  was  elected  captain,  and  which  was  mustered  into 
the  service  as  Co.  K,  37th  111.  Inf.,  at  Chicago,  September  18,  1861,  the  regi- 
ment then  being  known  as  Fremont  Rifles,  and  his  commission  as  captain, 
dated  September  i,  1861,  being  received  by  him  before  he  had  reached  his  nine- 
teenth birthday.  This  position  he  filled  faithfully  for  over  three  years,  sharing 
with  his  regiment  in  its  marches,  skirmishes  and  battles,  chief  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  Pea  Ridge,  Arkansas,  Prairie  Grove,  Arkansas  (where  one-third  of 
the  federal  forces  were  killed  and  wounded),  the  siege  of  Vicksburg,  in  the  latter 
part  of  which  Capt.  Black  held  'the  responsible  and  most  dangerous  position  of 
brigade  picket  officer,  having  charge  of  the  rifle-pits  of  his  brigade;  the  occupa- 
tion of  Texas,  and  the  observation  of  the  empire  of  Maximilian.  Of  his  military 
career  it  is  enough  to  say  that,  undertaken  not  from  choice  but  under  an  exalted 
sense  of  the  duty  he  owed  an  imperiled  and  loved  country,  every  service  required 
was  performed  quietly,  unostentatiously  and  thoroughly.  He  could  always  be 
depended  upon  implicitly,  possessing  that  quality  of  courage  which  is  the  result 
of  entire  devotion  to  duty,  even  at  the  cost  of  complete  self-sacrifice. 

Commencing  the  study  of  law  in  October,  1865,  in  the  office  of  Arrington  and 
Dent,  Chicago,  he  was  in  about  sixteen  months  admitted  to  practice,  and  returned 
to  Danville  to  enter  upon  his  professional  career.  There  he  remained  for  only 
a  year,  however,  returning  to  Chicago  in  March,  1868,  to  form  the  association 
with  Mr.  Thomas  Dent,  which  has  since  continued;  Mr.  Dent's  former  partner, 
the  late  Judge  Alfred  W.  Arrington,  having  died  December  31,  1867.  Mr.  Black's 
career  as  a  lawyer  has  been  unusually  successful.  The  reputation  of  his  firm  is 
of  the  very  best,  both  on  the  score  of  professional  honor  and  ability,  and  also  by 
reason  of  the  spotless  personal  character  of  the  individual  members.  Possessing 
varied  gifts  and  powers,  so  that  they  admirably  supplement  each  other,  and 
governed  in  all  their  conduct,  personal  and  professional,  by  the  code  of  a  pure 
Christianity,  these  gentlemen  have  secured  one  of  the  largest  and  most  respecta- 


2IO  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ble  clientages  in  their  city,  while  the  records  of  all  the  courts  in  the  city  and  of 
the  supreme  courts  of  Illinois  and  of  the  United  States  attest  their  large  success. 

Mr.  Black  is  an  unusually  clear,  earnest  and  vigorous  writer,  and  gives  much 
attention  to  the  themes  of  present  vital  interest.  In  1881  he  prepared  and  deliv- 
ered before  the  Chicago  Philosophical  Society  a  lecture  on  "Socialism  as  a  Factor 
in  American  Society  and  Politics,"  which  was  published  in  the  Chicago  "  Times," 
republished  in  pamphlet  form,  and  extensively  quoted  and  noticed  in  various 
parts  of  the  country.  It  was  a  remarkably  clear,  interesting  and  philosophical 
consideration  of  the  great  question  of  the  social  relations  of  the  wage  classes  in 
our  growing  republic.  A  year  later  he  delivered  before  the  same  body  a  lecture 
on  "Russia  and  Nihilism,"  which  has  since  been  delivered,  by  request,  before  the 
Liberal  League  of  Chicago  and  the  Industrial  Reform  Club  of  the  same  place, 
and  which  has  been  printed  in  the  "  Weekly  Magazine,"  and  reprinted  in  tract 
form.  Concerning  this  lecture,  and  as  evidencing  the  literary  ability  and  style  of 
Mr.  Black,  it  may  not  seem  out  of  place  to  print  two  short  letters,  which  speak 
for  themselves,  one  being  from  Wendell  Phillips,  the  other  from  the  pen  of  the 
versatile  John  Swinton,  chief  of  the  editorial  force  of  the  New  York  "  Sun."  Fol- 
lowing are  the  letters  : 

123  EAST  620  STREET,  NEW  YORK,  July  4,  1882. 

COMRADE, — I  feel  especially  obliged  to  you  for  favoring  me  with  a  copy  of  Col.  Black's  lecture 
on  Russia.  It  it  a  masterpiece,  and  has  given  me  profound  pleasure.  The  comprehensiveness 
and  accuracy  of  the  author's  knowledge,  the  elevation  of  his  spirit,  the  charm  of  his  love  for  truth, 
justice  and  man,  the  generosity  of  his  sympathy,  and  the  boldness  and  freshness  of  his  manner, 
riveted  me  to  his  pages  as  soon  as  I  had  opened  them 

Astonishment  mingled  with  pleasure  as  I  passed  from  sentence  to  sentence.  It  is  a  most  wor- 
thy contribution  from  a  man  of  whose  existence  in  Chicago  I  am  delighted  to  know.  Copies  of  it 
should  be  sent  to  Vera  Sassulitch,  Lavroff,  Krapotkin  and  Tchaikovsky,  and  to  Dr.  Orloff  and 
Wendell  Phillips  and  others,  and  to  public  libraries  and  newspapers,  etc. 

I  don't  believe  there  is  any  sale  for  such  a  thing;  it  must  be  given  away. 

I  shall  mail  you  a  copy  of  my  "Travels"  and  other  of  my  things  for  Col.  Black,  asking  you  to 
mail  them  to  his  address.  JOHN  SWINTON. 

E.  A.  Stevens,  319  W.  Randolph  street,  Chicago,  Illinois. 

BOSTON,  July,  1882. 

Mv  DEAR  SIR,  — Hearty  thanks  for  your  instructive  and  eloquent  address  on  Russia  and  Nihil- 
ism. Such  a  masterly  and  logical  summing  up  of  the  case  against  the  Romanoffs  must  give  our 
people  pause,  and  make  them  think.  Then  we  shall  see  a  public  opinion  more  worthy  of  our  past 
and  our  national  position  among  civilized  states 

I  have  read  and  reread  your  statement,  each  time  with  fresh  admiration,  and  added  thanks  that 
any  American  has  been  found  ready  to  make  it  —  an  honor  to  us  and  a  service  to  the  world. 

Yours  with  great  respect, 
Col.  W.  P.  Black.  WENDELL  PHILLIPS. 

Mr.  Black  is  in  no  sense  of  the  word  a  politician,  though  taking  a  keen  inter- 
est in  the  affairs  of  the  country,  to  whose  service  in  the  tented  field  he  gave  three 
and  a  half  years  of  his  life.  In  his  views  he  is  thoroughly  independent,  casting  his 
vote  and  his  influence  always  with  what  he  believes  the  better  side  of  every  cause. 
In  the  summer  of  1872  he  devoted  a  little  time  to  the  advocacy  of  the  Greeley 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  211 

movement,  which  he  supported  as  opposed  to  the  increasing  corruption  in  public 
affairs.  His  speeches  in  this  campaign  elicited  much  praise,  and  added  to  his 
already  high  reputation  as  an  earnest,  logical  and  eloquent  speaker,  fearless  in 
exposing  and  rebuking  wrong.  Prior  to  1872  he  had  been  a  staunch  republican, 
but  since  that  time  he  has  not  been  actively  identified  with  either  of  the  great 
parties,  though  usually  working  with  the  democratic.  He  took  no  part  in  poli- 
tics, however,  after  the  campaign  of  1872,  until  in  1880,  when  he  made  one  speech 
near  the  close  of  the  canvass  in  advocacy  of  the  election  of  Gen.  Hancock,  which 
was  published  in  full  in  the  Chicago  "  Times,"  and  which  was  very  highly  esteemed 
on  account  of  its  thoughtfulness  and  force. 

In  the  fall  of  1882  Mr.  Black  became  a  candidate  for  congress  upon  the  unso- 
licited nominations  first  of  the  anti-monopolists  in  their  convention,  then  of  the 
democracy,  and  afterward  of  the  independent  republicans.  The  campaign  was 
short  and  vigorous,  and  although  Mr.  Black  was  defeated,  it  was  yet  only  by 
treachery  in  the  democratic  camp,  and  then  by  a  majority  of  less  than  2,400,  in  a 
district  that,  two  years  before,  had  given  his  successful  opponent  a  majority  of 
over  6,000.  Mr.  Black's  candidacy  elicited  unusual  enthusiasm,  and  became  the 
pivotal  contest  in  his  district,  while  it  elicited  some  most  remarkable  tributes  to 
his  character  and  attainments.  Among  these  may  properly  be  mentioned  a  tract, 
written  by  Mr.  Henry  L.  Turner,  a  prominent  real  estate  dealer,  and  a  lifelong 
republican,  under  the  title,  "  Patriotism  versus  Party,"  and  published  by  him  anon- 
ymously. After  opening  with  the  question,  "  Shall  I,  a  lifelong  republican,  born 
and  reared  amidst  the  '  most  straitest  sect '  of  the  abolitionists,  so  far  step  aside 
from  my  ancient  allegiance  as  to  vote  for  the  democratic  nominee  for  congress  ? " 
and  proceeding  at  length  to  state  his  objections  to  the  republican  candidate,  he 
gives  the  following  estimate  of  Mr.  Black's  qualifications  and  character: 

"Speaking  from  a  personal  acquaintance  of  years'  standing,  the  writer,  if  asked,  would  say  of 
Capt.  William  P.  Black  that  he  would  bring  to  the  legislative  office  a  heart  throbbing  with  a  benev- 
olent love  for  his  fellow-men,  sympathetic  with  their  misfortunes,  and  ambitious  to  be  of  service  to 
them;  a  quick  and  enlightened  conscience,  with  a  profound  sense  of  personal  responsibility;  an 
independence  of  thought  and  action  almost  phenomenal;  an  honesty  deep  seated  as  the  earth's 
foundation;  an  incorruptibility  absolutely  unassailable;  an  intellect  of  great  breadth  and  keenness; 
a  mind  well  stored  with  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  law  and  history;  a  ripe  and  widely  varied 
experience;  an  eloquence  at  once  dignified  and  impassioned,  impressive  and  graceful;  a  patriotism 
strengthened  and  purified  on  the  battle-fields  of  the  rebellion,  and  a  courage  which  cannot  be 
daunted;  a  life  so  pure  and  spotless  that  the  fierce  breath  of  a  bitter  canvass  has  cast  no  mist  upon 
it;  a  religious  principle,  which  manifests  a  reverent  regard  for  all  the  ways  of  righteousness;  a 
widely  gathered  familiarity  with  the  management  of  affairs,  and  a  broad  general  culture;  a  splendid 
presence,  and  manners  courteous,  affable  and  polished." 

In  1874  Wabash  College  conferred  on  Mr.  Black  the  degree  of  M.A.,  a  graceful 
recognition  of  his  professional  success  and  his  services  as  a  man  of  letters. 

Mr.  Black  was  married  May  28,  1869,  to  Miss  Hortensia  M.  MacGreal,  of  Gal- 
veston,  Texas,  a  Christian  lady  of  clear  and  strong  intellect,  ripe  culture  and  deep 
enthusiasm  of  religious  experience.  She  is  the  eldest  daughter  of  the  late  Peter 


212  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

MacGreal,   who  was  one  of    the   leading  lawyers  of   the   Empire   State  of   the 
Southwest. 

We  close  this  sketch  by  a  few  words  of  personal  description.  Mr.  Black  is 
over  six  feet  in  height,  dark  hair,  now  freely  intersprinkled  with  gray;  of  spare 
but  graceful  figure;  a  face  strong  and  expressive;  and  a  dark,  bright  eye,  that 
kindles  under  emotion  or  excitement,  but  is  always  kindly;  his  voice  is  clear  and 
strong;  and  these,  added  to  an  unusual  flow  of  language,  make  him  a  speaker  of 
great  power  and  magnetism. 


GEORGE    MILLS    ROGERS. 

EORGE  MILLS  ROGERS,  son  of  Judge  John  G.  Rogers,  of  the  Cook 
county  circuit  court,  was  born  April  16,  1854,  at  Glasgow,  Kentucky.  He 
fitted  for  college  in  the  Chicago  public  schools,  and  finally  in  Chicago  University, 
and  entered  Yale  College  in  1872,  graduating  in  1876,  when  he  returned  to  Chi- 
cago and  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Crawford  and  McConnell  and  attended  the 
Chicago  Union  College  of  Law;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  June,  1878,  and  com- 
menced practice  in  the  firm  of  McConnell,  Raymond  and  Rogers,  and  is  now  of 
the  firm  of  McConnell  and  Rogers.  He  is  descended  from  a  line  of  eminent 
judges  on  both  the  paternal  and  maternal  sides,  and  is  a  credit  to  his  ancestry. 
His  abilities  and  character  give  promise  that  he  will,  if  he  lives,  win  the  place  in 
the  affection  and  esteem  of  the  people,  which  his  father  now  holds. 


SAMUEL  P.  MCCONNELL. 

SAMUEL  P.  McCONNELL  was  born  in  Springfield,  Illinois,  July  5,  1849. 
He  is  of  Scotch-Irish  extraction,  his  grandfather  immigrating  to  this  country 
from  Belfast,  Ireland,  in  1811,  located  in  New  Jersey  and  subsequently  moved  to 
Madison  county,  New  York,  and  engaged  first  in  the  manufacture  of  powder  and 
later  in  farming  and  raising  fine  stock.  In  1840  he  moved  to  Sangamon  county, 
Illinois,  and  engaged  in  farming,  being  the  first  to  introduce  blooded  stock  in 
that  county.  Two  of  his  sons  now  reside  on  the  old  homestead  farm.  Gen.  John 
McConnell,  father  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  now  resides  at  Springfield,  and 
is  well  known  in  this  state  as  having  been  a  brave  and  daring  cavalry  officer  in 
the  late  war.  He  was  breveted  brigadier-general  for  gallantry  in  several  engage- 
ments, and  received  the  highest  commendation  from  his  superior  officers. 
Samuel  P.  was  born  on  a  farm  and  spent  his  youth  there.  He  had  the  usual 
preparatory  education  and  was  fitted  for  college;  graduated  from  Lombard  Uni- 
versity at  Galesburg,  Illinois,  in  1871,  when  he  read  law  with  the  prominent  law 
firm  of  Stuart,  Edwards  and  Brown,  of  Springfield,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
came  to  Chicago  in  December,  1872,  and  commenced  practice  in  the  firm  of 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  213 

McConnell  and  Lanphier,  which  continued  until  the  spring  of  1874,  when  he 
became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Crawford  and  McConnell,  which  was  engaged 
largely  in  important  corporation  litigation.  Mr.  McConnell,  though  young,  evi- 
denced a  decided  ability  in  this  class  of  cases,  and  is  still  successfully  engaged 
in  that  line  of  practice,  and  has  won  and  deserved  particular  credit  on  account 
of  his  ability  in  that  connection,  as  well  as  in  general  practice.  In  July  of  1878 
the  firm  of  Crawford  and  McConnell  was  dissolved,  Mr.  Crawford  discontinuing 
the  law  business  and  engaging  in  railroad  building  and  management,  when  Mr. 
McConnell  formed  a  partnership  with  Henry  W.  Raymond,  son  of  the  late  distin- 
guished Henry  J.  Raymond,  and  his  brother-in-law,  George  Mills  Rogers,  son  of 
Judge  John  G.  Rogers,  of  the  Cook  county  circuit  court.  Mr.  Raymond  subse- 
quently left  the  firm  and  is  now  one  of  the  editors  of  the  Chicago  "Tribune,"  the 
law  firm  now  being  McConnell  and  Rogers.  Samuel  P.  McConnell  is  one  of  the 
foremost  of  the  younger  attorneys  of  the  Chicago  bar;  he  is  studious,  industrious, 
and  faithful  to  his  clients,  and  a  successful  lawyer,  highly  respected  by  the  pro- 
fession and  those  who  know  him. 

In   February,   1876,  he   married   Sarah   Rogers,  daughter   of  Judge  John  G. 
Rogers,  chief-justice  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county. 


WILLIAM   PRESCOTT. 

WILLIAM  PRESCOTT,  one  of  three  children  of  William  and  Maria  Pres- 
cott,  was  born  March  i,  1832,  in  Devonshire,  England.  His  parents  were 
natives  of  the  same  county,  and  were  descendants  of  families  which  had  for 
many  generations  belonged  to  the  agricultural  class  of  the  country.  In  the  year 
1848  Mr.  Prescott's  father  and  mother  removed  with  their  family  to  the  United 
States,  and  on  July  4  in  that  year,  reached  Mt.  Vernon,  Ohio,  which  they  then 
intended  to  make  their  permanent  home.  Within  a  short  time,  however,  the 
father  died,  and  the  family  was  divided  and  scattered,  but  was  reunited  in  the 
fall  of  1857,  at  Springfield,  Illinois. 

Having  previously  read  some  of  the  elementary  books  of  the  law,  the  subject 
of  our  sketch  entered  the  office  of  Hon.  James  C.  Conkling  of  Springfield,  and 
there  completed  his  preparatory  law  studies.  He  was  examined  for  admission  to 
the  bar  in  the  spring  of  1859,  by  a  committee  composed  of  the  late  Abraham  Lin- 
coln, the  late  Stephen  T.  Logan  and  James  C.  Conkling,  a  circumstance  which 
he  has  always  regarded  as  a  peculiar  honor.  Admitted  to  practice,  he  was  imme- 
diately thereafter  elected  city  attorney  of  Springfield,  and  held  the  office  one 
year.  At  the  beginning  of  the  war  he  entered  the  army,  and  served  continuously 
until  July  1865,  being  successively  first  lieutenant  and  adjutant,  captain  and 
major.  At  the  fall  election  of  1865  he  was  chosen  judge  of  the  county  court  of 
Sangamon  county,  and  held  that  office  four  years.  He  then  resumed  the  practice 
of  his  profession  at  Springfield,  and  remained  there  until  October  1878,  when  he 


214  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

removed  to  Chicago.  In  the  meantime,  during  the  years  1873  to  1876,  he  held 
the  position  of  register  of  the  United  States  land  office,  succeeding  Hon.  C.  S. 
Zane.  In  politics  he  has  always  been  a  republican,  and  until  recently  has 
taken  an  active  part  in  all  the  principal  campaigns  of  this  state,  beginning  with 
the  most  memorable  of  all  in  the  history  of  the  country,  that  of  1859. 

In  1867  Mr.  Prescott  was  married  to  Miss  Lizzie  Wallace,  at  Memphis,  Tennes- 
see; he  is  a  man  of  fine  personal  appearance,  and  is  highly  esteemed  by  a  large 
circle  of  friends,  for  his  many  social  and  amiable  qualities.  His  reputation  has 
always  been  that  of  a  man  of  sterling  integrity  and  he  has  always  been  known 
as  a  careful  and  able  lawyer. 


CAPT.  CANUTE  R.   MATSON. 

CANUTE  R.  MATSON  was  born  in  Norway  in  1843.  In  1848  his  parents 
V — x  immigrated  to  America  and  settled  in  Walworth  county,  Wisconsin,  whence 
in  1851  they  removed  to  Dane  county  in  the  same  state.  Canute  had  an  ambition 
to  obtain  an  education,  and  to  this  end  attended  the  Albion  Academy  in  Dane, 
and  subsequently  Milton  College,  and  was  an  apt  and  studious  scholar,  and 
ranked  among  the  best  in  his  classes.  He  was  in  the  latter  college  when  the  war 
broke  out,  and  being  descended  from  an  ancestry  which  had  fought  for  freedom 
and  liberty,  was  very  naturally  prompted  by  patriotism  and  devotion  to  his 
adopted  country  to  enlist  in  the  Union  army,  which  he  did,  though  quite  young, 
as  a  private  in  Co.  K.,  i3th  Wis.  Inf.,  and  went  to  the  field  as  a  private;  was  pro- 
moted to  commissary  sergeant  in  1862;  first  lieutenant  of  Co.  G,  in  1863;  was 
subsequently  acting  regimental  quartermaster,  and  was  such  when  mustered  out 
in  December  1865,  with  a  clean  and  untarnished  record  in  all  the  capacities  in 
which  he  had  served,  and  bears  the  reputation  to  this  day  of  having  been  a  brave 
and  faithful  soldier  and  officer. 

When  he  left  the  service  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  attended  a  commercial  col- 
lege a  few  months,  when  he  received  an  appointment  in  the  postoffice.  During  the 
time  he  published  the  "  Postal  Record,"  an  official  paper  of  the  department  in 
Chicago.  In  1868  he  was  elected  clerk  of  the  police  court,  and  reelected  in  1871, 
having  the  appointment  and  supervision  of  the  deputies.  In  1875  he  was  appointed 
justice  of  the  peace,  and  re-appointed  in  1879,  and  was  regarded  one  of  the  best 
and  most  reliable  of  the  justices;  in  1878  was  admitted  to  the  practice  of  law. 

In  the  fall  of  1879  his  friends  put  his  name  forward  for  sheriff  of  Cook  county, 
and  he  proved  to  be  the  second  strongest  candidate  before  the  republican  county 
convention,  but  being  barely  defeated  he  reluctantly  accepted  the  nomination  for 
coroner  of  Cook  county,  which  was  made  by  acclamation,  and  was  elected  by  the 
largest  majority  of  any  one  on  the  republican  ticket;  evidencing  his  popularity  in 
the  city  and  county.  He  served  in  that  capacity  two  years,  and  demonstrated  the 
possession  of  the  administrative  ability  requisite  in  the  successful  discharge  of 
the  duties  of  that  office.  In  the  fall  of  1882  he  declined  a  renomination  for  that 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  215 

office,  and  his  name  was  again  put  forward  for  sheriff,  and  he  proved  the  second 
time  the  second  strongest  candidate,  but  was  defeated  by  the  present  incumbent, 
Seth  F.  Hanchett,  who  wisely  made  him  chief  deputy  sheriff,  a  position  which  he 
now  holds,  1883,  giving  full  satisfaction  to  all  who  do  business  with  sheriff's  office. 
He  has  attained  to  position  through  his  merits;  always  serving  the  public  faith- 
fully and  ably,  he  has  the  full  public  confidence.  He  is  one  of  the  most  prominent 
of  the  Scandinavian  leaders  in  this  city  and  state,  and  is  popular  with  all  nation- 
alities and  parties,  as  a  man  of  excellent  habits,  good  abilities  and  character.  He 
is  respected  by  all  who  know  him,  and  esteemed  by  his  friends  and  intimates. 


STEPHEN    A.    DOUGLAS. 

QTEPHEN  ARNOLD  DOUGLAS,  son  of  the  celebrated  statesman,  Hon.  Ste- 
O  phen  A.  Douglas,  was  born  in  Rockingham  county,  North  Carolina,  November 
3,  1850.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Martha  Denny  Martin,  a  daughter 
of  Col.  Robert  Martin,  was  a  native  of  the  same  county,  and  died  in  January, 
1853.  The  history  of  his  father,  who  died  at  Chicago,  June  3,  1861,  is  familiar 
to  the  American  people.  The  last  intelligible  words  uttered  by  him  were  a  mes- 
sage to  his  sons,  Robert  and  Stephen,  then  at  college,  to  "obey  the  laws  and 
support  the  constitution  of  the  United  States." 

After  completing  his  preparatory  education,  our  subject  attended  Georgetown 
College,  District  of  Columbia,  but  left  his  studies  during  his  senior  year  to  look 
after  his  mother's  estate,  comprising  several  plantations  in  North  Carolina,  Mis- 
sissippi and  Texas.  This  occurrence  led  him  to  engage  extensively  in  the  leaf 
tobacco  business.  While  in  North  Carolina,  Mr.  Douglas  found  himself  early  and 
deeply  absorbed  in  politics,  growing  out  of  the  excited  and  threatening  condition 
of  the  country,  and  his  patriotic  instincts  led  him  to  promptly  ally  himself  with 
the  party  of  freedom.  In  1870,  before  he  was  twenty  years  old,  he  was  made 
chairman  of  the  republican  county  delegation  to  the  state  convention,  and  about 
the  same  time  became  editor  in  chief  of  the  Raleigh  "  Standard,"  the  organ  of 
the  republican  party  in  North  Carolina.  In  that  same  year  he  was  appointed 
adjutant-general  of  the  state,  it  being  the  incipient  period  of  the  ku  klux  troubles, 
when  2,000  troops  were  raised  to  protect  the  lives  of  the  colored  people  and  of 
republican  leaders  of  all  complexions.  The  condition  of  things  at  that  time  in 
North  Carolina  and  some  other  southern  states,  together  with  Mr.  Douglas'  able 
leaders  in  the  "  Standard,"  led  congress  to  consider  the  matter,  and  pass  the  ku 
klux  legislation,  when  Mr.  Douglas  resigned  his  post  of  adjutant-general. 

In  1872  he  was  appointed  a  presidential  elector,  and,  young  as  he  was,  made  a 
thorough  canvass  of  his  district.  Four  years  later  (1876)  he  was  again  placed  on 
the  republican  electoral  ticket  in  North  Carolina,  and  ran  several  hundred  votes 
ahead  of  his  ticket,  making  a  full  and  vigorous  canvass,  speaking  in  at  least 
fifty  places. 


2l6  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  November,  1876,  Mr.  Douglas  entered  the  North  Carolina  Law  School,  under 
Hon.  Richmond  Pearson,  chief-justice  of  that  state,  and  was  there  admitted  to 
practice  in  June,  1878.  He  opened  a  law  office  in  Chicago  in  the  following 
March,  and  almost  immediately  took  an  honorable  position  at  the  Cook  county 
bar.  In  October,  1881,  he  was  appointed  master  in  chancery  of  the  county  court. 
He  belongs  to  the  class  of  irrepressible  young  men  whose  talents  and  energies, 
always  wisely  directed,  place  them  in  the  forefront  in  every  contest.  He  seems 
to  have  inherited  not  only  the  build,  but  in  a  large  measure  the  force  of  character, 
mental  powers  and  magnetism  of  his  father,  and  he  may  or  may  not  reach  the 
rounds  of  fame  on  which  his  father  proudly  stood.  He  is  quite  as  much  a  favor- 
ite of  the  republican  party  as  his  father  was  of  the  democratic  party  at  thirty 
years  of  age.  In  1880  he  was  quite  active  in  the  Grant  movement,  and  was 
elected  at  the  state  convention  at  Springfield  a  delegate  to  the  national  conven- 
tion held  at  Chicago,  but  was  unseated  on  defeat  of  the  "unit  rule."  During  the 
memorable  campaign  of  that  year,  which  resulted  in  the  election  of  Garfield  and 
Arthur,  he  canvassed  nearly  the  whole  state  of  Illinois,  and  aided,  by  his  persua- 
sive eloquence,  in  securing  an  unusually  large  majority  in  Illinois  for  the  repub- 
lican nominees.  Since  the  close  of  that  great  political  contest  Mr.  Douglas  has 
been  quietly  practicing  his  profession  in  Chicago,  being  of  the  firm  of  Decker, 
Douglas  and  Kistler.  Few  young  men  of  his  age  have  made  an  equal  amount  of 
history.  Mr.  Douglas  attends  the  Reformed  Episcopal  church,  but  is  not  a  mem- 
ber of  any  religious  association. 


EBEN    F.    RUNYAN. 

EBEN  F.  RUNYAN  is  a  gentleman,  modest  and  unassuming,  but  positive  in 
his  character,  of  great  versatility  of  talent,  who  has  gained  a  wide  and 
excellent  reputation,  as  a  careful  and  pains-taking  lawyer.  He  carefully  exam- 
ines all  the  details  of  every  case  intrusted  to  his  care,  and  never  commences  suit, 
except  to  win,  and  defends  with  a  zeal  and  tact  that  invariably  shows  all  there  is 
in  the  case.  He  has  a  faculty  of  presenting  a  case  to  both  court  and  jury,  with 
clearness,  conciseness  and  force,  and  has  met  with  remarkable  success.  He  is 
thoroughly  read  in  his  profession,  and  having  a  sharp  and  correct  faculty  of  anal- 
ysis, a  fertile  mind  and  readiness  of  resource  in  argument,  has  attained  great 
prominence  as  an  advocate. 

Mr.  Runyan  was  born  in  Victory,  Cayuga  county,  in  the  state  of  New  York, 
December  3,  1831,  and  lived  in  that  town  until  the  spring  of  1838,  when,  by  the 
death  of  his  father,  he  was  left  an  orphan,  and  compelled  to  care  for  himself.  He 
had  none  of  the  advantages  of  an  early  education,  and,  with  slight  exceptions, 
had  no  regular  teaching  in  schools,  until  the  winter  of  1848,  but  during  all  those 
years,  and  ever  since,  when  not  engaged  in  labor,  he  spent  his  time  in  reading, 
studying  and  thinking,  and  thus  gained  a  valuable  fund  of  practical  knowledge, 
which  is  at  all  times  at  his  command. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2\"J 

In  the  spring  of  1849,  he  entered  the  store  of  Capt.  T.  F.  Comstock,  father  of 
E.  F.  Comstock,  of  Chicago,  at  Wilton,  Saratoga  county,  New  York,  and  remained 
there  until  the  spring  of  1850.  Although  he  met  with  excellent  success  in  his 
position,  and  gave  entire  satisfaction  to  his  employer,  and  his  customers,  he  was 
not  satisfied,  and  sought  other  fields  where  there  was  a  larger  range  for  his  active 
mind,  and  having  faith  in  the  West,  in  April,  1850,  he  started  for  Illinois,  making 
most  of  the  journey  on  foot.  From  June  n  of  that  year,  until  March,  1853,  he 
was  engaged  during  the  summer  months  in  McHenry  county,  Illinois,  in  farming, 
and  in  the  winter  months,  in  teaching  school,  one  of  his  pupils  being  Hon.  J.  C. 
Knickerbocker,  probate  judge  of  Cook  county. 

In  the  spring  of  1853,  he  entered  the  Academy  at  Waukegan,  Lake  county, 
Illinois,  then  under  the  management  of  Hon.  F.  E.  Clark,  of  that  city,  and  soon 
after  entered  the  law  office  of  W.  S.  Searles,  as  a  student  at  law,  and  remained  • 
with  him  until  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  in  the  spring  of  1855.     He  was  a  close 
student,  never  sought  pleasure  until  his  lessons  were  completed,  and  then  only  as 
a  rest.     He  then  and  always  believed  that  whatever  was  worth  doing,  should  be 
well  done,  and  was  so  strict  in  his  adherence  to  the  rules,  forms  and  principles  of ' 
the  text  books,  that  for  years  after  he  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law,  he 
would  not  himself  use,  nor  would  he  permit  a  student  in  his  office  to  use,  a  blank 
in  the  preparation  of  a  case  for  court. 

In  June,  1855,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago,  and  met  with 
excellent  success.  He  was  warm  and  magnetic  in  his  feelings,  and  soon  gathered 
around  him  a  host  of  friends.  January  i,  1856,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  T. 
B.  Brown,  of  Chicago,  under  the  name  of  Brown  and  Runyan,  and  they  con- 
tinued to  practice  law  until  the  fall  of  1859.  Among  those  who  have  been  asso- 
ciated with  him  in  the  practice  are  D.  J.  Avery,  one  of  the  masters  in  chancery 
of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county,  and  E.  F.  Comstock,  both  of  whom  were 
students  with  him,  and  are  excellent  lawyers,  and  Hon.  Mason  B.  Loomis,  ex- 
judge  of  the  county  court.  He  has  controlled  a  large  business,  and  has  had  a 
vast  experience  in  the  general  law,  as  well  as  other  business. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  Board  of  Education  of  Chicago,  from  1864  to  1874, 
and  during  the  entire  period,  took  an  active  part  in  everything  connected  with 
educational  matters.  He  was  once  elected  vice-president,  and  twice  elected  pres- 
ident of  the  board.  Upon  the  organization  of  the  Board  of  Park  Commissioners 
for  West  Chicago,  he  was,  by  the  governor,  appointed  one  of  the  commissioners, 
and  was  connected  with  the  board  for  about  seven  years,  and  took  an  active  part 
in  the  location  and  improvement  of  the  west  parks  and  boulevards.  He  was 
auditor  of  the  board  during  the  entire  period  of  his  connection  with  it.  In  the 
summer  of  1876,  prior  to  his  failure  in  business,  he  resigned  his  position  in  the 
Park  Board,  believing  as  he  still  believes,  that  a  man  who  is  unsuccessful  in  the 
management  of  his  own  finances,  should  not  manage  the  finances  of  the  people. 
He  has  been  a  man  of  great  activity  and  enterprise,  and  done  much  to  develop 
the  resources  of  Chicago. 
23 


2l8  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  is  strictly  temperate  in  his  habits,  and  insists  that  it  is  just  as  easy  to  say 
"  no"  as  "yes,"  and  that  no  man  thinks  less  of  one,  for  refusing  to  drink  with  him, 
when  he  knows  that  the  objection  is  a  matter  of  principle.  In  all  his  counsels,  he 
is  conscientious  and  careful.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement  and  culture,  and 
affable  and  kind  in  his  intercourse  with  all.  He  has  conducted  many  important 
suits  and  interests,  and  won  his  way  to  the  position  of  a  leading  lawyer  in  Chi- 
cago, by  the  exercise  of  energy,  superior  ability  and  legal  attainments.  He  was 
married  January  2,  1860,  to  Miss  Flora  R.  Avery,  of  Waukegan,  a  most  lovely 
woman,  by  whom  he  has  six  children. 


GEORGE  W.  COTHRAN,  LL.D. 

A  FTER  all  that  may  be  done  for  a  man  in  the  way  of  giving  him  early  oppor- 
L\.  tunities  for  obtaining  the  acquirements  which  are  sought  in  the  schools  and 
in  books,  he  must  essentially  formulate,  determine  and  give  shape  to  his  own 
character  and  future.  He  is  mainly  responsible  for  his  own  manhood,  as  a  rule. 
This  general  proposition  applies  to  George  W.  Cothran,  now  one  of  the  foremost 
members  of  the  Chicago  bar.  He  was  born  February  25,  1834,  on  a  farm  in  Roy- 
alton,  Niagara  county,  New  York.  When  he  was  four  years  of  age,  his  father 
died,  leaving  his  mother  with  a  small  and  heavily  encumbered  estate,  and  a  fam- 
ily of  thirteen  children,  of  which  George  was  the  youngest.  In  the  fall  of  1838, 
his  mother  sold  the  homestead,  and  moved  with  her  family  to  Richland  county, 
Ohio,  where  she  remained  till  the  spring  of  1842,  when  the  purchaser,  having 
failed  to  pay  for  the  homestead,  reconveyed  it  to  her,  and  she  returned  to  it  to 
live.  George  remained  there  with  his  mother,  attending  school  and  doing  farm 
work,  until  1850,  when  his  mother  again  removed,  with  the  four  children  remain- 
ing at  home,  to  Lockport,  New  York,  and  the  succeeding  four  years  George 
devoted  his  attention  to  the  mechanical  arts,  of  which  he  was  fond,  and  became 
proficient  in  several  branches.  He  acquired  a  practical  knowledge  of  the 
branches  he  pursued,  and  could  to-day  draw  plans  of,  and  build,  almost  any 
structure  of  wood,  iron  or  stone,  which  knowledge  has  been  of  service  to  him  in 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  the  class  of  causes  involving  such  questions. 
In  1854,  at  the  age  of  twenty,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Phineas  L.  Ely,  of  Lock- 
port,  and  commenced  the  study  of  law,  remaining  three  years,  at  the  end  of  which 
time  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  to  practice  in  all  the  courts  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  and  at  the  examination,  conducted  by  three  judges  in  open  court,  he  cor- 
rectly answered  all  of  the  searching  questions,  with  a  single  exception.  He  had 
application,  and  power  of  concentration,  which  has  always  been  a  distinguishing 
feature  of  his  mind,  notwithstanding  the  fact  that  before  he  entered  upon  the 
study  of  law,  he  had  wandered  into  the  flowery  paths  of  literature,  science  and 
art,  and  had  contributed  to  magazine  and  periodical  literature  to  quite  an  extent, 
and  has  since  his  admission  to  bar,  especially  illustrating  the  annals  of  the  litera- 
ture of  law  and  jurisprudence. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2  19 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he  remained  one  year  with  his  preceptor, 
when,  in  September,  1858,  he  opened  a  law  office  of  his  own  in  Lockport,  and  at 
once  entered  into  a  good  practice.  So  successful  was  he  that  but  one  law  firm 
had  more  cases  on  the  court  calendar  than  he  had.  He  remained  in  practice 
until  1861,  when  he  left  his  profession,  organized  Battery  M,  ist  N.  Y.  Vol.  Lt. 
Artillery,  was  commissioned  its  captain,  and  went  to  the  front;  and  no  volunteer 
battery  achieved  a  better  reputation  in  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  than  Cothran's 
battery.  He  served  with  Gen.  Banks  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley  campaign,  under 
Gen.  Pope  during  his  inglorious  command  of  the  Army  of  the  Potomac,  from 
Cedar  Mountain  to  the  time  he  turned  over  the  command  to  Gen.  McClellan, 
then  through  South  Mountain  and  Antietam.  He  was  eight  hours  under  fire  in 
the  latter  battle.  Then  followed  the  brief  and  disastrous  careers  of  Burnside  and 
Gen.  Hooker,  and  the  more  successful  one  of  Gen.  Meade.  About  the  time  of 
the  Gettysburg  fight,  he  was  compelled  to  resign  on  account  of  ill  health.  Dur- 
ing the  grand  retrograde  movement  of  Gen.  Pope,  after  a  severe  artillery  battle 
at  Beverly  Ford,  on  the  Rappahannock,  in  consequence  of  exposure  in  an  all- 
day  and  night's  rain,  he  took  cold,  which  culminated  in  sciatica-neuralgia  in  his 
right  limb,  from  which  he  was  a  great  sufferer  for  more  than  ten  years,  and  has 
not  yet  fully  recovered. 

After  the  battle  of  Antietam  he  was  recommended  to  President  Lincoln  for 
promotion,  for  meritorious  services  in  the  field,  by  every  commissioned  officer  in 
the  eleventh  army  corps,  including  Gen.  Banks,  its  late,  and  Gen.  A.  S.  Williams, 
its  then  commanding  officer.  But  the  Harrison's  Landing  letter  of  Gen.  McClel- 
lan, had  been  written,  and  the  successor  of  President  Lincoln  became  a  matter  of 
such  great  political  importance  at  Washington  that  Douglas  democrats  were  not 
appointed  thereafter  as  readily  or  as  frequently  as  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the 
war,  coupled  with  the  fact  that  he  would  do  nothing  to  aid  his  promotion.  He 
remained  with  his  battery,  even  when  serving  on  Gen.  Williams'  staff  as  chief  of 
artillery  of  the  first  division  of  the  twelfth  corps.  He  was  offered  promotion  to 
the  position  of  major  or  lieutenant-colonel  by  the  adjutant-general  of  New  York, 
but  he  declined,  as  the  command  of  a  battery  is  really  the  only  responsible 
position  in  the  artillery  service.  Many  amusing  anecdotes  of  the  captain  and  his 
battery  were  printed  in  the  Drawer  in  "Harper's  Magazine,"  and  in  "Knicker- 
bocker" at  the  time. 

On  leaving  the  army  in  1863,  he  married  the  only  surviving  child  of  W.  W. 
Mann,  of  Buffalo,  New  York,  and  in  the  fall  of  that  year  went  to  Buffalo  to  live, 
and  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession.  "There  were  giants  in  those 
days  "  in  the  Buffalo  bar,  a  bar  that  had  no  superior  in  any  city  in  the  Union. 
The  subject  of  this  sketch,  by  perseverance,  close  attention  to  business,  and  a 
thorough  mastery  of  his  cause,  soon  took  a  place  in  the  foremost  rank  of  that  cel- 
ebrated bar,  and  no  lawyer  of  his  age  stood  higher  in  the  estimation  of  the  New 
York  court  of  appeals  than  he.  While  in  the  flush  of  successful  practice  in  Buf- 
falo, in  July,  1879,  he  came  to  Chicago  to  help  his  friend,  F.  E.  Hinckley,  in  unrav- 


22O  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

eling  the  legal  complications  in  which  his  railroads  had  become  involved,  and  he 
it  was,  that  preserved  the  Chicago  and  Iowa  Railroad  Company,  and  placed  it  in 
its  present  successful  situation.  He  was  soon  after  appointed  the  general  solic- 
itor of  the  Chicago  and  Iowa  Railroad  Company,  Chicago,  Pekin  and  South- 
western Railroad  Company,  and  the  Chicago,  Rockford  and  Northern  Railroad 
Company,  and  the  appointment  has  led  to  his  permanent  residence  in  this  city. 

Mr.  Cothran  has  never  been  much  of  an  office  seeker  or  office  holder.  In 
addition  to  his  office  of  captain  of  artillery  in  the  army,  the  only  other  office  he 
has  held  was  that  of  county  judge  of  Erie  county,  New  York,  for  one  year.  His 
appointment  to  that  office  was  the  first  official  act  of  Gov.  Robinson,  of  New  York, 
and  was  recommended  by  ex-Gov.  Tilden,  his  intimate  friend.  At  the  end 
of  his  term,  he  declined  to  take  a  nomination,  and  continued  his  practice.  It 
•was  nearly  the  unanimous  wish  of  the  bar  that  he  should  remain  on  the  bench, 
but  he  preferred  the  active  practice  of  his  profession.  On  different  occasions,  he 
was  suggested  for  nomination  for  judge  of  the  New  York  court  of  appeals,  but  he 
invariably  declined  to  enter  the  field.  Having  been  nominated  for  judge  of  the 
superior  court  of  Buffalo,  he  declined  to  run,  but  on  a  subsequent  occasion,  he 
permitted  the  use  of  his  name  for  that  office,  but  was  defeated  with  his  party  at 
the  polls. 

While  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  he  edited  and  published  the 
sixth  edition  of  the  revised  statutes  of  New  York,  in  three  massive  volumes,  con- 
taining 3,700  pages.  The  labor  bestowed  upon  these  volumes  was  immense,  and 
for  this  work,  and  his  high  standing  at  the  bar,  he  received  the  honorary  degree 
of  LL.D.  He  has  also  edited  the  latest  editions  of  the  Illinois  revised  statutes  in 
one  compact  volume.  It  is  the  edition  now  used  by  judges  and  lawyers  almost 
exclusively.  The  same  evidences  of  careful  preparation,  which  made  his  New 
York  statutes  so  valuable,  are  observable  in  this  later  work. 

Judge  Cothran  is  a  great  lover  of  books,  and  has  pretty  thoroughly  traversed 
the  whole  range  of  literature.  His  private  library  is  unique,  and  embraces  a 
large  collection  of  rare  works  on  the  origin,  formation,  and  progress  of  religions 
and  religious  ideas.  His  law  library  is  probably  more  thoroughly  annoted  than 
any  other  in  the  city. 

Art  and  music  are  his  hobbies.  His  house,  on  LaSalle  avenue,  is  literally 
filled  with  oil  paintings  by  distinguished  foreign  and  American  artists.  But  his 
musical  library,  probably  the  largest  private  collection  in  America,  is  an  object 
of  curiosity,  as  well  as  of  peculiar  interest.  It  embraces  all  the  choice  editions  of 
the  great  tone  poets,  as  well  as  nearly  all  modern  composers  of  any  merit  or 
celebrity,  all  conveniently  arranged,  and  beautifully  bound.  It  is  envied  by  all 
musicians,  many  of  whom  avail  themselves  of  it  to  consult  rare  works. 

His  schooling  was  the  schooling  of  practical  life,  resulting  from  the  "struggle 
for  existence  "  by  a  young  man  with  no  other  means  than  brains  and  a  determi- 
nation to  achieve  success.  While  not  the  graduate  of  any  college,  he  has  been  a 
great  friend  of  educational  institutions,  and  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Buf- 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  221 

falo  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  and  was  its  first  president,  and  until 
after  his  removal  to  Chicago,  occupied  the  chair  of  medical  jurisprudence. 

As  a  lawyer,  he  is  distinguished  by  clearness  and  comprehensiveness  of  state- 
ment, and  clearness  of  argument,  preferring  to  solve  a  legal  problem  by  argu- 
ment, and  general  principles  of  law,  than  by  a  mass  of  mere  authorities,  though 
he  is  exceedingly  diligent  and  patient  in  research,  when  he  depends  upon  author- 
ities. Candid,  cautious,  thorough  in  the  study  and  evolving  of  facts  and  prece- 
dents, and  clear  in  his  analysis  of  the  principles  of  law  and  equity,  with  a  clear 
comprehension  of  the  spirit  and  scope  of  jurisprudence,  and  the  independence  to 
lay  his  cause  before  the  court,  according  to  his  best  judgment  of  the  law  and 
equity  of  the  cause  he  is  advocating,  a  keen  sense  of  honor,  which  Wordsworth 
says  is  the  finest  sense  of  justice  and  right,  which  the  human  mind  can  frame, 
he  is  still  a  student,  quiet  and  studious  in  his  demeanor  and  habits,  and  an  inde- 
fatigable worker.  He  has  arisen  to  eminence  and  success  as  the  result  of  his 
own  indomitable  energy,  and  inborn  ability  directed  into  the  channel  it  has  been, 
and  controlled  by  himself;  in  short,  a  self-made  man. 


GEORGE  E.   DAWSON. 

GEORGE  E.  DAWSON  was  born  June  23,  1847,  at  Loami,  Illinois,  where 
his  parents,  Charles  H.  Dawson,  and  Julia  (Meacham)  Dawson,  resided  at 
that  time.  His  father,  a  blacksmith  and  plow  manufacturer,  was  one  of  the  first 
inventors  of  the  gang  breaking  plow,  and  made  several  valuable  improvements  in 
double  cultivators.  When  George  was  five  years  of  age  his  parents  removed  to 
Jacksonville,  Illinois,  where  his  father  continued  business.  Here  he  attended 
school  until  twelve  years  of  age,  when  he  again  moved  with  his  parents,  settling 
on  a  farm  for  two  years,  and  engaging  in  farm  work,  attending  the  county 
schools  as  opportunities  offered,  until  1861,  when  his  father  again  moved  and 
settled  in  Springfield,  Illinois.  Here  George  entered  the  high  school,  graduating 
in  the  English  course  as  salutatorian  of  his  class.  The  following  year  he  spent  in 
the  employ  of  the  provost  marshal  of  the  eighth  district.  Having  determined  to 
secure  a  college  education,  the  year  following  was  spent  in  preparatory  studies 
under  a  private  instructor.  The  usual  preparatory  course  of  three  years  in  Latin 
and  Greek  was  completed  by  him  in  one  year,  and  in  the  fall  of  1866  he  entered 
the  University  of  Michigan,  pursued  the  regular  classical  course  of  four  years,  and 
in  the  summer  of  1870  graduated  with  the  degree  of  B.A.  Subsequently  he 
received  his  M.A.  degree  from  the  same  institution. 

Upon  leaving  the  university  Mr.  Dawson  taught  for  one  year  as  principal  of 
the  high  school  at  Flint,  Michigan.  In  the  following  year  he  went  to  Buffalo, 
New  York,  where  he  had  charge  of  the  department  of  Latin  and  Greek  in  the 
central  high  school,  and  remained  there  for  three  years,  gaining  an  excellent  rep- 
utation as  a  classical  instructor.  In  the  summer  of  1874  Mr.  Dawson  wishing  to 


222  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

obtain  a  more  thorough  knowledge  of  the  modern  languages,  went  abroad  and 
spent  two  years  in  the  study  of  German,  French  and  Italian.  Having  studied 
these  languages  in  this  country,  his  study  abroad  enabled  him  to  acquire  a  final 
command  of  them,  both  in  reading  and  speaking.  While  abroad,  Mr.  Dawson 
traveled  about  the  continent  during  the  summer  months,  and  spent  the  winter  in 
hard  study  at  the  universities.  The  greater  portion  of  his  time  in  Germany  was 
spent  at  Leipzig  and  Gottingen,  at  the  former  of  which  he  attended  lectures  on 
the  Roman  law.  He  also  attended  lectures  for  a  short  time  at  the  Collegio 
Romano,  in  Rome,  and  at  the  College  de  France,  at  Paris. 

After  two  years  thus  profitably  spent  in  travel  and  study,  he  returned  to 
America,  arriving  in  Philadelphia  May  9,  1876,  the  day  prior  to  the  opening  of 
the  Centennial  Exposition. 

Mr.  Dawson,  having  a  decided  preference  for  the  West,  returned  to  Springfield, 
Illinois,  and  for  one  year  was  principal  of  the  high  school  where  he  had  formerly 
been  a  pupil.  Thence  he  went  to  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  for  two  years  was  princi- 
pal of  the  high  school  there.  In  the  summer  of  1879,  Mr.  Dawson  removed  to 
Chicago,  taking  charge  of  the  Washington  school,  where  he  remained  two  years. 
Having  for  several  years  devoted  his  leisure  hours  to  the  study  of  law,  study- 
ing under  the  direction  of  a  prominent  law  firm  in  Peoria,  and  in  Chicago  in  the 
office  of  James  Goggin,  he  passed  his  examination  at  Springfield  in  May,  1881, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  beginning  his  practice  July  i,  1881. 

In  the  fall  of  1882  he  became  associated  with  Mr.  Isaac  H.  Pedrick,  a  well 
known  attorney  of  Chicago,  under  the  style  of  Pedrick  and  Dawson.  With  the 
unusually  broad  and  deep  foundation  which  he  has  laid,  his  perseverance  and 
high  literary  talent  and  attainments,  Mr.  Dawson  cannot  but  take  a  first  rank  in 
his  profession. 

GEORGE   DRIGGS. 

EORGE  DRIGGS,  a  member  of  the  legal  fraternity  of  Chicago,  is  a  native 
of  Livingston  county,  New  York,  and  was  born  at  Mount  Morris,  May  18, 
1846.  His  parents  were  Elias  Beach  Driggs,  a  native  of  Connecticut,  and  Sarah 
(Rowell)  Driggs,  a  native  of  Vermont.  After  the  death  of  his  parents,  when  only 
a  lad,  Mr.  Driggs  went  to  live  with  relatives  at  Fairlee,  Vermont,  near  the  New 
Hampshire  line.  In  early  years  he  attended  the  academy  at  Orford,  New  Hamp- 
shire, afterward  continuing  his  studies  under  private  instruction  up  to  the  time  of 
his  appointment  to  a  position  in  the  United  States  treasury  department  under 
Secretary  McCullough.  While  in  Washington  he  found  opportunity  to  continue 
his  law  studies  already  begun,  and  was  graduated  from  the  Columbia  Law  School, 
in  the  class  of  1868,  immediately  entering  upon  the  practice  of  law  in  Washington, 
where  he  remained  for  about  two  years,  when  he  went  to  New  York  city.  In 
1871  Mr.  Driggs  accepted  a  position  in  the  office  of  Hon.  ].  R.  Swan,  at  Colum- 
bus, Ohio,  at  that  time  general  solicitor  of  the  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  221, 

*J 

Railway  Company.  He  continued  as  the  assistant  of  Judge  Swan,  and  of  his  suc- 
cessor, Hugh  J.  Jewett,  until  the  latter  assumed  the  presidency  of  the  Erie  Rail- 
way Company  early  in  1875,  when  Mr.  Driggs  was  appointed  assistant  counsel 
of  the  Pennsylvania  company,  and  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis  Railway 
Company,  with  headquarters  at  Pittsburgh,  in  which  position  he  remained  until 
he  came  to  Chicago,  February  i,  1881,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  George 
Willard,  of  whom  a  sketch  is  given  on  another  page.  Willard  and  Driggs,  in 
addition  to  a  general  legal  business,  are  the  solicitors  for  several  railway  and 
other  corporations. 

Mr.  Driggs  is  a  firm  republican  in  politics,  entertains  liberal  religious  views, 
and  is  a  Knight  Templar  in  the  masonic  order. 

In  1872  he  married  Miss  Helen  Griffmg,  a  native  of  Ohio;  they  have  two  chil- 
dren, a  son  and  a  daughter. 

JOHN   CUTHBERTSON. 

JOHN  CUTHBERTSON  was  born  February  16,  1829,  at  Liverpool,  England. 
J  His  parents  were  Jonathan  and  Winfred  (Stanton)  Cuthbertson,  his  father 
being  of  English  origin,  and  mother  descending  from  wealthy  farmers  of  Ireland. 
His  father,  when  a  boy,  ran  away  from  home  and  joined  a  merchant  ship  as  cabin 
boy,  and  followed  a  seafaring  life  for  a  number  of  years,  attaining  different  posi- 
tions of  rank,  and  encountering  many  dangerous  voyages.  He  held  the  position 
of  mate  on  the  schooner  Albion,  which,  when  at  sea  in  St.  George's  channel 
between  the  Irish  and  Welsh  coasts,  in  the  summer  of  1814,  was  boarded  by  the 
American  privateer,  Princess,  who  took  the  greater  portion  of  the  cargo,  and 
made  prisoners  of  the  crew,  and  then  set  fire  to  the  ship,  and  carried  the  crew  to 
Boston  bay,  where  they  were  kept  until  the  close  of  the  war  of  1812,  when  he 
returned  to  England,  and  soon  after,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  was  given  com- 
mand of  a  vessel  (of  which  the  late  Joseph  Cuthbertson  of  Workington,  grand- 
father of  our  subject,  was  the  sole  owner),  and  for  a  long  time  was  engaged  in 
traffic  between  Demerara  and  Liverpool.  The  ancestors  of  Mr.  Cutbertson  have 
held  prominent  positions  under  the  English  government,  and  some  were  seafar- 
ing men  of  wealth  and  good  standing. 

When  John  was  five  years  old  his  mother,  by  reason  of  ill  health,  removed  to 
Westport,  her  native  town  in  Ireland.  Here  John  resided  until  1853,  when  he  left 
forChicago.  He  received  his  early  education  at  Westport,  and  afterward  studied  at 
the  academy  of  the  Christian  Brothers,  under  celebrated  Latin  and  Greek  tutors, 
and  here  began  his  study  for  his  profession.  After  finishing  his  education,  Mr. 
Cuthbertson,  in  the  summer  of  1848,  went  on  a  visit  to  his  grandfather  to  Work- 
ington, England,  and  thence  to  Liverpool,  his  native  town;  here  he  entered  the 
employ  of  a  Mr.  Barry  (an  old  friend  of  his  father's,  and  a  wealthy  ship  owner), 
who  sent  him  aboard  the  ship  John  Bolton  to  Quebec,  to  look  after  the  cargo. 
The  ship  loaded  square  timber  at  Quebec,  for  Liverpool,  and  on  September  i, 


224  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

1848,  proceeded  down  the  gulf  of  St.  Lawrence.  When  they  had  reached  a  point 
thirty-five  miles  southeast  of  the  island  of  St.  Paul,  she  fell  in  with  a  terrific 
gale,  became  waterlogged  and  unmanageable,  and  was  abandoned.  The  crew 
were  picked  up  by  the  bark  Sarah  Ann,  and  taken  to  Fleetwood,  near  the  city 
of  Lancaster,  England.  After  arriving  home  Mr.  Cuthbertson  went  to  live  with 
his  father,  who  had  retired  from  the  sea  and  was  engaged  as  a  ship  broker,  and 
in  emigration  business.  Here  he  made  several  trips  with  emigrants,  and  secured 
cargoes  for  home. 

In  the  spring  of  1853  Mr.  Cuthbertson  left  England  for  Chicago,  where  he 
remained  for  some  time  before  engaging  in  any  enterprise,  visiting  his  friends, 
etc.,  until  the  spring  of  1855,  when  he  recommenced  the  study  of  law  with  John 
Mason,  a  celebrated  criminal  lawyer  of  Chicago,  and  after  a  creditable  examina- 
tion, was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  at  Ottawa,  October  12,  1857.  He  imme- 
diately formed  a  partnership  with  his  preceptor,  which  continued  for  a  period  of 
two  years,  and  between  them  a  warm  friendship  always  existed  to  the  time  of 
the  death  of  Mr.  Mason,  in  1879. 

In  1862  he  was  elected  justice  of  the  peace,  and  served  the  full  term  of  four 
years,  to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public.  In  politics  Mr.  Cuthbertson  is  a  democrat, 
in  religion  a  Roman  Catholic.  He  married  a  lady  of  Chicago,  and  has  a  family 
of  four  sons  and  two  daughters.  He  is  a  man  of  varied  attainments  and  refined 
in  his  tastes  and  habits,  and  withal  is  an  excellent  performer  on  the  piano  and 
violin,  with  which  he  delights  in  amusing  the  home  circles.  The  accumulated 
wealth  of  his  grandfather  and  uncles  is  soon  to  be  handed  down  to  him  and 
his  father,  who  resides  with  him,  and  Mr.  Cuthbertson  expects  soon  to  retire  from 
the  active  duties  of  the  Chicago  bar,  of  which  he  has  for  years  been  an  honored 
member. 

EDGAR   L.  JAYNE. 

EDGAR  L.  JAYNE  is  one  of  the  most  promising  young  lawyers  of  the  Chi- 
cago bar.  By  strict  attention  to  business  and  true  fidelity  to  his  clients,  he 
has  already  attained  high  rank  in  his  profession  for  a  man  of  his  age.  He  is  a 
well  read  lawyer,  a  good  advocate,  and  excels  in  the  trial  of  cases.  He  is  a  care- 
ful counselor,  and  his  foresight  is  so  keen  that  he  seldom  fails  in  a  case  to  which 
he  has  given  his  mature  deliberation.  Being  a  good  judge  of  human  nature,  and 
naturally  reticent,  he  has  a  faculty  of  discovering  the  hand  of  his  opponent  with- 
out showing  his  own.  He  never  goes  to  trial  without  thorough  preparation,  and 
the  zeal  and  energy  with  which  he  presents  and  advocates  his  client's  cause  usu- 
ally crowns  his  efforts  with  success.  He  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was 
born  April  7,  1848,  at  Meshoppen,  Wyoming  county.  He  prepared  for  college  at 
Wyoming  Seminary,  Kingston,  Pennsylvania,  and  entered  Cornell  University  in 
1869.  In  1872  he  left  Cornell  University  and  entered  the  University  of  Chicago, 
where  he  acted  in  the  double  capacity  of  tutor  and  student,  and  graduated  in  1873. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  22"J 

The  following  fall  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law,  from  which  he  graduated 
in  1875.  Being  admitted  to  the  bar  he  at  once  began  practice,  and  continued 
alone  until  1877,  when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  DeWolf  and  Young,  under 
the  name  and  style  of  Jayne,  DeWolf  and  Young,  which  was  dissolved  in  1879, 
since  which  time  he  has  been  practicing  by  himself,  with  excellent  success.  Mr. 
Jayne,  though  independent  of  party  influence,  is  a  staunch  republican,  and  takes  a 
great  interest  in  local  affairs,  but  never  to  the  injury  or  neglect  of  his  professional 
duties.  He  is  secretary  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association,  having  been  elected  in 
January  1882.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  fine  presence,  being  of  medium  height,  with 
a  fine  intellectual  forehead  and  keen  black  eye.  He  is  affable,  refined  and 
polished,  and  has  a  happy  faculty  of  making  friends.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  strict 
integrity,  and  has  the  confidence  of  the  courts  before  whom  he  practices,  the  good 
will  of  his  brethren  at  the  bar,  and  the  respect  and  admiration  of  his  clients, 
whose  interests  he  is  ever  ready  to  espouse  with  a  becoming  enthusiasm  and  zeal. 


FREDERICK    A.    HERRING. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  was  born  in  the  city  of  Elberfeld,  Prussia, 
August  5,  1845,  and  is  the  son  of  Dr.  Frederick  Herring,  now  a  prominent 
physician  of  Goshen,  Indiana,  and  Amelia  (Wolff)  Herring.  His  maternal  grand- 
father was  John  Wolff,  an  architect  of  considerable  note,  of  Elberfeld,  who  drew 
the  plans  of  several  important  buildings  at  that  city.  Adolf  Schultz,  a  noted 
German  poet,  scholar  and  patriot,  who  died  in  1860,  married  a  sister  of  our  sub- 
ject's mother.  His  literary  works  and  poems  were  supposed  by  the  government 
officers  to  be  incendiary,  and  consequently  were  suppressed  in  1848.  The  German 
literary  societies  of  the  Rhine  valley  erected  a  monument  to  his  memory  over  his 
grave  at  Elberfeld,  and  extended  the  freedom  of  the  German  universities  to  his 
children. 

Mr.  Herring  graduated  in  1863  in  the  classical  course  of  Hillsdale  College, 
Michigan.  He  then  taught  school  four  years,  two  years  as  principal  of  Cassopo- 
lis  union  school,  and  two  years  as  principal  of  Mt.  Clemens  union  schools,  Michi- 
gan. During  and  before  this  time  he  studied  law,  and  spent  his  vacations  in 
the  law  office  of  Baker  and  Mitchell,  of  Goshen,  Indiana,  with  whom  he  continued 
to  study  until  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  September  1871.  He  removed  to 
Chicago  May  i,  1872,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  on  examination 
before  the  supreme  court  in  September  of  that  year.  He  then  formed  a  copart- 
nership with  Consider  H.  Willett,  which  continued  until  1879,  since  which  time 
Mr.  Herring  has  been  in  business  by  himself. 

In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Herring  is  a  staunch  republican.  He  has  been  an 
earnest  and  zealous  worker  in  politics,  and  has  taken  part  in  all  political  cam- 
paigns since  1868.  He  took  the  stump  for  Gen.  Grant  in  Indiana  and  Michi- 
gan, and  during  the  campaigns  since  then  has  stumped  Illinois  and  Wisconsin, 
24 


228  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

speaking  in  both  the  German  and  English  languages,  under  the  direction  of  the 
state  central  committee,  but  has  never  sought  or  accepted  political  preferment 
for  himself,  finding  in  his  professional  work  ample  scope  for  the  gratification  of 
his  highest  ambitions. 

Mr.  Herring  is  a  very  thorough  lawyer  and  a  safe  counsel.  He  is  an  earnest, 
logical  speaker  and  a  good  advocate,  and  especially  valuable  as  a  campaign 
speaker,  being  very  fluent  in  German  as  well  as  English.  He  is  a  gentleman  of 
integrity,  stands  well  at  the  bar,  and  is  an  upright,  honorable  citizen. 

He  was  married  in  Chicago  in  1875,  to  Miss  Kate  Lonergan,  of  Chicago. 


ARTHUR  G.  OTIS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  Milo,  Michigan,  November  22,  1849, 
and  is  the  son  of  Hon.  Isaac  Otis,  ex-judge  of  the  probate  court  of  Barry 
county,  Michigan,  an  old  settler  and  a  very  extensive  land  owner.  The  mother 
of  our  subject  was  Caroline  A.  (Curtis)  Otis.  Both  parents  were  Quakers  and 
natives  of  the  state  of  New  York,  and  of  English  descent.  Arthur  G.  commenced 
his  education  in  the  public  schools,  and  then  fitted  for  college.  He  entered  the 
Michigan  University  in  the  literary  department,  and  graduated  from  that  institu- 
tion in  1871;  studied  law  with  Hon.  D.  Darwin  Hughes,  of  Grand  Rapids,  Michi- 
gan, one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  of  that  state;  removed  to  Chicago  in  1875  and 
entered  at  once  into  a  successful  practice  of  the  law.  Mr.  Otis  is  a  well  read 
lawyer,  a  dilligent  student,  and  an  expert  in  office  business.  He  is  especially 
efficient  in  all  branches  of  real  estate  matters,  and  is  a  safe  and  reliable  legal 
counselor.  He  is  a  fluent  speaker  and  a  good  trial  lawyer.  He  is  a  gentleman 
of  strict  integrity  and  has  the  respect  of  all  who  know  him.  Courteous,  cultured 
and  refined,  he  is  at  the  same  time  a  social,  genial  companion,  and  has  a  large 
circle  of  friends. 


FRANKLIN    P.  SIMONS. 

THE  circumstances  under  which  a  man  is  born  and  reared,  do  not  to  any 
great  extent,  shape  the  man's  future.  After  all  that  may  be  done  or  left 
undone,  the  man  must,  essentially,  formulate  and  give  shape  to  his  character. 
Ability  or  education  derived  from  experience  cannot  be  purchased  with,  or  bar- 
tered for,  money.  What  a  man  becomes,  is  but  the  outcome  of  his  inborn  princi- 
ples, an  evolution  of  himself  by  himself.  To  form  an  estimate  of  a  man,  it  is 
necessary  to  know  what  he  has  accomplished,  and  how  he  has  accomplished  it. 
Franklin  P.  Simons,  the  subject  of  this  biography,  was  born  in  New  York  city, 
September  18,  1853.  He  was  left  motherless  at  the  age  of  two  years,  and  an 
orphan  at  the  age  of  seven  years,  and  at  this  early  age  was  left  to  depend  upon 
his  own  resources  to  make  his  way  in  the  world.  His  parents  were  Americans. 


THE   BENCH  AJVD   BAR   Of   CHICAGO.  22g 

His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Henrietta  Height,  of  an  old  family  in  the  East ; 
his  father  was  Nelson  P.  Simons,  at  one  time  cashier  of  the  Mercantile  Bank  in 
New  York,  who  will  be  remembered  by  the  older  settlers  in  Chicago,  as  the  one 
who  opened  and  managed  the  first  amphitheater  in  Chicago,  which  was  located 
on  or  near  the  site  of  the  court  house,  and  was  also  engaged  in  other  enterprises 
there.  He  lost  his  health  and  property,  and  died  of  cholera  in  1860,  and  his 
remains  were  taken  to  New  York,  in  sole  charge  of  Franklin,  who  arrived  there 
fatherless,  motherless  and  penniless.  He  was  a  courageous  boy,  and  faced  the 
situation  with  bravery,  resolution  and  fortitude,  and  earned  his  living  by  doing 
whatever  his  willing  heart  and  hands  could  find  to  do,  selling  papers,  blacking 
boots,  or  anything  honorable,  and  attending  school  when  opportunity  offered. 
When  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  went  to  Aurora,  Cayuga  county,  New  York,  the 
home  of  those  generous  and  beneficent  men,  E.  B.  Morgan  and  Henry  Wells,  the 
latter  the  founder  of  Wells,  Fargo  and  Company's  Express,  and  of  Wells  Female 
College,  located  there.  These  men,  discovering  his  worth,  took  him  by  the  hand 
kindly,  and  encouraged  and  aided  him  in  getting  an  education,  and  pursuing 
whatever  profession  or  vocation  he  might  choose  to  follow  in  life.  At  the  age  of 
eighteen,  he  commenced  the  study  of  law,  and  continued  it  there  for  two  years, 
as  he  could  get  time  from  other  duties.  In  May,  1872,  he  removed  to  Chicago, 
completed  his  law  studies,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1874,  and  commenced 
his  career  as  a  lawyer,  without  a  law  book,  a  client,  or  a  dollar  in  money,  and 
eight  dollars  in  debt  for  the  desk  on  which  he  wrote.  Commencing  the  practice 
of  law  in  this  great  city,  in  the  midst  of  a  sea  of  matured  legal  knowledge,  and 
among  much  older  and  experienced  men,  with  the  expectation  of  success,  would 
be  to  many  young  men  a  discouraging  and  almost  hopeless  undertaking ;  but  to 
him  it  was  not  a  new  experience,  and  he  commenced  the  struggle  for  success  in 
his  profession,  the  same  as  he  commenced  that  for  a  livelihood  when  a  boy  of 
seven  years  of  age,  with  high  resolves  and  purposes,  and  the  determination  and 
courage  to  consummate  them.  He  has  succeeded  well  thus  far,  which  fact  pre- 
supposes the  possession  on  his  part,  of  native  ability,  tact,  energy  and  persever- 
ance, which  have  enabled  him  to  meet,  and  master  every  emergency.  The  world 
is  too  full  of  well  directed  intellectual  energy  to  admit  of  the  thought  that  one, 
no  matter  how  naturally  brilliant,  can  float  into  permanent  success  without 
effort,  vigilance,  patient  industry  and  energetic  effort  to  which  the  success  of  Mr. 
Simons  so  far  is  attributable.  He  has  attained  to  a  high  standing  at  this  bar, 
and  ranks  among  the  first  of  the  younger  members  of  the  profession  here.  As  a 
speaker  and  advocate  on  the  forum  or  before  a  jury,  he  is  fluent,  graceful,  elo- 
quent and  effective. 

While  he  is  a  general  practitioner,  he  has  developed  a  particular  ability  in 
criminal  practice.  In  the  case  of  Gary,  indicted  for  murder  in  1878,  Mr  Simons 
(on  the  advice  and  recommendation  of  a  distinguished  criminal  lawyer,  who  had 
been  retained  to  defend,  and  at  a  late  day  was  compelled  to  withdraw  from  the 
case)  undertook  the  defense,  though  he  had  but  a  short  time  in  which  to  prepare, 


330  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  this,  his  first  trial  of  the  kind,  with  the  press  and  popular  prejudice  against 
him,  and  succeeded  in  securing  a  light  sentence  for  his  client.  He  was  compli- 
mented by  a  great  number  of  the  members  of  the  bar  of  this  city,  for  the  skill, 
ingenuity  and  ability  he  evidenced  in  the  conduct  of  the  case.  In  the  same  year, 
he  successfully  defended  Mark  Gray,  who  attempted  the  assassination  of  Edwin 
Booth,  in  McVicker's  Theater,  and  who  was  sent  to  the  insane  asylum,  and  has 
since  been  released.  Other  cases  could  be  cited,  in  which  he  has  been  successful, 
when  the  best  legal  talent  at  this  bar  was  opposed  to  him.  He  is  a  man  of  integ- 
rity, and  faithful  to  the  interests  of  his  client,  and  is  held  in  high  regard  by  his 
friends. 

JACOB  NEWMAN. 

MR  NEWMAN,  although  a  young  man,  has  already  won  a  high  position  in 
the  profession.  He  is  emphatically  a  self-made  man;  one  of  a  large  family 
of  children,  he  was  born  in  Germany,  November  12,  1851.  Four  years  later  his 
family  removed  to  this  country,  settling  in  Butler  county,  Ohio.  Possessing  a 
precocity  of  intellect,  and  a  thirst  for  knowledge  beyond  his  years,  the  quiet, 
uneventful  life  on  the  farm  presented  for  him  few  opportunities,  and  fewer  attrac- 
tions, and  at  the  early  age  of  nine  years,  we  find  him  starting  out  for  himself. 
Unaided  by  the  advantages  of  wealth  or  its  accessories,  but  with  that  native 
independence  of  spirit  and  indomitable  perseverance  which  have  always  charac- 
terixed  him,  he  went  to  Noblesville,  Indiana,  where  he  remained  some  seven  years. 
In  1867  he  removed  to  Washington,  Pennsylvania,  and  during  the  same  year  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  which  has  ever  since  been  his  home. 

By  his  personal  industry  and  frugality  he  was  enabled,  at  the  age  of  eighteen, 
to  enter  the  University  of  Chicago,  where  he  pursued  a  thorough  course  of  study, 
and  graduated  with  honors  in  1873.  He  then  entered  the  law  office  of  Hon.  James 
R.  Doolittle,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1875.  He  was  fortunate  in 
escaping  the  term  of  probation  which  usually  falls  to  the  lot  of  young  lawyers, 
by  securing  at  once  a  partnership  with  Judge  Graham,  then  of  Chicago,  and 
immediately  commenced  the  active  practice  of  his  profession. 

The  removal  of  Judge  Graham  in  1877,  to  a  western  city,  left  Mr.  Newman 
alone  in  business,  but  with  a  good  clientage,  which  he  was  able  not  only  to 
retain,  but  to  increase.  He  remained  alone  until  1881,  when  he  became  associated 
with  Mr.  Adolph  Moses,  under  the  firm  name  of  Moses  and  Newman. 

Possessed  of  a  clear,  vigorous  intellect,  and  a  metaphysical  turn  of  mind,  one 
secret  of  Mr.  Newman's  success  as  a  lawyer,  is  a  familiarity  with  the  principles 
and  ground  work  of  the  law  as  a  science,  and  quickness  to  discover  the  salient 
points  of  a  case,  and  readiness  in  applying  the  principles  governing  them,  as  dis- 
tinguished from  what  is  commonly  called  a  case  lawyer. 

Mr.  Newman  is  a  Jew  in  religious  belief,  and  is  actively  connected  with  several 
educational  and  charitable  societies  of  that  faith.  In  politics  he  is  a  republi- 


HCCoopar  Jr  4    Co 


Enn  by  EGWJl.atns  4  Sro  N  Y 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  23! 

can.  Brilliant,  sagacious,  and  of  strictest  integrity,  he  maintains  the  honor  and 
dignity  of  his  profession.  He  is  sympathetic  and  warm-hearted,  faithful  as  a 
friend,  generous  to  a  fault,  and  has  attracted  to  himself  a  large  circle  of  friends, 
who  esteem  him  for  his  ability,  manliness  and  genuine  worth. 


GEORGE  A.   MEECH. 

^EORGE  APPLETON  MEECH,  son  of  Appleton  and  Sibyl  (Brewster) 
V_T  Meech,  was  born  in  Norwich,  Connecticut,  January  19,  1824.  His  father 
was  captain  of  a  war  vessel,  a  privateer,  during  the  war  of  1812  and  1814,  and 
afterward  had  command  of  a  vessel  engaged  in  the  East  India  trade;  his  grand- 
father was  Jacob  Meech,  a  captain  in  the  revolutionary  war,  a  prisoner  at  one 
period,  and  afterward  wounded  in  the  battle  of  White  Plains.  His  mother  was  a 
descendant  of  Rev.  Wm.  Brewster,  of  the  Mayflower. 

Our  subject  is  a  graduate  of  Yale  College,  class  '43;  he  taught  one  year  at 
Norwich,  Connecticut,  after  receiving  the  degree  of  A.B.,  reading  law  at  the  same 
time  with  Hon.  Lafayette  S.  Foster,  who  was  afterward  president  of  the  United 
States  senate.  He  went  to  the  South  and  taught  two  or  three  years,  where  he 
also  read  law  with  Mr.  Manning,  of  Demopolis,  Marengo  county,  Alabama,  and 
then  returned  to  New  England.  He  finished  his  legal  studies  with  Hubbard  and 
Watts,  and  Hon.  Robt.  Rantoul,  of  Boston,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  his 
native  state  in  1848.  The  next  year  he  was  appointed  justice  of  the  peace,  and  in 
1853  was  elected  judge  of  the  probate  court  in  the  Norwich  district,  Connecti- 
cut, and  in  the  autumn  of  the  same  year  resigned  that  office  and  removed  to  the 
West,  hoping  thereby  to  improve  his  wife's  health.  He  settled  in  Chicago,  and 
soon  had  a  good  practice,  finding  here  a  wide  field  for  the  exercise  of  his  legal  tal- 
ents, and  the  exhibition  of  his  excellent  drill  received  at  the  East.  In  1862  he 
was  elected  city  attorney,  the  duties  of  which  office  he  discharged  with  ability  and 
to  the  satisfaction  of  the  public.  The  next  two  years  he  served  as  city  assessor  of 
the  south  side,  doing  his  work  with  the  utmost  faithfulness.  From  1864  to  1875 
he  gave  his  whole  time  to  his  profession,  and  had  a  very  lucrative  practice.  For  a 
long  time  he  managed  the  celebrated  Commodore  Bigelow  estate,  a  very  import- 
ant trust,  in  which  he  displayed  great  ability  and  the  highest  degree  of  integrity. 

In  the  spring  of  1875  Mr.  Meech  was  selected  by  the  judges  as  one  of  the  jus- 
tices of  the  south  side,  and  ,at  the  nomination  of  justices  in  the  spring  of  1879,  he 
presented  a  monster  petition  for  the  consideration  of  the  appointing  powers.  It 
was  signed  by  all  the  bankers  and  business  men,  and  embodied  the  signatures  of 
every  bank  president  in  Chicago.  The  petition  of  the  bankers  was  as  follows: 

"The  undersigned  bankers  of  this  city  respectfully  request  of  your  honorable 
body  the  nomination  of  George  A.  Meech  for  reappointment  to  the  office  of  justice 
of  the  peace  of  Cook  county,  for  the  public  known  reasons,  that  he  has  for  four 
years  filled  that  office  with  intelligence,  and  the  dignity  becoming  a  court  of 
justice." 


232  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Similar  petitions  were  presented  by  the  underwriters  and  other  business  men. 

Mr.  Meech  received  the  unanimous  vote  of  the  judges.  His  office  is  located 
at  151  South  Clark  street,  and  is  a  model  one  in  every  respect.  It  is  free  from  that 
class  of  vagrants  who  are  usually  found  around  a  justice  office,  and  in  every 
respect  presents  a  quiet  and  dignified  appearance,  being  as  orderly  as  the  highest 
courts  of  the  city.  Mr.  Meech  is  too  neat  in  his  tastes,  too  refined  in  his  manners, 
too  polished  in  mind  to  run  a  slip  shod  police  court.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  well  read 
and  clear  headed,  and  is  a  judge  thorough  in  his  investigations  of  the  law,  care- 
ful and  deliberate  in  his  opinions  and  honest  in  his  decisions. 

Says  a  Chicago  journalist:  "  As  a  citizen  he  is  loyal  and  true,  and  has  been  espe- 
cially faithful  to  the  community  in  which  he  lives.  As  a  man  he  possesses  most 
admirable  qualities,  warm  and  sympathetic  in  his  friendships,  courteous,  affable, 
social  and  genial,  he  possesses  that  plain  style  and  matter-of-fact  directness  of 
purpose,  and  that  modest  and  unobtrusive  manner,  to  be  expected  in  one  who, 
like  himself,  has  an  utter  contempt  for  all  shams  and  mere  pretense." 

Mr.  Meech  is  classed  among  the  democrats,  and  during  the  civil  war  was  pro- 
nounced as  a  war  democrat;  is  a  Royal  Arch  Mason  and  Knight  Templar,  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Apollo  Commandery,  No.  i,  and  in  religious  belief  is  an  Episcopalian. 

He  is  a  polished  and  high  toned  gentleman.  Mr.  Meech  has  a  third  wife;  he 
first  married  in  1850  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Daniel  Dorchester,  of  Norwich,  Connec- 
ticut, who  died  in  1859.  In  1861  he  married  a  daughter  of  Hon.  Milo  Hunt,  of 
Chenango  county,  New  York,  she  dying  in  1878,  and  in  1880  he  married  a  daugh- 
ter of  Capt.  William  Story,  of  Norwich,  Connecticut,  by  whom  he  has  his  only 
living  child,  a  son. 

The  highest  compliment  that  can  be  paid  to  Mr.  Meech  is  the  hearty  endorse- 
ment which  he  has  received  at  the  hands  of  the  bench,  and  by  our  better  class  of 
citizens  generally.  He  has  won  and  retains  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the 
community,  by  his  rectitude  of  purpose,  and  the  faithfulness  and  honesty  with 
which  he  has  performed  his  duties  as  a  public  functionary. 


GEN.   HAMILTON   N.   ELDRIDGE. 

A  MONG  the  lawyers  in  Chicago  who  attained  an  honorable  and  noteworthy 
t\-  prominence  was  Gen.  Hamilton  N.  Eldridge.  He  was  born  in  South  Wil- 
liamstown,  Berkshire  county,  Massachusetts,  and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  which 
occurred  November  27,  1882,  was  fifty-one  years  of  age.  He  was  the  oldest 
son  of  Col.  Reuben  Eldridge,  who  was  colonel  of  a  regiment  in  the  Mexican 
war,  a  man  of  generous  instinct  and  beneficent  character,  and  well  known  in  that 
part  of  Massachnsetts.  Hamilton  fitted  for  college  in  East  Hampton,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  entered  Williams  College  in  1852,  and  graduated  four  years  later, 
taking  the  first  prize  of  his  class  for  elocution,  same  class  with  the  late  President 
Garfield.  He  studied  law  with  his  cousins,  the  late  Judge  Ira  Harris,  and  his 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  233 

brother  Hamilton  Harris,  in  Albany,  New  York,  and  graduated  at  the  law  school 
in  the  same  place  in  1857,  and  removed  to  Chicago  the  same  year;  was  for  a  time 
in  the  office  of  Baker  and  Hyatt,  after  which  he  began  practice  for  himself.  In 
1858  he  formed  a  partnership  with.F.  W.  Tourtellotte,  under  the  style  of  Eldridge 
and  Tourtellotte,  which  continued  until  his  death. 

In  1862  he  entered  the  service  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  izyth  regiment  111. 
Inf.,  and  during  the  same  year  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel.  At  the  bat- 
tle of  Arkansas  Post  he  and  his  regiment  were  first  inside  the  confederate  works, 
and  at  the  battle  before  Vicksburg  in  1863  he  distinguished  himself  by  a  valorous 
and  brave  act,  for  which  he  was  made  brigadier-general;  after  all  the  color-guard 
had  been  shot  down  he  took  the  colors  in  his  own  hands  and  gallantly  bore  them 
himself,  and  led  his  regiment  over  the  fortifications  of  the  enemy.  After  his 
retirement  from  the  army,  he  devoted  himself  closely  to  his  profession,  and  was 
engaged  in  some  of  the  most  important  and  noteworthy  cases  before  the  higher 
courts  in  the  West.  He  was  a  man  of  indefatigable  industry,  faithful  to  the  inter- 
ests of  his  clients,  and  successful  in  his  practice.  He  was  of  medium  height,  erect 
in  stature,  courteous  and  affable  in  manner,  an  effective  and  eloquent  speaker, 
and  a  gentleman  esteemed  by  all  who  knew  him. 


EUGENE    B.    PAYNE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  April  15,  1835,  in  the  village  of  Seneca 
Falls,  New  York.  In  the  spring  of  1837  his  father  and  mother  moved  to 
Lake  county,  Illinois,  and  settled  on  a  farm,  where  they  now  reside  (1883).  The 
paternal  grandfather  of  our  subject,  Elisha  Payne,  moved  from  the  state  of  Con- 
necticut to  Hamilton,  New  York,  which  place  he  founded,  and  filled  various 
offices  during  his  life,  among  them  being  that  of  circuit  judge.  The  wife  of 
Elisha  Payne,  and  the  grandmother  of  Eugene,  was  Esther  Douglas,  a  lineal 
descendant  of  the  Douglases  of  Scotland,  her  eldest  son  now  living  being  Thomas 
H.  Payne,  of  Lake  county,  Illinois,  the  father  of  Eugene,  and  the  second  being 
Hon.  Henry  B.  Payne,  of  Cleveland,  Ohio,  who  was  a  member  of  the  electoral 
commission  of  1876.  Young  Payne  was  raised  upon  his  father's  farm  in  Lake 
county,  receiving  a  good  common  school  and  academic  education.  At  the  age  of 
twenty  he  commenced  teaching  school  through  the  winters  and  reading  law 
during  the  summer  months.  In  the  spring  of  1859  he  entered  the  law  depart- 
ment of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  July,  1860,  and 
was  admitted  to  practice  at  the  same  time  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois. 

In  October,  1860,  he  hung  out  his  sign  at  Waukegan,  Lake  county,  Illinois, 
and  practiced  law  until  the  firing  upon  Fort  Sumter,  when,  his  patriotism  being 
aroused,  he  speedily  raised  a  company  of  no  men  and  started  for  Springfield, 
April  16,  1861,  where  he  reported  and  was  assigned  to  duty.  After  the  three 
months'  term  he  reenlisted  his  company  as  Co.  C,  in  the  historic  37th  regiment 


234  T!fE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

111.  Vol.  Inf.,  or  Board  of  Trade  Rifles,  as  they  were  called,  for  three  years  or 
during  the  war.  In  the  37th  regiment  Capt.  Payne  was  soon  commissioned 
major,  then  lieutenant-colonel  commanding  regiment,  and  was  afterward  bre- 
vetted  by  the  secretary  of  war  as  full  colonel,  and  then  brigadier-general,  for 
brave  and  meritorious  services  at  the  battles  of  Pea  Ridge,  Prairie  Grove,  Vicks- 
burg  and  others.  His  health  giving  way,  he  resigned  and  came  home  in 
October,  1864,  and  the  day  after  his  arrival  was  nominated  by  the  republican 
convention  of  Lake  county  for  representative  in  the  Illinois  general  assembly, 
and  was  elected  by  the  largest  majority  ever  received  by  any  representative  from 
Lake  county.  He  served  with  such  fidelity  and  zeal  during  the  regular  and 
special  sessions  of  1865-6  that  he  was  reelected  in  1867,  and  served  until  1869. 
During  the  sessions  of  the  assembly  of  1867  and  1868  Col.  Payne  was  chairman 
of  the  important  committee  on  finance,  and  was  recognized  as  a  leader  in  the 
house.  Finding  that  politics  seriously  interfered  with  his  law  practice,  Col. 
Payne  declined  all  proffers  of  political  honors,  and  in  1868  resumed  the  practice 
of  law  in  Chicago.  He  removed  to  South  Evanston,  his  present  home,  in  1874. 
He  is  now,  and  has  been  since  1874,  the  attorney  for  the  corporation  of  the 
village  of  South  Evanston. 


JOSEPH  O.  GLOVER. 

AMONG  the  distinguished  lawyers  who  were  early  at  the  Illinois  bar,  few  have 
been  more  closely  identified  with  its  system  of  jurisprudence,  or  contributed 
more  to  determine  the  character  and  present  position  of  the  state  than  Joseph  O. 
Glover.  A  man  of  strong  intellect,  with  a  nice  sense  of  right  and  justice,  and 
with  characteristic  virtues  in  professional  and  private  life,  whatever  he  did  was 
strongly  affected  by  these  qualities. 

Mr.  Glover  was  born  in  Cayuga  county,  New  York,  April  13,  1810.  His  father 
was  Hon.  James  Glover,  of  New  York,  for  many  years  judge  of  the  Chenango 
county  court  of  that  state,  and  was  appointed  by  Gov.  DeWitt  Clinton  as  one  of 
the  three  commissioners  who  located  and  had  charge  of  the  construction  of  the 
Auburn  penitentiary.  Hon.  George  Rathbun,  of  Auburn,  who  was  member  of 
congress  from  the  Cayuga  district  for  several  terms,  was  a  brother-in-law  of  our 
subject. 

Mr.  Glover  was  educated  at  the  high  school  in  Aurora,  New  York,  and  after- 
ward studied  law  fora  short  time  with  his  brother,  Justus  S.  Glover,  a  prominent 
lawyer  in  Penn  Yan.  Mr.  Glover  came  west  in  1835,  without  having  decided 
upon  the  law  as  his  profession,  but  having  been  obliged,  on  account  of  the  illness 
of  his  father's  attorney,  to  attend  personally  to  a  case  in  the  land  office  at  Ga- 
lena, involving  a  part  of  his  father's  estate,  met  with  such  success  that  he  was 
immediately  employed  by  strangers,  in  two  similar  cases.  Thus  he  seems  to 
have  been  led  to  take  up  the  study  and  practice  of  law,  and  was  afterward 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  237 

admitted  to  the  bar,  having  completed  the  necessary  period  of  study  in  the  office 
of  T.  Lyle  Dickey,  now  of  the  supreme  bench  of  Illinois.  He  soon  formed  a 
partnership  with  Hon.  B.  C.  Cook,  which  lasted  over  thirty  years,  with  no  other 
change  than  the  admission  of  Geo.  C.  Campbell  as  a  partner. 

This  firm  was  for  many  years  one  of  the  leading  law  firms  of  northern  Illinois, 
as  is  attested  by  the  reports  of  the  state,  and  it  was  only  dissolved  after  Mr. 
Glover  had  been  appointed  United  States  attorney  for  the  northern  district  of 
Illinois,  Mr.  Cook  general  solicitor  of  the  Chicago  and  North  Western  Railway 
Company,  and  Mr.  Campbell  general  solicitor  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and 
Pacific  Railroad  Company. 

Mr.  Glover  was  evidently  born  to  be  a  lawyer,  and  the  accident  which  deter- 
mined his  professsion  was  a  happy  one.  He  possesses  great  sagacity,  is  a  keen 
observer  and  correct  judge  of  human  nature  and  human  motives,  and  has  seldom 
been  deceived  in  his  estimate  of  men;  he  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  fun- 
damental principles  and  rules  of  law,  and  great  familiarity  with  the  principal  text 
writers  in  the  different  departments.  His  main  reliance,  when  authorities  were 
needed,  was  on  principles,  rather  than  on  adjudged  cases,  trusting  to  himself  to 
apply  the  rule  and  its  reason  to  the  case  in  hand. 

While  a  man  of  strong  convictions,  tenacious  and  hard  to  be  convinced  that 
he  is  wrong,  when  once  he  has  carefully  concluded  he  is  right,  he  is  of  a  most 
genial  disposition,  and  has,  to  an  uncommon  degree,  the  faculty  of  being  not  only 
upon  speaking,  but  friendly  terms  with  almost  every  one  he  meets;  scarcely  any 
one  looks  upon  him  as  a  mere  acquaintance.  His  qualities  were  such  that  he 
naturally  devoted  himself  more  to  litigation  upon  the  law  rather  than  the  chan- 
cery side  of  the  courts,  and  was  always  found  to  be  a  formidable  antagonist,  on 
account  of  the  shrewdness  of  his  examination  of  witnesses,  his  aptitude  in  illus- 
tration, and  his  faculty  of  avoiding  any  antagonism  with  the  sympathies  and 
modes  of  thought  of  those  he  is  addressing. 

Mr.  Glover  married  in  1837  Jeannette  Hart,  whose  sister  afterward  became  the 
wife  of  his  partner,  Mr.  Cook,  their  father  being  Judge  Orris  Hart,  of  Oswego, 
New  York,  a  member  of  the  convention  which  framed  the  constitution  of  that 
state,  and  also  one  of  the  first  superintendents  of  the  Erie  canal.  Their  children 
were  three,  Julia,  the  wife  of  Geo.  C.  Campbell,  one  of  the  leading  members  of 
the  Chicago  bar;  Henry  T.,  a  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  and  Otis  R.,  a  broker 
in  New  York  city. 

In  politics  Mr.  Glover  was  formerly  a  democrat,  and  was  the  associate  of 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  and  other  leading  statesmen  in  the  West.  But  when  that 
party  repealed  the  Missouri  compromise  and  seemed  to  favor  the  introduction  of 
slavery  into  the  territories,  he  joined  with  others  in  forming  the  republican  party, 
of  which  he  has  ever  since  been  an  earnest  and  active  member.  Few  men  have 
made  more  republican  speeches  in  Illinois,  and  during  the  war  his  eloquence  was 
heard  throughout  the  state,  rallying  men  to  the  support  of  the  flag  and  the  main- 
tenance of  the  Union.  To  him  and  his  contemporaries  belongs  the  credit  of 
25 


238  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

shaping  public  sentiment  before  and  during  the  war,  thereby  being  greatly  instru- 
mental in  its  happy  termination. 

Mr.  Glover,  though  an  ardent  politician  when  there  was  work  to  do,  has  never 
been  an  office  seeker,  but  he  has  held  several  offices.  He  was  a  member  of  the 
legislature  at  an  early  day,  and  exerted  a  strong  influence  in  determining  the 
character  of  the  state.  Although  the  city  of  Ottawa,  where  he  resided  the  greater 
portion  of  his  professional  life,  was  strongly  democratic,  he  was  elected  its  mayor 
by  a  very  large  majority.  In  1868  Mr.  Glover  was  a  presidential  elector.  He  was 
appointed  United  States  attorney  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois,  by  Presi- 
dent Grant,  and  reappointed  at  the  end  of  the  term.  Since  he  has  retired  from 
active  practice  of  law,  he  has  been  a  canal  commissioner  of  the  state,  now  hold- 
ing the  position,  under  a  reappointment,  for  a  second  term,  and  during  the  whole 
period  acting  as  president  of  the  board.  A  prominent  feature  of  Mr.  Glover's 
character  is  his  unwavering  and  never  questioned  integrity  in  every  relation  in  life. 
This  character  well  established  caused  him  to  be  often  selected  for  positions  of 
special  confidence,  of  which  many  wills  and  instruments  of  trust  bear  testimony, 
and  gave  him  a  completeness  as  a  lawyer,  which,  wanting  this,  the  brightest  gifts 
would  have  failed  to  confer. 


JOHN  W.  BYAM. 

ONE  of  the  most  promising  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar  is  John  W.  Byam. 
He  is  a  gentleman  of  great  versatility  of  talents,  and  extraordinary  energy. 
He  is  very  adroit  in  the  trial  and  management  of  his  cases,  and  has  a  power  and 
quickness  of  repartee,  and  an  ability  to  adapt  himself  to  emergencies,  that  are 
singularly  effective  in  his  clients'  interests,  and  destructive  of  the  plans  of  oppos- 
ing counsel.  Whenever  he  presents  a  case  to  the  court,  he  is  prepared  with  the 
authorities  which  support  the  legal  proposition  involved,  and  in  this  particular 
is  always  clear  and  complete  in  his  preparation.  As  an  advocate,  he  has  much 
ability.  He  is  always  sincere,  and  as  a  public  speaker,  is  ready,  fluent  and  logical, 
and  can  tell  an  apt  story  with  incomparable  mimic  effect.  As  he  is  yet  a  compar- 
atively young  man,  he  has  before  him  a  future  of  great  promise.  In  appearance 
he  is  of  medium  height,  of  stout  build,  with  a  light,  clear  complexion,  with  keen, 
blue  eyes,  and  full,  heavy  beard. 

He  is  profuse  in  his  illustrations,  possesses  a  fine  fund  of  anecdote  and  humor, 
and  being  a  good  conversationalist,  is  a  most  intelligent  and  enjoyable  social 
companion.  Our  subject  was  born  in  the  village  of  Warsaw,  Wyoming  county, 
New  York,  September  10,  1837,  and  is  the  son  of  Israel  and  Eudoxia  (Smith) 
Byam.  He  was  educated  at  Genesee  College,  Lima,  New  York,  and  studied  law 
with  George  Davis,  then  of  Geneseo,  Livingston  county,  New  York.  He  then 
entered  the  Albany  Law  School,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1865,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  New  York  bar  the  same  year.  He  at  once  entered  upon  a  suc- 
cessful career  as  a  lawyer,  at  Livonia.  New  York.  His  talents  were  immediately 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  239 

recognized;  his  ability  as  an  advocate  soon  gained  for  him  a  wide  reputation,  and 
his  practice  extended  into  the  adjoining  county  of  Ontario,  and  he  was  consid- 
ered one  of  the  ablest  and  most  learned  lawyers  in  that  part  of  the  state.  He 
served  two  terms  as  school  commissioner  of  Livingston  county,  New  York. 

In  his  practice  his  labors  were  so  excessive,  owing  to  the  great  amount  of 
travel  in  attending  the  different  courts,  that  he  was  finally  persuaded  by  friends 
living  in  Chicago,  to  remove  thither,  where  he  has  been  engaged  in  quite  an 
extensive  practice,  considering  the  time  he  has  resided  there,  having  moved  to 
Chicago,  in  May,  1882.  He  was  married  November  26,  1862,  to  Miss  Maria 
Horsford,  an  estimable  lady,  and  the  daughter  of  Hon.  Jerediah  Horsford,  former 
member  of  congress  from  New  York,  and  father  of  Prof.  Horsford,  of  Cambridge. 


SEARS  AND  FOSTER. 

THIS  firm  is  composed  of  two  young  men  who  give  promise  of  rising  to  a 
prominent  position  at  the  Chicago  bar.  Nathaniel  C.  Sears  is  a  graduate  of 
Amherst  College,  of  the  class  of  1875,  and  is  now  twenty-eight  years  of  age, 
having  been  born  at  Gallipolis,  Ohio,  August  23,  1854.  In  1875  he  went  to 
Europe  and  studied  Roman  and  international  law  in  the  universities  of  Heidel- 
berg and  Berlin.  He  returned  to  America  in  1877,  and  going  to  Chicago  entered 
as  a  student  in  the  office  of  W.  H.  King,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1878. 

Henry  A.  Foster,  the  junior  member  of  the  firm,  was  born  in  Winona,  Minne- 
sota, and  is  a  grandson  of  Henry  A.  Foster,  of  Rome,  New  York,  who  is  an  old 
and  very  noted  lawyer,  and  was  at  one  time  judge  of  the  court  of  appeals  of  New 
York  state.  Mr.  Foster  was  educated  principally,  in  Canada,  at  the  University  of 
Toronto;  leaving  there  in  1876,  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  for  a  time  was 
employed  in  the  county  treasurer's  office.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1879, 
having  studied  law  in  the  offices  of  Gardner  and  Schuyler,  and  of  John  M.  Round- 
tree.  He  held  the  office  of  minute  clerk  of  the  probate  court  for  some  time,  and 
consequently  has  a  very  large  probate  practice.  The  above  partnership  was 
formed  in  Mav  1881. 


FRANCIS   W.  S.   BRAWLEY. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography,  a  native  of  Erie  county,  Pennsylvania,  was 
born  February  12,  1825,  the  son  of  John  Brawley  and  Mary  (Saltsman) 
Brawley.  His  father  was  for  many  years  assistant  judge  of  the  court  of  common 
pleas,  of  Erie  county,  Pennsylvania.  After  acquiring  an  academical  education, 
he  commenced  the  study  of  law  at  Erie,  with  Hon.  John  Galbraith.  In  1845, 
although  he  had  not  reached  his  majority,  he  was  prepared  for  admission  to  the 
bar,  and  he  thereupon  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  remained  two  years;  at  the 
expiration  of  which  time  he  removed  to  Freeport,  Illinois,  and  returned  to  Chi- 


240  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

cago  in  1869.  He  engaged  for  a  time  in  teaching  school,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1847.  He  took  a  prominent  position  in  the  profession,  and  for  years 
was  attorney  for  different  railroad  and  insurance  companies. 

During  his  practice  he  was  associated  with  Hon.  Martin  P.  Sweet,  Hon. 
Thomas  J.  Turner  and  Hon.  J.  M.  Bailey,  all  leading  jurists  in  the  Northwest,  the 
last  named  being  now  a  judge  of  the  appellate  court  of  Illinois.  In  early  life,  he 
was  a  staunch  democrat,  of  the  Stephen  A.  Douglas  school,  and  enjoyed  the  per- 
sonal friendship  and  confidence  of  Senator  Douglas.  For  a  year  or  more,  he 
edited  the  Freeport  "Bulletin."  He  was  twice  elected  county  superintendent  of 
schools  for  Stephenson  county,  and  was  for  a  long  time  a  member  of  the  board 
of  education  of  Freeport,  and  prepared  the  special  charter  under  which  the  pub- 
lic schools  of  Freeport  are  conducted.  He  was  city  attorney  of  Freeport,  and 
postmaster  from  1852  to  1858.  He  is  a  Knight  Templar  in  Masonry,  and  a 
member  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church.  He  was  married  in  1850  to  Mary 
Reitzell,  daughter  of  Philip  Reitzell,  of  Stephenson  county,  Illinois. 


JUDGE    CHARLES    B.    WAITE. 

/~*HARLES  B.  WAITE  was  born  in  Wayne  county,  New  York,  in  the  year 
V_x  1824.  His  father  was  Daniel  D.  Waite,  an  eminent  physician.  His  mother 
was  Lucy  Clapp,  daughter  of  Israel  Clapp,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  Cayuga 
county.  About  the  year  1825,  Dr.  Waite  removed  with  his  family  to  Cayuga 
county,  where  the  subject  of  this  sketch  spent  his  boyhood  and  early  youth.  He 
was  much  of  his  time  in  school  until  twelve  years  of  age,  after  which  his  educa- 
tional advantages  were  limited,  the  large  family  of  his  father  making  it  necessary 
to  devote  to  hard  labor  many  of  those  years  ordinarily  devoted  to  educational 
pursuits.  He  early  formed  the  habit  of  close  application  to  study,  which  he  has 
kept  up  during  his  whole  subsequent  life. 

In  1840  Dr.  Waite,  with  his  family,  removed  to  Illinois,  and  settled  near  Chi- 
cago, a  town,  at  that  time,  of  only  4,500  inhabitants.  He  entered  land  adjoin- 
ing the  present  site  of  the  village  of  Norwood,  at  government  prices,  which 
is  now  worth  $1,000  per  acre.  Two  years  later  he  removed  to  St.  Charles, 
Illinois,  where  he  resided  many  years,  highly  respected  by  a  large  circle  of 
acquaintances.  He  afterward  resided  in  Chicago.  At  the  age  of  nineteen  young 
Waite  studied  Greek  and  Latin  at  Joliet,  and  commenced  his  law  studies  with 
William  E.  Little  of  that  place.  In  1844  he  entered  Knox  College  at  Galesburg. 
Although  he  spent  but  one  year  in  that  institution,  President  Blanchard  and  the 
faculty,  some  ten  years  afterward,  voluntarily  conferred  upon  him  the  degree  of 
A.M.  In  1845  he  went  to  Rock  Island,  where  he  continued  his  law  studies, 
teaching  classes  and  evening  schools  for  support. 

In  1846  he  published  an  anti-slavery  newspaper.  His  mind  had  been  early 
imbued  with  the  principles  of  universal  liberty  and  an  intense  hatred  of  American 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  24! 

slavery.  His  paper,  the  "  Liberty  Banner,"  was  published  at  Rock  Island.  At 
that  time  there  was  but  a  handful  of  anti-slavery  .voters  in  the  whole  county. 
The  enterprise  was  a  financial  failure,  but  the  spirit  that  prompted  it  remained, 
and  was  manifest  in  the  many  hard  blows  given  during  the  memorable  political 
struggles  which  followed. 

In  1847  Mr.  Waite  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  soon  after  entered  into  a  prac- 
tice which  was  large  and  lucrative.  Shortly  afterward  the  law  firm  of  Brackett 
and  Waite  was  formed,  which,  with  some  interruptions,  continued  for  more  than 
twenty  years.  While  in  Rock  Island,  he  acquired  the  reputation  of  being  one  of 
the  most  reliable  real  estate  lawyers  in  the  West. 

In  1848,  though  well  known  as  a  prominent  anti-slavery  man,  he  announced 
himself  as  an  independent  candidate  for  states  attorney  for  that  judicial  district, 
composed  of  the  counties  of  Rock  Island,  Henry,  Lee,  Ogle,  Whiteside  and  Car- 
roll. To  defeat  him,  the  whig  and  democratic  parties  united.  Even  then  Waite 
carried  Henry  county  by  a  large  majority,  and  Lee  by  a  hundred  votes. 

In  1853  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  in  a  short  time  was  recognized  as  one  of 
the  most  successful  lawyers  in  the  city.  In  the  case  of  Taylor  vs.  Coffing,  which 
had  been  argued  by  six  or  eight  of  the  best  lawyers  of  the  state,  Mr.  Waite,  hav- 
ing expressed  a  decided  opinion  that  the  supreme  court  had  erred  in  deciding 
the  case,  was  employed  by  Col.  E.  D.  Taylor,  of  Chicago,  to  make  an  argument 
on  the  question  involved.  He  spent  nearly  a  month  in  the  Law  Institute  library 
preparing  his  argument.  A  rehearing  in  the  meantime  having  been  granted  by 
the  supreme  court,  the  case  was  again  argued  and  a  decision  which  had  been 
twice  rendered  and  published  was  proven  to  be  erroneous.  This  was  a  result 
which  has  seldom  been  achieved. 

In  the  spring  of  1854  he  was  married  to  Miss  Catharine  Van  Valkenburg,  of 
Iowa,  a  woman  of  great  moral  worth  and  superior  mental  attainments.  For  a 
time  she  was  at  Knox  College,  but  graduated  with  honors  at  Oberlin,  Ohio. 
Mrs.  Waite  is  well  known  as  a  teacher  and  writer,  and  as  a  prominent  advocate 
of  the  social  reforms  of  the  day.  During  her  stay  at  Utah  with  her  husband  she 
wrote  a  work  of  great  merit.  It  is  often  quoted  by  writers  as  being  the  only 
authentic  history  yet  given  to  the  public,  of  that  strange  people.  As  a  friend 
she  is  invaluable;  as  a  wife  and  mother  she  has  few  equals  and  no  superiors. 

In  1862  Mr.  Waite  was  appointed,  by  President  Lincoln,  associate  justice  of 
Utah  territory.  He  was  at  that  time  thirty-eight  years  of  age.  He  removed 
with  his  family  to  Salt  Lake.  Here  his  nobility  of  character  soon  made  itself 
manifest.  He  could  neither  be  coaxed  nor  intimidated. 

In  the  spring  of  1863,  he  having  prepared  a  bill  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
the  federal  judges  to  execute  the  laws,  the  Mormons  took  alarm,  held  a  large  and 
excited  meeting,  passed  inflammatory  resolutions  and  appointed  a  committee  to 
wait  upon  the  government  judges  requesting  them  to  resign  and  leave  the  terri- 
tory. The  answer  of  Judge  Waite  was  characteristic.  "  To  comply  with  your 
request,"  said  he,  "  would  be  to  admit  either  that  I  had  done  something  wrong  or 


242  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

that  I  was  afraid  to  remain.  I  am  not  conscious  of  either  guilt  or  fear.  I  can- 
not therefore  accede  to  your  request."  This  was  during  the  civil  war.  Presi- 
dent Lincoln  thought  he  could  not  support  the  judges  by  military  force.  Judge 
Waite,  finding  that  the  laws  could  not  be  enforced,  resigned  his  position.  During 
his  stay  in  the  territory  every  means  was  taken  to  intimidate  him,  and  at  one 
time  his  life  was  openly  threatened. 

In  1863  he  visited  the  mining  regions  of  Idaho,  which  had  been  recently 
organized.  The  first  political  canvass  of  the  territory  occurred  soon  afterward 
in  which  Mr.  Waite  took  an  active  part.  His  influence  was  felt  and  seen  in  the 
election  of  Wallace,  the  republican  candidate,  by  a  large  majority. 

In  1864  he  removed  to  Idaho  City  where  he  remained  two  years  and  a  half. 
Here  he  had  an  extensive  practice,  and  a  portion  of  the  time  was  district  attor- 
ney of  Boise  county,  where  nearly  all  the  business  of  the  territory  is  transacted. 

He  opposed  and  firmly  resisted  the  vigilance  committee  which  was  organized 
in  1865-6.  In  doing  so  he  ran  the  risk  of  personal  violence,  his  life  being  fre- 
quently and  openly  threatened. 

Judge  Waite  returned  to  Chicago  in  1866  and  resumed  the  practice  of  his 
profession. 

In  1868  he  was  employed  to  go  to  Washington  and  make  an  argument  before 
the  committee  of  elections  of  the  house  of  representatives  in  the  Utah  contested 
election  case.  His  argument  was  a  masterly  one,  being  a  thorough  and  able 
expos^  of  the  whole  system  of  Mormonism  in  its  relations  to  the  people  and  to 
the  government  of  the  United  States.  • 

About  this  time  he  became  an  advocate  of  woman  suffrage,  then  compara- 
tively in  its  infancy  in  the  Northwest.  At  Chicago,  St.  Louis,  Detroit  and  other 
cities  he  made  addresses  on  the  subject,  which  commanded  respect  and  turned 
people  from  ridicule  to  investigation.  He  also  wrote  for  different  journals  and 
was  recognized  by  the  public  as  the  ablest  advocate  of  woman  suffrage  in  the 
Northwest. 

The  prominent  feature  in  Judge  Waite's  character  is  his  moral  courage  which 
has  borne  him  onward  through  life  until  he  has  gained  the  respect  of  all  who 
know  him.  He  is  a  thorough,  careful  speaker,  a  good  writer,  modest  in  his 
deportment,  warmly  attached  to  his  friends,  and,  all  in  all.  a  most  valuable  mem- 
ber of  society. 

The  winter  of  1872-3  he  spent  in  the  Sandwich  Islands.  While  there  he 
studied  carefully  into  the  manners  and  customs  and  the  social  and  political  con- 
dition and  history  of  the  people.  He  also  visited  the  great  volcano  on  the  island 
of  Hawaii,  accounts  of  which,  with  many  other  matters  of  interest,  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Chicago  "Tribune."  He  hopes  to  spend  much  of  the  remainder  of 
his  life  in  travel  and  study,  devoting  his  time  to  literature  and  philosophy,  and 
paying  particular  attention  to  social  and  political  science,  to  which  subject  he 
has  already  given  much  study  and  reflection. 

During  the  last  five  or  six  years  he  has  spent  much  of  his  time  in  Washington, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  243 

D.  C.,  engaged  in  making  investigations  of  a  literary  character  in  the  library  of 
congress.  One  important  result  has  been  the  publication  of  a  work  entitled  "The 
History  of  the  Christian  Religion  to  the  Year  200."  The  work  was  published 
in  Chicago  in  January,  1881,  and  was  very  favorably  received  by  the  leading 
papers  of  the  city,  and  by  the  press  generally  of  this  country,  and  has  attracted 
much  attention  in  Europe  and  other  countries,  and  has  received  the  highest  com- 
mendations from  European  scholars.  It  is  now  in  the  third  edition.  Judge 
Waite  is  still  engaged  in  investigations  of  a  similar  character  the  result  of  which 
he  is  publishing  in  the  form  of  a  quarterly  entitled  the  "  Record." 


JOHN    GIBBONS. 

JOHN  GIBBONS  was  born  March  18,  1848,  in  Ireland.  His  parents  were 
John  and  Cecelia  (Carr)  Gibbons.  He  immigrated  to  the  United  States  in 
1866.  He  received  his  scholastic  training  at  a  private  academy  in  Londonderry, 
at  Broad  Street  Academy  in  Philadelphia,  and  Notre  Dame  University,  Indiana. 
Thoughtful  and  apt  as  a  pupil,  he  made  good  use  of  the  keys  of  learning,  which 
are  all  that  the  schools  can  give,  and  his  alma  mater  at  Notre  Dame,  in  1877,  made 
him,  by  honorary  degree,  a  master  of  arts.  Reading  law  in  the  office  of  William 
H.  Martin,  of  Philadelphia,  he  turned  to  the  courts  as  the  proper  place  to  con- 
tinue and  perfect  himself  in  that  study.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1870,  and 
every  hour  that  he  has  been  a  lawyer,  he  has  been  a  student.  He  has  been  at 
once  practitioner  and  pupil.  The  fact  deserves  recognition,  as  the  method  deserves 
praise.  Seeing  his  capacity  and  his  promise,  his  new  legal  friends  at  Keokuk, 
with  that  esprit  i/e  corps  which  makes  the  law  the  most  magnanimous  and  admi- 
rable of  professions,  solicited  and  obtained  for  him,  shortly  after  his  coming  to 
Keokuk,  the  appointment  of  assistant  prosecuting  attorney.  He  held  the  place 
until  he  resigned  it,  nearly  five  years  later.  From  1873  to  1876  he  was  also 
city  attorney,  kept  in  the  place  by  the  vote  of  both  republicans  and  democrats. 
Some  of  the  most  noticeable  and  distinguishing  work  Mr.  Gibbons  ever  did,  was 
in  this  capacity.  The  city  was  a  debtor,  at  once  compromising  and  defendant. 
Many  nice  and  intricate  points  under  the  law  of  contract  and  debt,  complicated 
by  intruding  elements  of  federal  law,  were  involved  in  or  arose  under  these  city 
cases,  taxing  alike  the  ingenuity  of  counsel,  and  the  research  of  courts.  Many 
of  these  points,  at  once  practical  and  obscure,  refined  but  germane,  were  enlight- 
ened by  the  originality,  developed  by  the  industry,  and  made  cogent  by  the 
capacity  of  Mr.  Gibbons.  Elected  to  the  legislature  in  1876,  as  a  member  of  the 
most  brilliant,  and  probably  the  best,  delegation  Lee  county  ever  had  in  the  gen- 
eral assembly,  he  was  put  at  a  disadvantage  at  the  outset  by  being,  if  not  the 
youngest,  the  least  known,  and  so  at  the  start  did  not  fare  so  well  as  his  asso- 
ciates in  the  assignments  to  committee  work.  But  the  test  of  the  work  of  a 
session  showed  the  qualities  of  the  man.  Before  the  legislature  adjourned,  he 


244  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

was  conceded  to  be  the  highest  authority  in  the  house,  upon  questions  of  consti- 
tutional law.  The  nourishment  then  given  his  influence  by  his  ability,  secured 
for  him  a  year  later  the  nomination  of  his  party  for  the  attorney  generalship 
of  the  state.  While  in  the  legislature,  Mr.  Gibbons  moved  the  following  amend- 
ment to  the  state  constitution: 

"That  no  public  funds,  moneys,  or  revenues  whatever,  shall  be  appropriated  or  used  in  the 
establishment,  support,  or  maintenance  of  any  school,  seminary,  college,  or  institutions  of  learn- 
ing or  charity,  unless  the  same  shall  have  been  established  by  the  laws  of  the  state  of  Iowa,  and 
under  its  control;  nor  shall  any  institution  established,  supported  and  maintained  at  the  public 
expense,  be  under  the  control  of  any  religious  denomination,  nor  shall  sectarianism,  atheism,  or 
infidelity  be  ever  taught  therein." 

In  January,  1880,  Mr.  Gibbons  removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  since  that  time 
practiced  in  that  city.  His  practice  is  large  and  profitable,  consisting  mainly  of 
corporation  cases.  Successful  as  a  practitioner,  it  would  yet  seem  a  fair  presump- 
tion that  Mr.  Gibbons'  highest  qualities  and  capabilities  are  judicial;  that  if  he 
had  opportunity  he  would  win  his  highest  possible  distinction,  and  do  his  best 
work  as  a  judge. 


JOHN    I.   BENNETT. 

JOHN  I.  BENNETT  was  born  in  Otsego  county,  New  York,  November  27, 
.'  1831.  His  father,  Joseph  Bennett,  and  his  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was 
Lydia  Birdsall,  were  both  of  Quaker  parentage,  and  much  of  the  time  during  the 
early  life  of  the  subject  of  this  narrative  was  spent  with  his  Quaker  grandparents 
at  Quaker  Hill,  in  Delaware  county,  New  York,  a  settlement  which  at  that  time 
consisted  almost  entirely  of  Quakers.  His  early  impressions  of  life  and  society 
were  received  from  the  excellent  people  of  this  sect,  and  their  teachings  and  prac- 
tice made  a  lasting  impression  upon  him. 

At  the  age  of  twelve,  he  removed  with  his  parents  to  Knox  county,  Illinois, 
where  he  resided  for  three  years,  when  he  returned  with  them  to  Davenport,  Del- 
aware county,  New  York.  Here,  as  before,  he  passed  through  all  of  the  experi- 
ences incident  to  farm  life  ;  performed  labor  of  every  character  usual  in  carrying 
on  the  business  of  farming,  including  also  the  manufacture  of  lumber  in  a  saw- 
mill, which  his  father  owned  and  operated  on  his  place.  Here  he  was  first  made 
acquainted  with  Rev.  Sanford  I.  Ferguson,  then  about  to  become  principal  of 
Charlotte  Academy,  now  a  Methodist  minister  in  New  York  city.  The  boy  was 
engaged  in  sawing  the  lumber  for  this  academy,  and  Dr.  Ferguson,  on  one  of  his 
business  trips  to  the  mill,  having  become  attached  to  the  boy,  extracted  a  prom- 
ise from  the  father,  that,  when  the  academy  was  completed  and  opened,  the  sub- 
ject of  this  narration  might  become  his  pupil. 

And  so  it  was  that  in  1849  he  was  transferred  from  the  saw-mill  to  the  acad- 
emy. His  opportunities  for  education  had  been  very  limited  up  to  that  time,  but 
no  opportunities  for  improvement  were  lost  from  thenceforward.  He  rose  rap- 


HCCccp.r  Jr    S   Cn 


cX 


En;    ^EG'Mlli.fH!   S  3r  N  If 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO.  247 

idly  and  thoroughly  through  the  earlier  studies  of  the  academic  course,  and 
within  little  more  than  a  year  from  the  time  he  entered  the  academy  was  chosen 
a  teacher,  and  thereafter  pursued  his  studies,  and  taught-at  the  same  time.  Here 
he  continued  until  September  1851.  In  September,  1851,  he  entered  the  sopho- 
more class  at  Union  College,  and  graduated  from  that  college  with  the  highest 
honors  of  his  class  in  June  1854. 

The  college  was  then  at  the  height  of  its  usefulness  and  reputation.  The 
renowned  Eliphalet  Nott  was  its  active  president ;  Drs.  Hickok  and  Lewis  and 
Jackson  and  Foster  and  Gillespie  and  Peissner  were  then  there  in  the  full  vigor 
of  their  active,  useful  and  eminent  lives.  The  alumni  of  the  Union  were  then 
warm  to  the  heart  of  their  alma  mater.  The  year  of  his  graduation  was  the  semi- 
centennial of  Dr.  Nott's  presidency  of  the  college,  and  thousands  of  the  alumni 
were  at  the  commencement.  During  his  three-year  course,  the  record  of  the  col- 
lege shows  that  Mr.  Bennett  pursued  not  less  than  three,  and  most  of  the  time 
five  or  six  studies,  and  that  he  did  not  fail  to  receive  during  all  that  time,  except 
in  one  study  during  the  first  term,  less  than  the  maximum  mark.  He  was 
awarded  by  the  faculty  the  Latin  salutatory  at  commencement,  and  chosen  a 
member  of  the  Phi  Beta  Kappa  Fraternity. 

The  money  to  defray  his  college  expenses  was  borrowed  upon  his  own  note, 
though  a  minor,  and  paid  out  of  his  first  earnings  after  graduation.  From 
August,  1854,  to  July,  1857,  he  was  principal  of  Liberty  Academy,  at  Springfield, 
Tennessee.  Here  young  men  from  nearly  every  southern  state  attended  upon 
his  teachings.  Many  of  these  to-day  are  actively  engaged  in  the  various  profes- 
sions and  callings  through  the  southern  states,  and  especially  in  Tennessee.  In 
the  summer  of  1855,  he  married,  at  Henderson,  Kentucky,  Maria  E.  Reynolds,  a 
companion  of  his  early  youth  in  Delaware  county,  New  York. 

During  his  residence  in  Tennessee  he  purchased  his  own  law  boqks,  and  read 
the  elementary  treatise  of  the  law.  He  closed  his  school  in  June,  1857  ;  was 
admitted  in  the  same  month  to  the  Tennessee  bar,  and  removing  to  Galva,  Henry 
county,  Illinois,  in  July,  1857,  was  shortly  after  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar,  and 
practiced  his  profession  at  Galva,  Illinois,  until  May  1872.  He  was  admitted  to 
practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  in  January  1865.  When  the 
war  of  the  rebellion  broke  out,  he  was  appointed  on  Gov.  Yates"  staff,  with  the 
rank  of  colonel,  and  devoted  much  of  his  time,  during  the  earlier  years  of  the 
war,  in  recruiting  men,  and  aiding  the  government,  for  which  he  never  asked  or 
received  any  compensation.  In  1860  he  was  prostrated  with  typhoid  fever.  His 
life  was  despaired  of  by  his  friends,  and  his  health  was  left  permanently  impaired, 
so  that,  although  he  desired  to  do  so,  he  could  not  enter  the  service. 

In  the  campaign  of  1864,  he  was  chosen  the  republican  elector  for  the  fifth 
congressional  district  of  Illinois,  and  stumped  the  district  at  his  own  expense. 
He  was  elected,  receiving  next  to  the  highest  number  of  votes  of  any  of  the 
republican  electors.  He  was  successful  in  his  practice,  took  an  interest  in  public 
matters,  for  two  years  supported  and  owned  the  Galva  "  Union,"  a  newspaper  of 
26 


248  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

his  town,  purchased,  developed  and  operated  coal  mines  at  that  place,  was  a  can- 
didate for  circuit  judge  against  Hon.  George  W.  Pleasant  in  a  circuit  composed 
of  Henry  and  Rock  Island  counties,  and  carried  his  own  county  by  over  1,000 
majority,  but  was  defeated  by  a  small  majority  by  the  vote  of  Rock  Island  city;  was 
for  many  years  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  of  the  schools  of  that  place. 

In  May,  1872,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  now  resides.  In  1878  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  village  of  Hyde  Park,  of  which 
board  he  was  chosen  president  ;  was  reflected  the  succeeding  year,  and  again 
was  chosen  president  of  the  board.  During  these  two  years,  the  debt  of  the  vil- 
lage was  reduced  over  $250,000.  He  was  also  connected  with  the  board  of  edu- 
cation in  Hyde  Park  for  several  years.  In  1879  he  was  appointed  one  of  the 
masters  in  chancery  of  the  United  States,  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois, 
which  office  he  now  holds.  He  is  also  in  active  practice  of  his  profession,  with 
his  eldest  son. 

The  sturdy  and  successful  attempts  to  secure  an  education,  the  boldness,  the 
assurance,  if  you  will,  with  which  debt  was  incurred  to  insure  that  education, 
that  is  the  sort  of  action  that  marks  a  heroic  young  manhood,  and  which  is  sure 
to  bring  forth  fruit  in  achievement  in  the  world.  There  is  always  ability  in  the 
boy  who  is  determined,  cost  what  it  will,  to  get  an  education.  It  always  pays  to 
educate  that  boy.  Of  such  stuff  was  Garfield  made,  and  many,  nay,  every  man 
who  has  gone  to  the  front  by  his  own  exertions.  This  farm  life,  lying  out  beyond 
our  cities,  how  it  feeds  the  metropolis  with  its  best  blood.  There  is  the  rugged- 
ness  of  farm-life  in  this  man.  He  meets  obstacles  and  overcomes  them  as  the 
ploughshare  forces  a  furrow. 


ROSWELL   B.   BACON. 

AMONG  the  reputable  lawyers  of  the  Chicago  bar  is  Roswell  B.  Bacon.  He  is 
a  native  of  western  New  York,  and  was  born  near  the  village  of  Medina, 
Orleans  county,  September  28,  1838.  He  is  the  son  of  Allen  Bacon,  and  Uianthia 
Bacon,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Vermont,  and  good  types  of  the  early  Ver- 
mont settlers.  The  father  was  a  large  and  successful  farmer,  possessed  of  excel- 
lent judgment  and  sterling  integrity,  and  whose  advice  and  judgment  were  much 
sought  by  his  friends  and  neighbors.  He  held  numerous  local  positions  of  trust 
and  honor,  all  of  which  he  filled  with  credit  and  honor.  He  was  of  English 
descent.  The  mother  was  of  Welsh  descent,  and  before  marriage  was  Miss  Dian- 
thia  Hulburd,  and  of  an  old  Vermont  family.  Both  parents  were  of  the  Puritan 
type  in  their  religious  and  educational  ideas. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  spent  his  early  life  upon  the  farm,  and  commenced 
his  education  at  the  common  school.  He  subsequently  prepared  for  college 
at  Temple  Hill  Academy,  at  Geneseo,  New  York,  and  from  there  went  to 
Williams  College,  where  he  graduated  in  1862.  After  graduation  he  taught  school 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  249 

for  six  or  eight  months.  He  then  entered  upon  the  study  of  the  law,  in  the  law 
office  of  Benedict  and  Martindale,  in  the  city  of  Rochester,  New  York,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  city  in  1864.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  the  autumn 
of  1865,  and  from  that  time  to  May  1868  was  connected  in  a  clerical  capacity  with 
the  well  known  firms  of  Gallup  and  Hitchcock,  Gallup  and  Peabody,  and  Barker 
and  Tuley.  In  May,  1868,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  C.  M.  Hawley,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Hawley  and  Bacon,  which  after  a  year's  duration  was  dissolved 
by  the  acceptance  of  Mr.  Hawley  of  an  appointment  of  United  States  district 
judge  for  the  territory  of  Utah.  Subsequently  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Jas. 
S.  Norton,  under  the  firm  name  of  Bacon  and  Norton.  This  partnership  was  dis- 
solved in  1872.  In  May,  1873,  he  entered  into  partnership  with  his  old  college 
friend,  Joseph  E.  Lockwood,  under  the  firm  name  of  Lockwood  and  Bacon.  This 
firm  lasted  till  1875,  when  by  the  sickness  and  subsequent  death  of  Mr.  Lockwood 
it  was  dissolved.  In  the  fall  of  1875,  he  became  a  special  partner  with  Hon.  John 
V.  Le  Moyne,  which  connection  lasted  for  about  two  years,  since  which  time  he 
has  been  alone,  doing  a  general  law  business.  His  favorite  branches  of  the  law 
are  those  of  real  estate  and  chancery  practice. 


CAPT.   HENRY  V.  FREEMAN. 

A  SCHOLARLY  and  polished  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  is  Henry  V.  Free- 
JT\.  man.  He  is  well  read  in  the  law,  and  continues  to  be  a  close  student, 
in  connection  with  the  practice  of  his  profession.  As  a  good  trial  lawyer,  a 
successful  advocate,  and  a  safe  counselor,  he  has  built  up  a  good  business  by 
strict  attention  to  his  professional  duties  and  fidelity  to  his  clients.  He  has  been 
engaged  in  important  cases  in  which  he  has  displayed  marked  ability,  and  won 
the  confidence  and  respect  of  the  courts. 

Mr.  Freeman  was  born  December  20,  1842,  and  is  the  son  of  Henry  Freeman, 
who  moved  to  Illinois  in  1856,  settling  first  in  Freeport;  thence  in  1860  he  re- 
moved to  Rockford,  where  he  now  resides.  The  parents  of  Henry  V.  descended 
from  some  of  the  original  settlers  of  Massachusetts.  Edmund  Freeman  immi- 
grated from  England  in  1635,  and  settled  in  Plymouth  Colony,  and  was  afterward 
one  of  the  founders  of  Sandwich,  on  Cape  Cod.  Two  of  our  subject's  ancestors 
have  occupied  seats  on  the  bench  of  the  court  of  common  pleas  in  Massachusetts, 
one  as  far  back  as  1692.  The  latter  was  a  son-in-law  of  Hon.  Thomas  Prince, 
governor  of  Plymouth  colony  for  twenty  years. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  prepared  for  college  at  Beloit,  Wisconsin,  and 
taught  school  in  Illinois  in  1859  and  1860.  In  August,  1862,  he  entered  the  74th 
regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.  In  1863  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  captain.  He  was 
connected  with  the  organization  of  the  first  regiment  of  colored  troops  in  the 
Army  of  the  Cumberland,  and  served  on  court-martial  duty  at  one  time  for  three 
months.  He  was  also  detailed  as  member  of  a  board  to  examine  officers  for 


250  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

promotion  in  the  regiments  of  colored  troops.  He  took  part  in  the  battles  of 
Stone  River,  Nashville,  and  others,  in  which  that  army  was  engaged,  and  was 
mustered  out  of  service  in  July  1865.  In  September  following  he  entered  Yale 
College  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1869.  He  then  settled  in  Chicago,  and 
entered  the  law  office  of  Rich  and  Noble,  and  afterward  studied  with  King,  Scott 
and  Payson.  After  the  great  Chicago  fire  of  1871,  he  became  principal  of  the  high 
school  at  Charleston,  Illinois,  and  taught  there  for  one  year.  He  then  returned 
to  his  legal  studies.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1870,  but  did  not  begin  to 
practice  independently  until  1873,  since  which  time  he  has  been  in  continuous, 
active  and  successful  practice.  In  1878  Mr.  Freeman  was  elected  attorney  of  the 
village  of  Hyde  Park.  In  political  sentiments  he  is  a  republican,  but  does  not 
take  an  active  part  in  politics. 

He  was  married  in  1873  to  Miss  Mary  L.  Curtis,  daughter  of  Rev.  W.  S.  Curtis, 
of  Rockford,  Illinois,  who  was  for  several  years  president  of  Knox  College,  at 
Galesburg,  Illinois,  and  formerly  a  professor  in  Michigan  University,  and  also  in 
Hamilton  College,  New  York. 


ROBERT  S.  CARROLL. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  born  in  New 
Bedford,  November  20,  1845,  and  is  the  son  of  Robert  and  Meriban  B. 
Carroll.  The  father  died  when  his  son  was  but  twelve  years  of  age.  Robert  S. 
was  educated  in  the  public  and  high  schools,  from  which  latter  he  graduated. 
The  war  of  the  rebellion  then  broke  out,  and,  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  he  enlisted 
with  Jones'  Guard,  under  Capt.  A.  S.  Cushman,  in  the  Merchants'  Guard,  in  the 
47th  regiment  Mass.  Vols..  and  was  attached  to  Banks'  expedition,  and  which  was 
the  only  regiment  left  to  guard  the  city  of  New  Orleans  during  the  fighting  at 
Port  Hudson,  and  other  engagements  in  that  vicinity  during  that  season.  He 
remained  there  eleven  months,  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  service;  went  up  the 
Mississippi  river  and  returned  home.  He  then  reenlisted  in  Co.  E,  58th  regiment 
Massachusetts  veterans,  and  took  part  in  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  Spott- 
sylvania.  Cold  Harbor,  Mine  Run,  the  battles  of  June  17  and  18,  before  Peters- 
burgh,  and  the  battle  of  the  Crater,  July  30,  1864,  and  at  the  explosion  of  the 
mine  Mr.  Carroll  was  taken  prisoner  and  carried  to  Danville,  Virginia,  where  he 
remained  a  prisoner  of  war,  and  endured  the  privations  and  suffering  for  the 
period  of  six  months  and  twenty-one  days,  and  was  reduced  from  one  hundred 
and  sixty  pounds,  his  weight  when  captured,  to  ninety  pounds  when  paroled, 
February  22,  1865.  He  was  sick  and  was  sent  to  Parol  Camp  Hospital,  Annap- 
olis, Maryland.  He  attended  the  grand  review  at  Washington,  and  was  mus- 
tered out  in  Massachusetts  at  the  close  of  the  war.  Mr.  Carroll  entered  the 
army  a  private,  and  was  promoted  from  each  of  the  non-commissioned  offices  suc- 
cessively to  the  office  of  first  sergeant,  which  office  he  held  at  the  close  of  the  war. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO.  251 

He  then  went  to  Boston,  and  was  appointed  inspector  in  the  Boston"  custom-house, 
and  also  was  appointed  constable  by  the  mayor  of  the  city,  and  justice  of  the 
peace  by  the  governor. 

He  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Massachusetts  bar,  and  at  once 
entered  upon  a  successful  practice  of  the  law  in  Boston,  where  he  continued  three 
years.  He  then  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  been  in  the  successful  prac- 
tice of  the  law  ever  since.  Having  devoted  particular  attention  to  mercantile  law 
and  the  collection  of  accounts,  he  has,  by  prompt  attention  to  matters  entrusted 
to  his  care,  acquired  a  good  reputation.  He  has  been  engaged  in  several  large 
cases,  and  has  discharged  the  duties  devolved  upon  him  in  a  manner  to  gain  the 
approbation  of  his  clients  and  friends. 

November  20,  1879,  Mr.  Carroll  was  married  to  Miss  Helene  Erickson,  an  esti- 
mable lady  of  Chicago. 

• 

FREDERICK    S.   MOFFETT. 

FREDERICK  S.  MOFFETT  is  the  fourth  of  a  family  of  five  children,  and 
is  the  son  of  Samuel  Moffett,  a  blacksmith,  and  a  native  of  New  York,  of 
Scotch  descent.  About  1840  he  removed  to  Lucas,  Ohio,  and  continued  his  business 
until  his  death,  which  occurred  June  25,  1881.  The  mother  of  our  subject  was 
Rebecca  (Switzer)  Moffett,  of  Swiss  parentage.  She  died  in  1848.  His  paternal 
grandfather  was  of  a  large  Scottish  family,  which  left  Scotland  on  account  of 
religious  persecution,  a  part  going  to  England,  others  to  Ireland,  and  the  remain- 
der immigrating  to  America. 

Frederick  S.  is  a  native  of  Lucas,  Ohio,  and  was  born  April  25,  1846.  He 
attended  the  common  school  at  Lucas,  Ohio,  until  1862.  In  his  boyhood  he  had 
a  desire  to  follow  the  footsteps  of  his  father,  and  for  a  time  worked  in  the  shop. 
However,  surrounding  influences  connected  with  his  education  changed  his  views 
in  favor  of  a  profession.  After  fully  considering  the  matter,  he  decided  in  favor 
of  the  law.  While  at  school  he  was  a  diligent  scholar,  and  during  vacations  he 
clerked  in  the  store  of  Ross,  France  and  Company.  In  1862  he  left  school,  and 
in  August  of  the  same  year,  enlisted  in  Company  B,  izoth  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf. 
While  in  the  army  his  career  was  adventuresome.  Immediately  after  enlisting, 
his  regiment  was  ordered  south,  and  he  took  part  in  Sherman's  expedition 
against  Vicksburg  in  December  1862.  He  was  at  the  capture  of  Arkansas  Port, 
under  Gen.  McClernand  in  January  1863.  In  the  following  spring  he  partici- 
pated in  the  advances  under  Gen.  U.  S.  Grant  against  Vicksburg,  which  resulted 
in  the  capture  of  that  city,  after  which  he  was  sent  to  the  Department  of  the  Gulf. 
During  Bank's  Red  River  campaign  he  was  captured  and  held  a  prisoner  until 
the  close  of  the  war,  a  period  of  nearly  thirteen  months.  He  then  returned  to 
Lexington,  Ohio,  and  commenced  the  study  of  the  law,  which  he  afterward  com- 
pleted at  Mansfield,  Ohio,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Ohio  bar  in  July  1868.  He 
immediately  formed  a  partnership  with  Gen.  Brinkerhoff.  Having  married  that 


252  THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

year,  he  found  his  wife's  health  so  precarious  that  he  was  obliged  to  remove  to 
Nashville,  Tennessee,  where  she  soon  died,  leaving  one  child.  He  was  again 
married  in  1871,  to  Miss  Sue  Mason,  of  Chicago,  formerly  of  Mansfield,  Ohio, 
whither  he  removed  immediately  after  the  great  fire  of  that  year. 

Although  he  was  an  entire  stranger  in  Chicago,  he  soon  gained  friends,  and 
by  strict  devotion  to  his  profession  he  has  built  up  quite  a  large  practice.  In 
politics,  Mr.  Moffett  is  a  republican,  but  his  devotion  to  his  profession  prevents 
him  from  taking  any  part  in  political  matters  except  to  vote. 


HENRY   W.   LEMAN. 

HENRY  W.  LEMAN  was  born  in  Charlestown,  Massachusetts,  December  6, 
1851.  His  father  was  the  captain  of  a  vessel,  engaged  in  the  West  Guinea 
trade.  He  was  educated  at  various  public  and  private  schools  in  Massachusetts, 
and  leaving  school  in  1868,  entered  a  wholesale  house,  where  he  served  for  two 
years.  In  1870  he  removed  to  Chicago  where,  being  wholly  dependent  upon  his 
own  resources,  he  maintained  himself,  and  at  the  same  time,  began  the  study  of 
law  under  Judge  Knickerbocker.  Soon  afterward  he  was  appointed  a  deputy 
clerk  in  the  circuit  court,  which  appointment  he  held  until  the  fall  of  1873.  He 
then  for  a  time  studied  in  the  office  of  Herbert  and  Quick,  and  afterward  with 
Hoyne,  Horton  and  Hoyne,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  September  1874.  In 
January,  1875,  he  began  practice.  He  was  appointed  trustee  of  the  Sherman 
estate  October  17,  1881,  a  trust  estate  consisting  of  the  Sherman  House  hotel 
property,  and  to  his  able  administration  of  the- affairs  of  that  estate  is  due  the 
fact  that  the  heirs  will  now  realize  a  large  amount  from  it,  instead  of  the  whole 
estate  going  to  pay  mortgages.  Mr.  Leman  is  a  lawyer  of  good  abilities,  and  has 
already  attained  a  success,  which  presages  for  him  a  first  rank  in  his  profession. 
He  is  a  republican,  and  active  in  the  affairs  of  his  party.  He  was  married  in  1881. 


HON.  CHARLES  B.  LAWRENCE. 

CHARLES  B.  LAWRENCE  was  born  December  17,  1820,  in  Vergennes,  Ver- 
V_x  mont,  now  past  sixty-two,  nearly  the  span  of  life  allotted  by  the  prophet, 
but  still  comparatively  hale  and  well;  is  one  of  those  rare  old  New  England  gen- 
tlemen who  seem  to  be  preserved,  and  their  existence  continued,  as  a  living  and 
present  example  to  the  young  man  of  what  may  be  accomplished  in  a  lifetime  of 
industry  and  honest,  conscientious  and  faithful  work.  He  is  not  one  of  the  many 
who  have  risen  from  obscurity  into  the  full  blaze  of  an  ephemeral  popularity,  but 
has  attained  to  eminence  as  a  lawyer  and  jurist  by  a  gradual  but  constant  advance. 
His  rise  to  position  was  not  through  detraction  and  malice,  but  his  claims  rested 
on  his  merit  alone.  Few  have  arrived  at  such  honors  with  as  few  blemishes.  So 


HC  Caiipir  Jr   S   C, 


-r\ 


kyC  CWillmm.  i  BrNV 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  253 

far  as  his  public  career  is  concerned  every  successive  step  has  been  wisely  and 
happily  taken,  a  career,  which,  as  a  whole,  has  been  no  less  honorable  to  the  indi- 
vidual than  useful  to  those  who  come  in  contact  with  him.  Throughout  his  life, 
his  talents,  his  patriotism,  his  learning  as  a  lawyer,  and  his  clearness  as  a  judge, 
have  shone  not  dazingly,  but  with  a  steady  and  tranquil  ray,  that  has  survived  the 
flash  of  cotemporary  lights  that  blazed  for  a  time  to  be  quickly  extinguished  for 
all  time. 

He  was  educated  in  Vermont;  was  in  Middlebury  College  there,  and  subse- 
quently graduated  at  Union  College  in  eastern  New  York,  in  1841.  His  father 
was  a  merchant,  a  member  of  the  Vermont  state  senate,  held  other  important 
positions,  and  was  much  in  public  life.  After  Charles  B.  graduated  he  engaged 
in  teaching  in  Alabama  for  two  years;  thence  to  St.  Louis  and  read  law  in  the 
office  of  Senator  Geyer,  one  of  the  ablest  members  of  the  bar  of  that  city,  and  was. 
soon  after  admitted  to  the  bar.  From  there  he  moved  to  Quincy,  Illinois,  and 
commenced  practice  in  the  spring  of  1845,  soon  attaining  to  a  high  position 
at  the  bar  as  an  attorney,  and  gaining  the  esteem  of  the  profession  and  the  public, 
as  any  one  will  learn  who  visits  and  becomes  acquainted  with  the  people  who 
then  lived  there;  he  will  learn  the  depth  and  breadth  of  the  regard  in  which  he  is 
held  by  his  former  neighbors. 

In  1856,  on  account  of  impaired  health,  he  gave  up  practice  and  went  to 
Europe,  remaining  two  years,  and  returned  much  improved  in  health;  bought  and 
settled  on  a  farm  in  Warren  county,  Illinois,  and  actively  engaged  in  farming. 
Three  years  later  the  circuit  judgeship  of  that  district  became  vacant,  and  he 
was  solicited  to  accept  the  nomination,  which  he  did,  and  was  elected  to  the 
place  without  opposition,  which  was  a  decisive  expression  of  the  confidence  and 
regard  of  his  neighbors,  and  their  appreciation  of  his  qualifications  and  fitness 
for  the  place.  He  remained  on  that  bench  until  1864,  when  he  was  elected  to  the 
bench  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  subsequently  elected  chief-justice  of 
that  court.  On  the  bench  his  capacity  was  as  conspicuous  as  his  industry  was 
untiring.  The  majesty  of  the  civil  law  had  in  him  as  courageous  a  defender  as  it 
had  able  and  clear  exponent.  As  a  judge  he  was  the  peer  of  any  of  the  same 
grade  in  the  Northwest.  He  has  natural  judicial  ability,  great  legal  learning; 
purity  of  purpose  and  strict  integrity,  and  maintained  the  purity  of  his  ermine. 
His  term  expired  in  1873,  when  he  came  to  Chicago  and  engaged  in  practice,  and 
has  been  here  since,  being  the  senior  member  of  the  able  and  widely  known  firm, 
Lawrence,  Campbell  and  Lawrence,  principally  engaged  in  important  railroad 
and  corporation  cases.  He  is  regarded  as  one  of  the  ablest  counsels  and  advocates 
in  this  connection  in  the  Northwest. 

Judge  Lawrence  is  closely  identified  with  and  has  ably  illustrated  the  annals 
of  the  legal  jurisprudence  of  this  state  at  the  bar  and  on  the  bench.  His  decisions 
and  opinions  will  live  as  long  as  the  jurisprudence  of  Illinois  lives.  He  is  clear 
and  accurate  in  his  investigations  of  important  and  intricate  cases,  and  forcible 
in  presenting  them.  He  is  one  of  the  clearest,  ablest  and  most  thorough  and  reli- 


254  r//A"   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

able  members  of  this  bar.  He  possesses  a  comprehensive  knowledge  of  law,  a 
logical  ability  and  great  industry;  has  signalized  himself  by  many  notable  suc- 
cesses in  complicated  and  important  litigation.  His  name  has  been  suggested 
and  urged  for  appointment  to  the  bench  of  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States,  but  he  declines  the  honor. 

As  a  rule,  in  his  social  relations,  he  is  rather  reticent,  never  curt,  and  has  that 
surest  mark  of  one  who  is  at  once  well-bred  and  kindly,  his  manners  are  the  same 
to  everyone;  a  model  of  benevolence,  generosity,  magnanimity  and  a  worthy  citi- 
zen, respected  and  honored  by  all;  dignified  but  genial  and  agreeable,  a  gentle- 
man of  the  older  type.  His  life  work  is  written  plainly  in  the  chronicles  of  his 
time. 

SIDNEY  THOMAS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Calhoun  county,  Michigan.  Born 
October  3,  1837,  he  is  the  oldest  son  of  the  late  Rev.  David  Thomas,  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  and  a  brother  of  Dr.  H.  F.  Thomas,  of  Allegan, 
Michigan,  state  medical  examiner  for  the  Knights  of  Honor  of  the  state  of  Michi- 
gan. His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Mary  Malissa  Rhodes,  was  a  native 
of  Granville,  Washington  county,  New  York,  and  he  is  descended  on  both  sides 
from  New  England  stock.  His  father  was  for  thirty  years  a  member  of  the 
Michigan  annual  conference,  and  four  of  which  a  pioneer  missionary  to  the  Pot- 
tawatomie  tribe  of  Indians  in  the  Grand  River  valley.  Young  Thomas  was 
subjected  to  the  privations  of  a  new  country,  and  the  disadvantages  of  an  itin- 
erant life  until  his  seventeenth  year,  when,  having  obtained  a  license  as  a  school 
teacher,  he  entered  upon  a  more  regular  course  of  study,  teaching  in  the  winter, 
and  attending  school  in  the  spring  and  fall,  first  at  Olivet,  and  then  at  Ann  Arbor. 
In  1858  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Brown  and  Greenough,  at 
Marshall,  and  in  1859  joined  the  first  class  of  the  law  department  at  Ann  Arbor, 
after  which  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Detroit  upon  examination  before  the 
supreme  court.  In  1860  he  commenced  the  practice  of  law  at  Marshall,  in  his 
native  county,  and  was  soon  after  elected  county  judge,  discharging  the  duties  of 
the  office  to  the  satisfaction  of  both  political  parties.  In  1864  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Wm.  D.  Adams,  a  young  lawyer  who  had  read  law  in  his  office, 
which  continued  until  1865,  when,  seeking  a  larger  field  of  activity,  Mr.  Thomas 
removed  to  Chicago.  Here  he  came,  a  stranger,  and  resumed  business,  where 
he  has  since  remained,  and  by  his  own  unaided  efforts  established  a  lucrative 
practice  and  acquired  considerable  property.  Mr.  Thomas  has  made  no  part 
of  the  law  a  specialty,  and  his  cases  ranging  through  the  whole  list  of  actions, 
are  distributed  among  the  various  state  and  federal  courts.  By  the  great  fire  of 
1871  he  lost  everything,  residence,  furniture,  office,  library,  save  a  few  articles,  and 
one  law  book  which  he  buried  in  the  yard.  "  When  I  opened  my  office  on  Harri- 
son street,  after  the  fire,"  says  he,  "  I  had  nothing  but  a  bottle  of  ink,  a  copy  of 
Stephens  on  Pleading,  and  a  family  on  the  streets  looking  for  rooms  to  live  in." 


THE  BEh'Ca  AtiD  BAf  OF  CHICAGO.  257 

One  of  the  first  important  suits  be  was  retained  in  was  the  defense  of  die 
stockholders  of  the  Kenosha  County  Bank,  whom  he  successfully  defended  against 
an  unjust  claim  of  $50,000,  being  associated  in  the  case  with  the  late  Hon.  Matt. 
H.  Carpenter.  In  the  criminal  cases  in  which  he  has  been  employed  he  has  never 
been  defeated.  In  the  celebrated  case  of  the  People  vs.  Alrina  McKee,  where  the 
defendant  was  charged  with  the  murder  of  constable  McElligott,  the  defense  was 
intrusted  to  his  care.  Few  cases  in  the  annals  of  criminal  jurisprudence  have 
attracted  more  general  attention.  The  defendant,  a  young-  lady  of  rm4lmt  char- 
acter, in  a  moment  of  desperation  endeavored  to  protect  the  furniture  of  a  single 
room  from  a  landlord's  seizure.  The  officer  fell  mortally  wounded  with  the  writ 
in  his  hand.  The  prosecution  was  urged  on  by  the  constables  of  the  county,  organ- 
ized for  the  purpose  of  conviction.  Mr.  Thomas  not  only  secured  her  acquittal 
on  the  trial,  but  gained  a  professional  triumph  of  scarcely  less  importance  in  recov- 
ering a  verdict  of  $5,000  against  the  landlord  in  an  action  of  trespass. 

Among  the  suits  of  general  interest  in  which  he  is  now  engaged  is  the  defense 
of  Mary  W.  Blodget,  who  was  expelled  from  the  Old  People's  Home  by  the  man- 
agers, in  her  eightieth  year,  and  left  in  the  streets  without  any  provision  for  her 
welfare.  This  case  involves  the  power  of  an  eleemosynary  corporation,  as  well 
as  its  duty,  and  is  attracting  very  general  attention. 

From  the  phrenological  character  of  Mr.  Thomas,  given  by  Fowler  and  Wells 
at  New  York  in  1864,  we  extract  the  following: 

••  You  have  a  large  brain,  measuring  twenty-three  inches,  and  body  enough  to 
give  it  natural  support.  A  man  with  as  well  balanced  a  bead-gear  as  yours  ought 
to  take  a  first-class  rank  in  the  world.  You  should  study  for  one  of  the  learned 
professions,  and  would  succeed  equally  well  in  *ach.  Yon  are  organized  for  a 
public  speaker.  Your  moral  organs  are  well  developed.  Yon  incline  toward 
elevating  humanity  to  a  higher  standard.  Your  feelings  lead  you  to  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  majority  of  the  human  race  are  worth  saving,  and  that  somehow 
God  will  arrange  it  to  their  advantage  and  happiness.  Your  hope  leads  yon  to 
look  on  the  favorable  side  of  the  future.  Your  firmness  gives  perseverence.  Your 
self-esteem  ought  to  be  larger.  You  are  genial,  friendly,  patriotic.  You  have 
force  of  character,  and  your  destructiveness  indicates  executive  ability,  and  when 
aroused  you  are  like  the  express  train,  disposed  to  take  the  track  and  keep  it. 
You  care  less  for  money  than  for  knowledge.  You  like  an  intellectual  life:  moral 
labor.  You  believe  that  justice  is  the  right  thing,  and  are  willing:  to  do  as  yon 
wish  to  be  done  by.  and  would  never  take  the  first  advantage  if  treated  fairly. 
Your  spirituality  leads  you  to  admit  of  another  life,  and  when  your  moral  and 
religious  faculties  are  awakened  to  activity  it  seems  to  you  that  the  life  that  now 
is  is  only  a  vestibule  to  the  life  to  come." 

Mr.  Thomas  has  traveled  extensively  throughout  the  United  States  and 
Canada,  visiting  southern  Tennessee  and  northern  Al=»*^"".  in  1864.  under  a  com- 
mission from  Gov.  Blair,  just  prior  to  the  battle  of  Atlanta.  In  1879  be  went 
abroad,  spending  some  time  in  Ireland  and  England,  and  reaching  London  in 
*J 


258  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

time  to  visit  the  historical  courts  of  Westminster  Hall,  before  their  removal  to  the 
new  law  buildings  on  Chancery  Lane.  He  also  visited  the  principal  places  of 
interest  on  the  continent,  spending  some  two  weeks  in  Paris.  Mr.  Thomas  has 
always  displayed  a  genius  for  literature,  and  his  productions  both  in  prose  and 
verse  have  frequently  appeared.  His  style  is  clear,  rich  and  forcible,  and  in  his 
best  efforts  rising  to  the  height  of  the  purest  classical  English,  as  may  be  wit- 
nessed in  his  address  on  the  death  of  chief-justice  Breese.  He  is  also  the  author 
of  a  treatise  entitled  "Outlines  of  Practice  in  the  Supreme  Court."  In  1872  he  was 
a  candidate  for  state  attorney,  for  the  liberal  republicans,  but  was  defeated  in  the 
joint  convention  by  Hon.  Thomas  J.  Turner,  the  democratic  nominee.  He  was  also 
a  delegate  from  Illinois  to  the  Cincinnati  convention,  which  nominated  Horace 
Greeley  for  president,  and  supported  him  on  the  stump  by  delivering  some  of  the 
most  powerful  addresses  of  the  campaign,  which  were  published  in  full,  in  the 
Chicago  "  Tribune  "  at  the  time. 

In  religious  matters  Mr.  Thomas  is  most  liberal,  and  the  creed  has  not  yet  been 
written  to  which  he  can  subscribe.  With  strong  moral  sentiments,  with  confi- 
dence in  humanity,  and  with  faith  in  the  hereafter,  he  rejects  dogmatic  theology 
as  useless  and  unwise. 

In  1860  he  married  Miss  Alice  Carrier,  sister  of  Prof.  O.  M.  Carrier,  of  Olivet  Col- 
lege, and  a  daughter  of  a  pioneer  farmer  of  Calhoun  county,  Michigan.  His  family 
consists  of  his  wife  and  two  children,  a  son  and  daughter,  and  his  mother  who  still 
lives  to  enjoy  the  fruit  of  his  success.  Mr.  Thomas  is  physically  of  stout,  well  knit 
frame,  though  possessed  of  a  native  dignity  which  might  be  mistaken  for  aus- 
terity. He  is  genial  and  affable  in  conversation,  warm  in  his  friendships,  and 
benevolent  in  character,  often  taking  cases  for  the  poor  without  hope  of  reward. 
He  is  a  painstaking,  thorough,  conscientious  lawyer,  a  logical  and  forcible  advo- 
cate, a  safe  and  cautious  adviser,  and  devoted  to  his  profession,  and  being  in  the 
prime  of  manhood  he  may  look  to  the  future  for  higher  attainments  in  a  useful 
and  honorable  calling  in  life. 


LOREN    GREENE. 

T  OREN  GREENE  is  a  native  of  New  York,  and  is  a  son  of  Daniel  Greene,  a 
A  j  native  of  Massachusetts;  by  occupation  a  tanner  and  farmer,  and  a  relative 
of  Gen.  Greene,  of  revolutionary  fame.  The  grandfather  of  our  subject,  Henry 
Greene,  a  native  of  Rhode  Island,  was  a  soldier  in  the  revolution,  and  of  English 
descent.  His  mother  was  Elizabeth  Haight,  of  Welsh  and  English  descent,  and 
a  native  of  Poughkeepsie,  New  York.  When  Loren  was  two  years  old  his  parents 
removed  to  Akron,  Erie  county,  New  York,  where  he  lived  until  nineteen  years  of 
age,  attending  common  schools  and  Doolittle  Institute,  under  Prof.  Palmer. 
Later  he  pursued  a  collegiate  course,  and  graduated  in  1863. 

He  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Bowen  and  Walker,  in  Batavia,  New  York, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York  at  Buffalo,  November  23,  1865.     He 


THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 


259 


at  once  entered  upon  a  very  successful  practice  of  the  law  in  Batavia,  New 
York,  by  himself,  and  afterward  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  George  Bowen, 
which  continued  until  July  i,  1881.  He  removed  to  Chicago  on  September  27 
following,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar  January  16,  1882,  and  to  the 
United  States  circuit  and  district  courts,  northern  district  of  Illinois,  December 
1882,  12,  and  is  engaged  in  a  general  civil  practice. 

Mr.  Greene  is  a  republican,  and  formerly  took  an  active  part  in  political  mat- 
ters. He  attends  the  Episcopalian  church.  Mr.  Greene  is  a  lawyer  of  discrimi- 
nation in  his  practice,  well  read,  able  and  successful;  a  gentleman  of  culture  and 
refinement,  and  possesses  urbane  manners  that  win  for  him  many  friends.  He 
belongs  to  the  F.A.A.M. 

He  was  married  July  6,  1863,  to  Miss  Martha  C.  Ely,  of  Gainesville,  Wyoming 
county,  New  York,  an  estimable  lady,  and  has  by  her  two  children,  Elizabeth  B. 
and  Willie  E. 

STEPHEN    S.  GREGORY. 

QTEPHEN  S.  GREGORY  is  a  native  of  Unadilla,  New  York;  was  born 
wj  November  16,  1849,  and  is  the  son  of  J.  C.  Gregory,  who  came  west  in  1858, 
and  settled  in  Madison,  Wisconsin.  He  attended  the  public  schools  in  Madison, 
and  entered  the  University  of  Wisconsin  in  1866,  graduating  in  1870.  He  then 
entered  the  law  department  of  his  alma  mater,  and  graduated  in  law  in  1871,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Madison  the  same  year.  He  began  practice  in  Madi- 
son, remaining  there  until  the  summer  of  1874,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and 
formed  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Chetlain,  under  name  and  style  of  Chetlain  and 
Gregory,  which  lasted  until  1879,  when  they  joined  and  became  merged  into  the 
firm  of  Tenney  and  Flower.  He  is  now  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Flower,  Remy 
and  Gregory,  and  has  been  very  successful  in  the  profession  to  which  he  has 
devoted  his  life. 

SAMUEL   KERR. 

SAMUEL  KERR  was  born  in  McHenry  county,  Illinois,  in  the  year  1846.  His 
father,  Hon.  Joseph  Kerr,  was  a  farmer  there,  and  moved  to  Columbia  county, 
Wisconsin,  the  same  year  Samuel  was  born,  and  there  engaged  in  farming, 
and  was  active  in  securing  railroad  facilities  for  that  part  of  Wisconsin;  was 
vice-president  of  the  old  Milwaukee  and  La  Crosse  railroad;  was  member  of  the 
legislature,  and  held  other  prominent  trusts.  Samuel's  grandfather  ran  for  con- 
gress in  the  Chicago  district  against  "  Long  "  John  Wentworth.  Samuel  attended 
the  schools  of  his  neighborhood  during  his  youth  and  prepared  for  college,  and 
graduated  from  Lombard  University,  at  Galesburg,  Illinois;  read  law  there,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1870,  when  twenty-four  years  of  age,  and  settling  in 
Chicago,  engaged  in  practice,  and  has  been  there  since,  most  of  the  time  alone, 
doing  a  successful  business. 


260  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

He  is  modest  and  unpretentious,  but  has  made  an  impression  as  to  his  ability 
and  faithfulness  as  a  lawyer;  has  been  employed  in  many  important  cases  in  the 
higher  courts.  He  is  studious  and  industrious,  and  has  gradually  worked  his 
way  up  to  a  position  among  the  better  class  of  the  fraternity,  and  established 
himself  in  the  confidence  and  respect  of  all  with  whom  he  has  business  relations 
at  the  bar  and  in  the  courts  to  an  extent  which  requires  the  majority  of  men  a 
much  longer  time  to  win.  He  carried  to  a  successful  termination  the  Bachelder 
will  case,  which  is  among  the  noted  cases  in  the  court  records,  and  has  been  suc- 
cessful in  many  other  intricate  and  important  cases  in  the  higher  courts.  He  is  a 
thoroughly  reliable  lawyer  and  an  upright  man. 


WILLIAM    ARMSTRONG. 

WILLIAM  ARMSTRONG  was  born  near  Vincennes,  Indiana,  January  17, 
1849,  and  is  a  son  of  John  F.  Armstrong.  In  1868  he  entered  the  State 
University  at  Bloomington,  Indiana,  and  graduated  both  in  arts  and  law  in  1872, 
taking  the  two  courses  concurrently.  He  then  entered  the  law  office  of  Gen. 
Shackelford,  at  Evansville,  Indiana,  and  began  the  study  of  law,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1872.  He  continued  his  studies  in  Gen.  Shackelford's  office  until  1874, 
when  he  removed  to  Washington,  Indiana,  and  then  began  practice,  and  remained 
until  January  i,  1881,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  opened  an  office  on  his 
own  account.  He  was  appointed  in  October,  1881,  general  solicitor  of  the  Chi- 
cago and  Eastern  Illinois  railroad,  which  office  he  now  holds.  Mr.  Armstrong  is 
a  republican,  and  served  four  years  on  the  state  central  committee  of  Indiana, 
and  has  always  been  very  active  in  the  interests  of  his  party. 


HON.    T.    B.   WAKEMAN. 

THADDEUS  B.  WAKEMAN  was  a  lineal  descendant  of  the  well  known 
Wakeman  family  of  England,  of  whom  Sir  George  Wakeman  was  a  promi- 
nent member.  The  ancestry  of  the  family  had  its  origin  in  the  Wakes  of  Somer- 
setshire, who  were  active  participants  in  the  War  of  the  Roses,  and  who  held  great 
estates  in  the  above  named  shire  as  a  reward  for  their  valor.  Their  ancient  castle 
and  hall,  located  at  Clifton,  Bristol's  aristocratic  suburb,  the  most  distinguished 
ruins  in  the  west  of  England,  were  consumed  by  fire  in  the  autumn  of  1882.  That 
portion  of  the  Wakeman  family  that  came  to  this  country  (about  1764)  settled  in 
northwestern  Connecticut.  While  many  of  their  descendants  have  for  a  time  fol- 
lowed agriculture,  they  have  all  eventually  been  engaged  in  professional  pursuits. 
The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  Salisbury,  Litchfield  county,  Connecticut, 
January  31,  1814.  His  death  occurred  at  Chicago,  July  13,  1880.  His  father, 
Seth,  died  in  Salisbury;  his  mother,  Sarah,  died  in  Schuyler  county,  New  York, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  26 1 

They  were  both  Episcopalians.  His  brothers  and  sisters  who  lived  to  maturity 
were  Alonzo,  Edgar,  Milner,  George,  William,  Elmira  and  Mary.  His  early  edu- 
cation was  almost  entirely  gained  under  the  tutelage  of  the  late  Bishop  Janes,  of 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  previous  to  the  latter's  conversion  to  and  enter- 
ing the  ministry  of  that  denomination.  He  began  teaching  school  at  Preble, 
Cortland  county,  New  York,  at  the  age  of  fifteen;  continued  this  work  until  he 
was  nearly  twenty-five  years  of  age;  married  Miss  Hannah  Bennett,  of  Preble, 
September  24,  1835;  and  having  fitted  himself  for  the  practice  of  the  law,  in  1837 
he  made  the  long,  wearisome  overland  journey  to  the  West,  a  journey  accompa- 
nied by  untold  hardships.  Mr.  Wakeman  lost  one  of  his  horses,  and  for  over 
one  hundred  miles  through  northern  Ohio  harnessed  himself  beside  the  other, 
and  assisted  in  dragging  his  wagon  and  household  goods  on  the  toilsome  way. 
He  halted  for  a  few  months  at  Valparaiso,  Indiana,  but  finally  settled  near  the 
site  of  the  present  city  of  Harvard,  in  McHenry  county,  Illinois,  and  there,  as  one 
of  the  pioneer  farmers  of  the  state,  did  heroic  and  generous  work  in  helping  the 
many  other  needy  ones  who  came.  His  long  cherished  wish  of  entering  upon  the 
practice  of  the  law  was  finally  gratified  in  the  following  manner:  Owing  to  some 
technicality  in  the  law,  by  which  it  seemed  probable  he  would  be  defrauded  of  a 
large  land  claim  he  had  purchased,  he  resolved  to  try  his  own  case,  which  he  won 
despite  the  odds  of  having  several  skilled  attorneys  to  oppose  him.  This  was  but 
one  of  many  incidents  illustrative  to  all  who  knew  him  of  the  clearness  of  insight 
and  judgment,  the  keen  discernment  and  the  unvarying  accuracy  of  his  calcula- 
tions. A  well  known  Illinois  judge  has  said  of  him:  "  In  his  forty  years'  practice 
I  don't  believe  he  lost  a  half  dozen  cases.  He  was  not  a  brilliant  pleader.  As  a 
counselor  he  had  no  superior  among  the  lawyers  of  Illinois." 

He  was  elected  the  first  justice  of  the  peace  in  McHenry  county,  and  from  the 
fact  that  he  took  a  vow  he  would  never  buy  another  pair  of  boots  or  shoes  until 
he  had  paid  for  his  farms,  which  at  one  time  covered  several  thousand  acres,  he 
became  known  everywhere  in  northern  Illinois  as  "  Squire  Wakeman,  the  bare- 
footed justice."  He  was  one  of  the  most  active,  earnest  and  uncompromising 
abolitionists  in  northern  Illinois,  and  gave  substantial  evidence  of  the  faith  that 
was  in  him  by  expending  the  greater  part  of  his  large  fortune,  both  prior  to  and 
during  the  war,  in  the  cause  for  which  he  had  always  so  nobly  labored.  Mr. 
Wakeman  had  strong  political  affinities,  but  was  more  noted  for  helping  others 
with  the  rare  enthusiasm  which  distinguished  him,  than  for  securing  his  own  pre- 
ferment. He  was  an  ardent  personal  friend  of  both  Yates  and  Lincoln,  and  was 
chiefly  instrumental  in  securing  the  nomination  of  Hon.  E.  B.  Washburne  for  the 
latter's  first  term  in  congress.  He  was  a  member  of  the  Illinois  state  legislature 
two  terms,  in  1863  and  1867,  and  refused  a  third  election.  In  1868  he  began  the 
practice  of  law  in  Chicago,  and  his  success  was  unsurpassed  until  the  financial 
storm  of  1873,  which  literally  swept  from  him  every  vestige  of  his  large  proper- 
ties, and  it  is  only  proper  to  state  that  from  this  time  until  the  date  of  his  death 
the  heart  had  gone  out  of  his  life  and  work  altogether. 


262  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

His  wife  and  five  children,  four,  sons  and  one  daughter,  survive  him.  The 
daughter,  Elmira,  is  the  wife  of  Col.  Elnathan  S.  Weeden,  a  well  known  attorney 
and  capitalist.  The  sons  are  Rev.  Alonzo  Wakeman,  a  clergyman  of  the  Meth- 
odist Episcopal  church;  Edgar  L.  Wakeman,  a  well  known  journalist  and  littera- 
teur, for  many  years  the  northern  representative  of  the  Louisville  "  Courier- 
Journal;"  B.  T.  Wakeman,  an  attorney,  who  succeeded  to  his  father's  practice; 
and  the  youngest  son,  Wilbur  F.  Wakeman,  already  somewhat  known  in  journal- 
istic circles. 

HENRY    K.   GOODRICH. 

HENRY  K.  GOODRICH  is  a  native  of  Rutland  county,  Vermont,  and  was 
born  July  7,  1854;  the  son  of  Henry  Butler  Goodrich,  who  came  to  Illinois 
in  1856.  Henry  K.  studied  at  Wheaton  College,  Illinois.  Having  early  deter- 
mined to  become  a  lawyer,  he  began  his  law  studies  December,  1878,  with  Perry 
A.  Armstrong,  of  Morris,  Illinois,  and  completed  them,  preparatory  to  examina- 
tion, in  Chicago.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  January  13,  1881,  and  has  been 
in  practice,  with  fair  success,  since  that  time.  Mr.  Goodrich  is  a  young  man  of 
good  abilities,  enterprising  and  industrious,  and  by  his  own  unaided  efforts  has 
overcome  many  obstacles,  and  prepared  himself  for  the  profession  of  his  choice. 
Possessing  independence  of  character,  a  clear,  sound  judgment,  a  good  legal 
mind,  and  ability  to  apply  himself  to  study  and  hard  work,  he  may  expect  the 
realization  of  his  highest  hopes  of  professional  standing  and  honor. 


HON.  MELVILLE  WESTON   FULLER. 

MELVILLE  W.  FULLER  was  born  February  1 1,  1833,  in  the  city  of  Augusta, 
Maine;  is  from  the  best  New  England  stock,  the  origin  of  which,  in  New 
England,  dates  back  to  the  Mayflower.  His  parents  were  Frederick  A.  Fuller, 
son  of  Hon.  Henry  W.  Fuller,  of  Augusta,  and  Catherine  Martin,  daughter  of 
chief-justice  Nathan  Weston.  His  great-grandfathers,  as  well  as  his  great-great- 
grandfathers, were  distinguished  citizens  of  that  town.  Melville  W.  fitted  for 
college  in  Augusta,  and  graduated  at  Bowdoin,  in  the  class  of  1853,  when  he 
entered  the  office  of  his  uncle,  George  Melville  Weston,  at  Bangor,  where  he  studied 
law,  subsequently  attending  lectures  in  the  law  department  of  Harvard  University, 
and  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  his  native  city  in  1856,  but  devoted 
himself  mainly  to  editorial  duties  on  "  The  Age"  newspaper,  of  which  he  was  one  of 
the  editors.  The  followjrig  year  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  common  council 
of  Augusta,  and  was  chosen  its  president,  and  to  these  duties  were  added  those  of 
city  solicitor.  In  1856  he  resigned  these  official  positions,  and,  seeking  a  wider 
field  of  action,  removed  to  Chicago,  and  in  this  new  field  he  at  once  attracted 
favorable  attention,  and  soon  acquired  a  lucrative  business  in  his  profession,  and 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  263 

a  reputation  as  an  able  and  honorable  lawyer.  The  larger  part  of  the  time  he 
has  been  alone  in  business;  the  range  of  his  practice  has  been  very  extended,  and 
in  all  the  departments  of  his  profession  he  has  proven  himself  proficient  in  the 
law.  He  has  devoted  his  best  energies  to  his  profession,  and  in  this  field  has  won 
distinction  as  a  faithful  and  reliable  attorney  and  counselor,  and  ranks  among 
the  foremost  at  this  bar.  He  has  acquired  a  competency,  and  owns  the  block  in 
which  he  has  his  office.  From  the  time  of  his  advent  in  Chicago  he  has  held  his 
own  amid  a  sea  of  matured  intellect  and  large  experience,  and  proven  the  equal 
of  the  ablest  and  most  successful.  He  has  been  connected  with  several  cases 
which  have  attracted  the  attention  of  the  general  public  in  this  and  other 
countries;  notably  the  case  before  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  arising  out  of 
the  prorogation  of  the  legislature  of  Illinois  by  the  late  Gov.  Richard  Yates, 
which  presented  some  most  important  questions  of  a  political  nature;  also 
the  defense  of  Rev.  Charles  Edward  Cheney,  who  was  tried  before  an  Episcopal 
ecclesiastical  tribunal  for  omitting  words  from  the  prayer  book  of  the  Episcopal 
church.  He  had  in  that  as  an  opponent,  the  late  distinguished  Bishop  White- 
house,  himself  a  profound  lawyer.  The  case  was  in  litigation  a  long  time,  and  at 
all  stages  of  the  trial,  involving  intricate  questions,  Mr.  Fuller  evidenced  a  pro- 
found research  and  knowledge  of  ecclesiastical  law,  rarely  possessed  by  any 
lawyer,  even  a  professional  in  that  line  of  practice.  His  argument  before  the 
supreme  court,  when  the  trial  terminated,  was  brilliant  and  able. 

He  had  a  predilection  for  politics  when  young;  not  however,  that  he  was 
ambitious  for  office,  for  he  has  persistently  declined  to  allow  the  use  of  his  name 
for  any  office,  the  performance  of  the  duties  of  which  would  materially  interfere 
with  his  professional  and  other  business.  He  is  a  democrat  of  the  Jeffersonian 
type,  and  unswervingly  in  favor  of  hard  money,  free  trade  and  a  strict  construc- 
tion of  the  constitution  of  his  country.  His  moderation,  dignity  of  manner  and 
high  character  invariably  win  the  esteem  of  his  political  opponents  who  recognize 
in  him  an  antagonist  who  fights  fairly  and  in  the  open  field.  In  1861  he  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  constitutional  convention  in  this  state,  and  was  among 
the  foremost  of  its  members  and  evidenced  a  thorough  knowledge  of  constitu- 
tional law  and  conventions,  and  left  the  impress  of  his  knowledge  and  views  upon 
the  instrument  adopted  by  the  convention.  In  1862  he  was  elected  to  the  legisla- 
ture, both  elections  in  decided  republican  districts,  and  exhibited  great  skill  in 
debate,  and  left  his  mark  upon  the  legislation  of  that  session.  During  the  trying 
times  of  the  rebellion  he  was  a  patriot,  and  vigorously  supported  measures  for 
the  suppression  of  what  proved  to  be  an  inevitable  war,  to  save  the  Union,  and 
when  peace  had  been  restored  he  was  equally  earnest  for  the  restoration  of  the 
Union.  He  has  great  influence  in  Illinois  to-day,  though  his  party  is  yet  in  the 
minority  in  the  state. 

He  was  a  delegate  to  the  national  democratic  conventions  of  1864,  1872,  1876 
and  1880.  and  grew  to  be  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  and  influential  members. 
He  is  an  upright  and  reliable  gentleman,  an  honest  man;  is  esteemed  by  all  who 


264  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICACO. 

know  him  for  his  many  good  qualities  and  high  character  as  an  individual  and  a 
citizen.  He  is  a  man  of  varied  literary  attainments  of  a  high  order,  and  learned 
in  all  departments  of  the  law.  His  public  speeches  are  characterized  by  elegance 
of  diction,  eloquence  and  clearly  denned  points.  His  address  of  welcome  to 
Stephen  A.  Douglas  in  1860,  his  eulogy  in  1861,  in  commemoration  of  the  death 
of  his  distinguished  friend,  and  his  address  on  Judge  Breese  before  the  State 
Bar  Association  in  1879,  and  other  addresses  may  be  pointed  to  as  examples  of 
brilliant  and  scholarly  productions,  and  of  eloquent  and  finished  oratory. 

He  has  been  twice  married.  In  1858  he  married  Calista  O.  Reynolds;  and 
after  her  decease,  and  in  1866,  Mary  Ellen,  daughter  of  the  late  distinguished 
financier  and  banker,  Hon.  Wm.  F.  Coolbaugh. 


OLIVER    H.  HORTON. 

C^  UCCESS  in  any  walk  of  life  is  an  indication  of  application,  and  more  than  in 
wj  any  other  is  success  in  the  life  of  a  professional  man  evidence  of  earnest 
endeavor,  close  application  and  faithfulness.  In  the  hands  of  the  lawyer  are  nec- 
essarily intrusted  matters  involving  property,  reputation  and  life,  and  upon  his 
skill,  patient  and  untiring  toil  and  loyalty,  the  rich  and  poor,  the  strong  and  the 
helpless  depend.  The  true  lawyer  counts  it  no  honor  that  he  can  point  to  an 
unstained  record,  because  the  obligations  of  his  profession  are  exacting,  yet  if  he 
has  through  struggles,  anxieties,  temptations  and  labors,  of  which  the  outer  world 
knows  little,  planted  his  feet  upon  the  eminence  of  success  in  his  profession, 
though  he  may  take  no  credit  to  himself  for  doing  his  work  as  a  man  should,  the 
world  is  better  for  his  life. 

Among  those  who  make  no  claim  to  honor,  for  having  fulfilled  the  obligations 
of  his  profession,  is  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Oliver  Harvey  Horton  was  born 
in  Cattaraugus  county,  New  York,  October  20,  1835.  His  father,  Harvey  W. 
Horton,  a  Baptist  clergyman,  was  a  native  of  Vermont.  His  mother,  Mary  H. 
(Choate)  Horton,  was  a  native  of  Connecticut,  and  a  relative  of  Rufus  Choate. 
Mr.  Horton  removed  to  Chicago  in  1855,  and  was  engaged  in  the  lumber  business 
for  three  years.  He  then  went  south  for  a  time,  returning  in  1859. 

He  began  the  study  of  law  in  1860,  in  the  office  of  Hovne,  Miller  and  Lewis, 
and  remained  with  this  firm  as  student  and  clerk,  until  January  1864,  when  it  was 
dissolved,  and  a  new  copartnership  formed,  under  the  name  of  Hoyne,  Ayer  and 
Horton,  the  partners  being  Hon.  Thomas  Hoyne,  Benjamin  F.  Ayer  and  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch.  Mr.  Horton  was  graduated  in  1863,  from  the  law  school  of 
the  University  of  Chicago,  then  as  now,  presided  over  by  Hon.  Henry  Booth,  late 
judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county.  He  had,  however,  previously  been 
admitted  to  the  bar. 

In  1865  the  firm  of  Hoyne,  Ayer  and  Horton  was  dissolved,  and  the  firm  of 
Hoyne  and  Horton  formed,  and  January  i,  1867,  it  was  changed  to  Hoyne,  Hor- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  267 

ton  and  Hoyne,  Thomas  M.  Hoyne  having  been  admitted  as  a  member.  Since 
that  date  the  firm  has  continued  without  change  of  name,  and  is  now  one  of  the 
oldest  law  firms  in  Chicago. 

Mr.  Horton  was  for  some  time  actively  connected  with  the  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  of  Chicago.  He  held  the  office  of  vice-president  for  a  num- 
ber of  years,  and  was  also  chairman  of  the  lecture  committee.  In  religion  he  is  a 
Methodist,  and  has  been  a  trustee  of  Grace  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  of  this 
city,  for  about  fifteen  years.  He  has  held  "every  official  position  to  which  a  lay- 
man is  eligible  in  that  church.  In  1880  he  was  sent  as  a  lay  delegate  to  the  Gen- 
eral Conference,  which  met  in  Cincinnati,  and  in  1881,  was  elected  lay  delegate 
to  the  Ecumenical  Conference,  which  met  in  London,  England. 

The  compliment  of  such  distinction,  based  as  it  is  upon  personal  knowledge, 
is  much  greater  than  any  political  preferment,  which  is  rarely  obtained  without 
solicitation.  He  is  now  an  active  trustee  of  the  Northwestern  University.  In 
politics  Mr.  Horton  is,  and  has  always  been,  a  republican,  but  has  refused  to  be  a 
candidate  for  office,  though  repeatedly  requested  to  allow  himself  to  be  put  for- 
ward politically.  The  events  of  Mr.  Horton's  eighteen  years'  labors  at  the  bar, 
and  his  life,  before  and  among  the  people,  may  be  summed  up  in  the  word  suc- 
cess,—success  as  a  lawyer,  as  a  citizen  and  as  a  man. 


GEO.   H.  KETTELLE. 

GEO.  H.  KETTELLE  is  of  French  descent  on  the  paternal  side,  his  great- 
grandfather coming  from  Alsace,  now  a  part  of  the  German  empire,  and 
settling  in  Massachusetts  before  the  outbreak  of  the  colonies.  The  grandfather 
of  George  was  born  in  Charlestow.n,  in  that  state,  and  his  father,  Charles  Kettelle,  in 
Boston.  The  latter  married  Lucinda  Dickinson,  a  native  of  Hadley,  Massachu- 
setts, and  a  member  of  a  very  old  family  in  that  commonwealth.  Her  mother 
belonged  to  the  Stockbridges  of  Massachusetts,  and  our  subject  strikingly  resem- 
bles that  family. 

A  little  less  than  fifty  years  ago  Charles  Kettelle  emigrated  to  the  West  and 
settled  in  Peoria,  Illinois,  where  George  was  born  December  18,  1838.  His  father 
was  county  clerk  and  recorder  of  Peoria  county,  Illinois,  for  thirty  years;  lived 
on  a  farm  in  Woodford  county  until  his  death,  March  14,  1882,  and  his  mother  is 
still  alive.  Mr.  Kettelle  was  educated  at  the  Hopkins  Academy,  Hadley,  Massa- 
chusetts, where  he  fitted  for  college,  designing  to  enter  Amherst,  but  his  plans 
were  frustrated,  and  he  spent  several -years  in  his  father's  (county)  office.  At  the 
same  time  he  read  law  with  Judge  M.  Williamson  for  preceptor,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1864,  but  he  did  not  open  an  office  until  1868,  being  induced  to  tem- 
porarily engage  in  mercantile  pursuits. 

Mr.  Kettelle  commenced  the  practice  of  the  legal  profession  at  Metamora,  the 
county  seat  of  Woodford  county,  and  six  years  afterward,  in  1874,  removed  to 
28 


268  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

Peoria,  where  he  remained  two  years,  holding  the  office  of  city  attorney  one 
term.  In  1876  he  settled  in  Chicago,  where  with  his  fine  legal  attainments  he 
finds  ample  opportunity  to  display  his  talents.  His  practice  is  both  civil  and 
criminal,  the  latter  largely  predominating.  Since  practicing  at  the  Chicago  bar, 
Mr.  Kettelle  has  been  connected  with  many  prominent  criminal  cases,  including 
some  forty  in  number,  for  murder,  and  in  this  branch  of  his  practice  especially, 
has  met  with  marked  success.  An  eminent  jurist  of  Chicago  thus  writes  in  regard 
to  him: 

"  He  is,  in  my  opinion,  a  lawyer  well  grounded  in  the  fundamental  principles 
of  law,  ready  and  accurate  in  their  application,  and  always  frank  and  honest  in 
his  presentation  of  law  questions  to  the  court.  He  tries  his  case  well,  is  courte- 
ous and  gentlemanly  in  his  manners  to  his  opponent,  and  clear  and  pointed  in  his 
argument  to  the  jury." 

Mr.  Kettelle  is  a  democrat  of  the  independent  stamp,  and  a  Blue  Lodge,  Chap- 
ter and  Commandery  Mason. 

He  married  in  February  1858,  Miss  Malina  A.  Keach,  of  Peoria,  Illinois. 


EDSON    J.    HARKNESS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  lawyer  of  fine  ability,  who  stands  well  in  the 
community  where  he  lives,  and  has  the  confidence  of  the  courts  before 
which  he  practices,  and  the  good  will  of  the  members  of  the  bar.  Being  a  gentle- 
man of  pleasing  address  and  genuine  worth,  he  has  many  friends.  He  is  a  native 
of  New  York,  and  was  born  in  Ontario,  Wayne  county,  August  31,  1843,  and  is  the 
son  of  Southward  Harkness  and  Harriet  (Foot)  Harkness.  He  commenced  his  edu- 
cation in  the  common  schools  and  took  a  scientific  and  classical  academic  course, 
and  was  prepared  to  enter  college  when  he  entered  the  army,  in  1862.  He  enlisted 
in  the  I38th  New  York  Vol.  Inf.,  which  regiment  was  afterward  transferred  into 
the  artillery  branch  of  the  service,  and  was  designated  and  known  as  the  gth  New 
York  Heavy  Artillery.  He  remained  in  the  regiment  one  year,  and  was  then 
commissioned  captain  and  assigned  a  command  in  the  6th  United  States  colored 
troops,  under  Col.  John  W.  Ames.  He  went  up  the  James  river  in  1864  in  the 
division  commanded  by  Gen.  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  and  participated  in  the  succes- 
sion of  battles  that  occurred  there  in  1864-5,  ar|d  was  with  Gen.  Butler  in  his 
Fort  Fisher  expedition,  and  was  afterward  with  Gen.  Terry  and  participated  in 
taking  Fort  Fisher  and  Wilmington,  and  went  on  to  Goldsboro,  North  Carolina. 
He  was  at  Raleigh,  North  Carolina,  at  the  cjose  of  the  war,  and  was  mustered  out 
of  service  at  Wilmington,  North  Carolina,  and  thence  returned  home. 

He  settled  in  Chicago  in  June,  1868,  and  entered  the  special  assessment  depart- 
ment of  the  board  of  public  works,  and  has  been  in  the  employment  of  the  city 
ever  since  that  time.  In  1873  he  was  placed  in  charge  of  the  preparation  of  con- 
demnation gases,  and  in  January,  1877,  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar.  Since 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO.  269 

that  time  he  has  had  charge  of  the  condemnation  cases  in  court  under  the  corpo- 
ration counsel.  Mr.  Harkness  is  careful  in  the  preparation  of  his  cases,  and  is 
a  good  trial  lawyer  and  a  safe  counsel.  He  was  married  in  January,  1870,  to  Miss 
Marianna  Bates,  of  Rochester,  New  York. 


DUNCAN  SHADE  GOODING. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Goderich,  Canada,  March  29,  1838,  and 
is  the  son  of  William  Fisher  Gooding,  a  native  of  Canandaigua,  New  York, 
and  Jane  (Good)  Gooding,  a  native  of  Ayrshire,  Scotland.  Mr.  Gooding  pursued 
a  course  in,  and  graduated  from  the  grammar  school  of  his  native  town,  under  the 
tuition  and  guidance  of  the  worthy  John  Holdan,  a  noted  educator.  Having 
decided  to  fit  himself  for  the  legal  profession,  he  entered  upon  the  study  of  law 
with  Ira  Lewis,  who  is  now  Queen's  counsel,  and  county  crown  attorney  for  the 
county  of  Huron,  Canada;  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Upper  Canada  in  1860. 
Immediately  thereafter  he  began  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  continued  doing  a 
lucrative  business  in  Canada  until  1872,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago.  During 
his  first  year  in  Chicago  he  was  associated  in  business  with  D.  E.  K.  Stewart,  at 
the  end  of  which  time  he  became  connected  with  Shufeldt  and  Westover,  and 
remained  with  them  many  years.  He  is  not  now  connected  with  any  firm. 

He  was  married  June  17,  1859,  to  the  youngest  daughter  of  the  late  Capt.  Wm. 
Wadell,  who  served  under  the  Duke  of  Wellington,  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo. 

In  politics  Mr.  Gooding,  though  a  democrat  in  principle,  is  independent  in  his 
views,  and  in  no  sense  a  partisan.  He  is  a  man  of  generous  impulses,  honorable 
and  manly,  and  in  all  his  relations  and  dealings  with  others,  merits  and  receives 
their  respect  and  esteem. 


FRANK    OLNEY  COOK. 

THIS  subject  is  the  son  of  Dr.  John  H.  Cook,  a  native  of  Seneca  county,  New 
York,  of  English  descent.  His  mother  was  Pamelia  (Orth)  Cook,  of  imme- 
diate German  descent,  but  her  ancestors  belonged  to  the  banished  French 
Huguenots.  She  was  born  in  the  Catskill  Mountains,  in  Sullivan  county,  New 
York.  The  parents  of  our  subject  removed  to  Ionia  county,  Michigan,  in 
1855,  Marshall,  fifty  miles  distant,  being  then  the  nearest  railway  station.  Dr. 
Cook's  practice  extended  over  a  circuit  of  thirty  miles  or  more,  among  the  whites 
and  Indians,  and  he  was  seldom  at  home.  School  privileges  being  extremely 
limited,  Frank  obtained  the  major  part  of  his  knowledge  of  the  common  English 
branches  by  private  study  at  such  odd  times  as  he  could  get,  and  thus  qualified 
himself  to  enter  the  Portland  union  school,  a  year  and  a  half  in  advance,  and 
was  enabled  to  finish  his  course  of  study  in  that  institution  in  one  year's  time, 


2  JO  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

which,  with  a  total  of  thirteen  months  at  district  school,  comprised  his  entire  school 
days.  He  taught  a  district  school  four  winters,  but  never  considered  himself  a 
success,  nor  was  he  so  regarded  by  the  people  in  that  line  of  business. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  years  he  united  with  the  Christian  church,  in  Sebewa, 
Ionia  county,  Michigan;  and  two  years  later  was  licensed  to  preach,  by  that 
denomination.  He  continued  to  preach,  often  to  large  congregations,  and  also 
lectured  upon  temperance  extensively,  in  the  state  of  Michigan,  until  after  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar.  But  his  was  a  new  denomination  in  a  new  county, 
whose  inhabitants  were  mostly  farmers  of  limited  means.  He  was  often  obliged 
to  resort  to  mannal  labor,  such  as  he  could  find  in  the  vicinity  of  his  preaching, 
to  better  support  himself  and  to  relieve  his  people  from  incurring  heavy  obliga- 
tions, and  hence  became  an  adept  at  numerous  kinds  of  mechanical  work. 

He  entered  into  partnership  with  Mr.  J.  V.  Mickle,  of  the  "Grand  River 
Herald,"  a  republican  newspaper  published  at  Muir,  Michigan,  during  the  presi- 
dential campaign  of  1876.  It  proved  a  disastrous  enterprise.  The  block  in  which 
their  office  was  situated  caught  fire,  and  the  contents  of  their  office  were  thrown 
into  the  street;  the  firm  was  then  severely  pressed  by  creditors,  and  the  partner- 
ship was  dissolved,  and  Mr.  Cook,  being  unable  to  get  any  financial  assistance 
from  his  partner,  was  compelled  to  assume  and  pay  several  thousand  dollars 
partnership  debts. 

He  entered  the  office  of  Toan  and  Roof  May  12,  1877,  as  a  student,  with  only 
one  suit  of  clothes  to  his  back,  twenty-five  cents  in  his  pocket,  and  in  debt 
to  the  amount  of  $2,500,  with  no  one  to  draw  upon.  He  remained  in  that  office 
doing  small  collections  until  the  next  spring,  when  he  borrowed  books  to  read; 
went  home  and  assisted  his  father  in  clearing  ten  acres  of  timber  land,  and  in  the 
fall  entered  the  office  of  Blanchard,  Bell  and  Cagwin,  of  Ionia  City,  Ionia  county, 
Michigan,  as  a  student,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  March  24,  1879.  After 
remaining  in  that  office  a  short  time  he  opened  an  office  for  himself,  in  Blanchard, 
Isabella  county,  Michigan,  when  he  at  once  established  himself  in  a  successful 
practice,  making  $160.00  during  the  first  six  weeks.  Soon  afterward  the  town 
was  burned,  by  fire  that  raged  in  the  pine  woods.  He  then  started  for  Chicago, 
with  the  expectation  of  finding  a  position  as  clerk,  but  being  ill  on  his  arrival, 
and  unacquainted  in  the  city,  his  money  soon  became  exhausted.  He  commenced 
work  as  a  carpenter,  on  Armour's  elevator,  at  $2  per  day,  at  which  he  continued 
through  that  summer,  when  he  received  an  injury  from  a  fall  and  was  laid  up, 
and  again  his  money  was  exhausted,  and  he  was  compelled  to  pawn  his  watch. 
With  courage  undaunted,  he  opened  a  law  office,  and  with  the  aid  of  what  he 
earned  in  a  printing  office,  working  nights,  he  managed  to  meet  his  expenses  by 
practicing  great  self-denial,  until  his  business  was  sufficiently  lucrative  to  sup- 
port him.  He  has  continued  in  the  business  since  that  time  until  the  present. 
He  tried  his  first  case  in  Chicago  before  Justice  Cory,  of  the  town  of  Lake,  for 
nothing,  and  solicited  the  opportunity,  and  from  that  time  his  business  has 
gradually  increased,  and  he  has  already  successfully  conducted  several  important 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2JI 

litigations  committed  to  his  care,  and  is  rapidly  taking  a  front  rank  among  the 
members  of  the  bar  in  this  city. 

Mr.  Cook  is  a  very  active  man,  fluent  of  speech,  generous  hearted,  sociable  and 
friendly.  He  is  a  hard  worker,  of  good  habits,  and  well  disposed. 

He  has  been  twice  married.  When  he  was  twenty-one  years  old  he  married 
Miss  Anna  McEvers,  who  died  six  months  and  twenty-one  days  thereafter.  His 
second  marriage  was  January  3,  1880,  to  Miss  Nellie  M.  Smith,  daughter  of  Sid- 
ney M.  Smith,  of  Sheridan,  Michigan,  a  niece  of  Hon.  Vernon  Smith,  judge  of 
the  eighth  judicial  district  of  Michigan. 


KIMBALL  YOUNG. 

IMBALL  YOUNG  was  born  at  Marshall,  Illinois,  January  27,  1853,  and  is 
the  son  of  Timothy  R.  Young,  an  ex-member  of  congress  and  a  prominent 
lawyer  in  central  Illinois.  He  prepared  for  college  at  Dover,  New  Hampshire, 
and  in  this  state,  and  entered  the  University  of  Michigan  at  Ann  Arbor  in  1869, 
graduating  in  1873.  The  succeeding  two  years  Mr.  Young  spent  in  traveling, 
and  in  1875  he  began  the  study  of  law  at  Mattoon,  Illinois,  in  the  office  of  Charles 
Bennett,  where  he  remained  for  a  short  time,  and  then  removed  to  Chicago  and 
entered  the  office  of  Gookins  and  Roberts.  He  remained  with  that  firm  for  one 
year,  during  which  time  he  attended  the  Union  College  of  Law,  and  graduated 
in  1876,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  shortly  thereafter.  He  was  a  clerk  in  the 
office  of  D.  L.  Shorey  for  a  year,  and  in  1877  began  the  practice  of  law  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  firm  of  Jayne,  DeWolf  and  Young,  which  partnership  continued  until 
1878,  since  which  time  he  has  been  alone  up  to  September  r,  1882,  when  he 
formed  his  present  connection  with  F.  W.  C.  Hayes.  Mr.  Young  is  a  democrat  in 
politics,  but  takes  no  active  part  therein. 


GEORGE    C.    INGHAM. 

GEORGE  COLLINS  INGHAM  is  a  native  of  Middletown,  Butler  county, 
Ohio;  was  born  March  10,  1851,  and  is  the  son  of  Dr.  Lyman  E.  Ingham 
and  Susan  M.  (Hills)  Ingham.  His  father,  a  graduate  of  the  Western  Reserve 
Medical  College,  of  Ohio,  was  a  physician  of  prominence.  He  died  in  July,  1855, 
at  the  age  of  thirty-three  years,  at  Greenville,  Ohio.  He  was  a  son  of  Thomas 
Harvey  Ingham,  a  farmer  by  occupation,  who  still  lives  at  Granville,  Ohio, 
whither  he  removed  in  the  early  part  of  the  present  century  from  the  state  of  New 
York.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  as  was  also  his  grandfather,  who  died  a  prisoner  of 
war  at  New  York  city,  on  board  an  English  prison-ship,  during  the  revolutionary 
struggle.  The  mother  of  our  subject  is  descended  from  an  old  New  England 
family,  and  is  a  daughter  of  Reuben  M.  Hills,  a  merchant,  who  formerly  resided 


372  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CfffCAGO. 

at  Goshen,  Connecticut,  whence  he  removed  to  Virginia  at  an  early  age,  and 
thence  to  Granville,  Ohio,  where  the  daughter  became  acquainted  with  him  who 
afterward  became  her  husband.  To  her  training  and  example  are  in  no  small 
degree  due  the  characteristic  qualities  of  the  son.  She  now  resides  at  Covington, 
Indiana,  the  wife  of  Abraham  Gish,  a  prominent  banker,  and  one  of  the  early 
settlers  of  that  city. 

Soon  after  the  death  of  his  father,  George,  who  was  then  little  more  than  four 
years  old,  went  with  his  mother  to  live  with  an  uncle,  Dr.  R.  M.  Hills,  a  noted 
physician  at  Covington,  Indiana,  and  there  received  his  primary  education  in  the 
public  schools.  As  a  boy  he  was  modest,  retiring  and  genial;  a  good  scholar, 
and  a  constant  and  careful  reader.  He  early  formed  the  purpose  of  fitting  him- 
self for  professional  life,  and  when  sixteen  years  of  age  entered  the  preparatory 
department  of  Shurtleff  College,  at  Alton,  Illinois.  Two  years  later,  in  Septem- 
ber, 1870,  he  entered  upon  the  regular  classical  course  in  the  freshman  class  of 
that  institution,  and  at  the  close  of  that  year  was  awarded  the  first  prize  for 
excellence  in  declamation.  A  similar  honor  was  conferred  upon  him  at  the  end 
of  his  sophomore  year  at  a  class  contest  in  oratory.  At  the  beginning  of  his 
junior  year,  Mr.  Ingham,  in  company  with  several  of  his  classmates,  entered  the 
University  of  Chicago,  where,  during  the  remainder  of  his  college  course,  he 
maintained  the  same  high  standard  of  scholarship  which  had  formerly  character- 
ized him,  and  came  to  be  known  as  a  close  student,  a  convincing  debater,  a  prac- 
tical thinker,  and  an  orator  of  superior  merit.  Here  again  he  carried  off  the  first 
prize  at  the  junior  oratorical  contest,  and  during  the  following  year  was  elected 
orator  of  his  class.  The  Chicago  "Times,"  in  speaking  of  his  class-day  oration, 
said  "it  is  an  oration  of  which  he  may  well  be  proud.  It  was  pronounced  by 
able  judges  the  most  finished  effort  they  had  ever  listened  to  on  any  similar  occa- 
sion." While  in  the  university,  Mr.  Ingham  became  an  honored  member  of  the 
Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity. 

Having  already  decided  to  devote  himself  to  the  legal  profession,  he,  while  a 
student  in  college,  devoted  a  portion  of  his  spare  time  to  the  reading  of  Black- 
stone,  and  in  the  fall  succeeding  his  graduation  (1873)  began  a  regular  course  of 
study  at  the  Union  College  of  Law,  at  Chicago,  and  also  during  that  year  acted 
as  an  instructor  in  his  alma  mater.  He  afterward  entered  the  law  office  of 
Luther  Laflin  Mills,  and  immediately  upon  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  Septem- 
ber 1875,  became  junior  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Mills,  Weber  and  Ingham,  and 
so  continued  until  Mr.  Mills  was  elected  to  the  office  of  state's  attorney  for  Cook 
county,  Illinois,  in  the  fall  of  1876,  when  the  firm  was  dissolved,  and  was  suc- 
ceeded by  the  firm  of  Munn,  Ingham  and  Pope.  In  June  1880,  he  was  appointed 
to  the  position  of  assistant  state's  attorney.  As  a  public  prosecutor  Mr.  Ingham 
has  won  the  highest  esteem  of  the  various  judges  who  have  occupied  the  criminal 
bench  during  the  term  of  his  office,  for  his  legal  knowledge  and  ability,  his  skill 
in  the  management  of  his  cases,  his  high  sense  of  professional  honor,  and  his 
unqualified  fairness  in  presenting  the  cause  of  the  people  against  the  prisoner  at 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  273 

the  bar.  Among  his  professional  brethren  he  is  universally  respected.  Modest, 
unassuming  and  unostentatious,  he  is  at  the  same  time  careful  and  exact,  and 
seldom  fails  to  detect  a  weak  point  in  an  opponent's  position,  or  a  fallacy  in  his 
argument.  He  excels  as  a  cross-examiner.  In  his  arguments  or  addresses  before 
court  or  jury  he  has  a  style  of  oratory  peculiarly  his  own,  at  once  fluent,  forcible, 
entertaining  and  convincing.  Discarding  mere  flowers  of  rhetoric  and  the  trap- 
pings of  the  actor,  he  clothes  his  thoughts  in  pure,  plain  English  that  cannot  be 
misunderstood,  and  while  exhibiting  in  his  elegant  and  terse  style  a  readiness 
and  force  that  come  only  with  familiarity  with  the  subject,  at  the  same  time  dis- 
plays good  taste,  and  the  possession  of  a  vast  reserve  fund  of  varied  and  practical 
learning. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Ingham  is  thoroughly  devoted  to  his  profession.  A  careful 
and  constant  student,  his  legal  opinions  are  always  supported  by  authorities,  and 
reliable.  He  is  at  the  same  time  social  and  domestic  in  his  tastes  and  habits, 
genial  and  companionable,  and  in  his  varied  social,  professional  or  business 
relations  maintains  a  character  stainless  and  irreproachable. 

His  wife,  Lizzie  (Gordon)  Ingham,  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Hon.  Alex.  W. 
Gordon,  for  many  years  a  prominent  member  of  the  Indiana  state  senate,  and  a 
leading  dry  goods  merchant  of  Lafayette.  Mrs.  Ingham  is  an  accomplished 
lady,  and  a  worthy  companion  of  her  husband.  They  were  married  in  December 
1880,  and  have  one  child,  Gordon  Ingham. 


WILLIAM    H.   SWIFT. 

ONE  of  the  most  worthy  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar  is  William  H.  Swift,  who 
has  succeeded  in  his  chosen  profession,  by  adhering  strictly  to  principles  of 
integrity,  and  honest,  upright  dealing.  He  is  a  thorough  lawyer  in  all  depart- 
ments of  the  profession,  being  well  trained  in  all  of  the  details  of  the  business. 
He  is  an  expert  in  special  pleading,  and  careful  in  the  preparation  of  all  legal 
documents.  He  takes  particular  pains  in  the  preparation  of  his  cases,  and  his 
foresight  is  so  keen  that  he  seldom  fails  in  a  suit  to  which  he  has  given  careful 
attention  and  investigation. 

William  H.  Swift  is  a  son  of  Alexander  and  Susan  (Coleman)  Swift,  and  is 
descended  from  families  largely  sea-faring  on  both  sides,  and  was  born  at  Nan- 
tucket,  Massachusetts,  March  27,  1838.  His  parents  belonged  to  old  New  Eng- 
land families.  William  prepared  for  college  at  the  Nantucket  high  school,  and 
graduated  at  Williams  College  in  1863,  as  valedictorian  of  his  class.  He  taught 
school,  while  fitting  for  college,  part  of  the  time,  and  also  after"  receiving  his 
diploma,  his  field  of  such  labor  being  in  Massachusetts  and  Louisiana,  chiefly  in 
the  former  state.  He  read  law  with  Hon.  S.  W.  Bowerman,  of  Pittsfield,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  at  Harvard  Law  School,  Cambridge;  was  there  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  1865  ;  remained  there  in  practice  until  1870,  when  he  settled  in  Chicago.  He 


274  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

is  of  the  firm  of  Swift  and  Campbell,  a  firm  that  ranks  high  with  the  courts,  anil 
among  the  leading  law  firms  of  Chicago. 

Mr.  Swift  is  a  republican,  but  we  cannot  learn  that  his  activity  in  politics 
extends  beyond  going  to  the  polls  on  election  day  and  voting.  With  him,  law 
has  the  priority  over  everything  else  of  a  business  character.  He  is  a  member, 
and  one  of  the  elders,  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church,  of  Chicago.  He  married 
at  Pittsfield,  Massachusetts,  May  i,  1867,  Grace,  daughter  of  George  Campbell,  a 
prominent  manufacturer  of  Berkshire  county,  Massachusetts. 


ELLIS  S.  CHESBROUGH,  JR. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  born  in  West 
Newton.  He  is  a  son  of  E.  S.  Chesbrough,  a  well  known  civil  engineer,  now 
of  Chicago,  and  Elizabeth  (Freyer)  Chesbrough.  Mr.  Chesbrough  was  educated 
in  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1871.  He 
then  entered  Harvard  Law  School  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  graduating 
therefrom  in  1873.  Returning  to  Chicago,  he  continued  his  law  studies  in  the 
office  of  Ayer  and  Kales,  and  during  that  same  year  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
Illinois.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  engaged  in  the  general  practice  of  the  law 
in  Chicago  with  good  success.  Mr.  Chesbrough  is  a  thorough  student,  well  read 
in  the  law,  and  especially  in  preparing  briefs,  and  possesses  a  happy  faculty  of 
presenting  his  cases  before  the  court,  clearly  and  well.  His  conduct  of  the  case, 
Walker  vs.  Carlton,  involving  the  questions  of  redemption  from  trustees'  sale, 
reflects  great  credit  upon  him  for  careful  preparation,  and  skillful  management. 


HON.  SAMUEL   K.  DOW. 

SAMUEL  KNIGHT  DOW  is  descended  from  English-Scotch  ancestry.  His 
paternal  grandmother  was  a  member  of  the  celebrated  noble  family  of  Gor- 
don, one  of  whose  representatives  (Lord  George  Gordon)  figured  so  conspicuously 
in  the  "no  popery"  riots,  in  the  time  of  George  III.  On  the  maternal  side  his 
great-grandfather,  for  whom  he  was  named,  held  a  royal  commission  as  surveyor 
from  King  George  III  in  colonial  times,  a  member  of  the  family  having  emigrated 
from  England  in  1630  and  settled  in  Durham,  New  Hampshire.  Lorenzo  Dow, 
the  eccentric  preacher,  and  also  Neal  Dow,  the  noted  temperance  reformer,  sprang 
from  this  original  stock.  They  serve  to  illustrate  some  of  its  prominent  charac- 
teristics, such  as  rectitude  of  character  and  concentration  of  purpose. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  the  town  of  Hollis,  Maine,  in  1831,  the 
son  of  Samuel  and  Sophia  Knight  Dow,  and  was  reared  on  a  farm,  where  he 
worked  through  all  the  vacations  of  his  student  life  until  he  was  eighteen  years  of 
age.  He  was  educated  in  the  common  schools  and  academies  of  his  native  state, 
and  is  essentially  a  self-made  man, 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAK    OF   CHICAGO.  2"JJ 

In  1850  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  at  Saco,  Maine,  and  entered  the  Dane 
Law  School  at  Harvard,  Massachusetts,  in  1852.  He  graduated  in  1854  and 
received  the  degree  of  LL.B.  He  was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar,  Boston,  upon 
examination,  on  the  motion  of  the  late  Hon.  Rufus  Choate,  Chief  Justice  Shaw 
then  presiding.  The  same  year  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  in  the  following  year 
(1855)  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  that  city,  where  he  has  since  resided  and 
devoted  himself  exclusively  to  the  duties  of  his  profession. 

During  these  twenty-five  years  of  practice  Mr.  Dow  has  steadily  advanced  in 
his  profession  until  he  now  ranks  among  the  most  prominent  lawyers  of  the 
Chicago  bar.  It  was  a  toilsome  march,  but  its  labors  and  anxieties  have  not  told 
seriously  upon  his  fine  physique.  In  court  he  presents  a  very  striking  figure, 
being  above  the  medium  in  stature,  strongly  built,  erect,  of  proud  bearing,  and 
having  a  large  head,  well  formed  and  balanced,  long  jet-black  hair  and  beard,  a 
deep  olive  complexion,  prominent  nose,  slightly  aquiline,  and  eyes  very  dark 
brown,  in  expression  exceedingly  gentle,  but  with  a  touch  of  firmness  and  daring, 
imparting  to  the  entire  physiognomy  a  leonine  cast.  It  is  doubtless  to  this  dis- 
tinguished and  imposing  presence,  joined  to  a  fine  insight  into  the  motives  and 
springs  of  human  action,  that  Mr.  Dow  owes  his  great  success  in  the  trial  of  cases 
depending  upon  circumstantial  evidence.  As  a  cross-examiner  he  has  few  peers 
at  the  Chicago  bar. 

All  the  political  influences  surrounding  Mr.  Dow  in  his  youth  were  of  the 
democratic  school.  His  father  was  a  Jacksonian  democrat,  but  the  son  early 
embraced  free-soil  theories,  and  upon  the  organization  of  the  new  party  of  free- 
dom became  a  radical  republican.  Although  always  prominent  in  the  councils 
of  his  party  he  never  sought  office.  In  1872  he  accepted  with  extreme  reluctance 
a  nomination  to  the  state  senate,  and  was  chosen  by  a  handsome  majority.  Dur- 
ing the  first  session  of  the  winter  of  1873  he  took  a  decided  stand  against  the 
radical  measure  prepared  on  the  subject  of  state  control  of  railways,  opposing 
with  all  his  force  the  act  now  known  as  the  "statute  prohibiting  unjust  discrimi- 
nation and  extortion,"  even  going  so  far  as  to  file  a  written  protest  against  its 
passage.  He  held  that  such  legislation  was  hasty,  the  result  of  passion,  of  doubt- 
ful constitutionality,  and  that  it  tended  to  array  in  hostility  different  classes  and 
interests  of  the  community.  During  the  second  session  (1873-4)  Mr.  Dow  distin- 
guished himself  by  standing  alone,  against  all  his  colleagues  from  Cook  county, 
in  opposition  to  a  measure  of  vast  consequence  for  good  or  evil  to  Chicago,  known 
as  the  city  incorporation  bill.  The  bill  passed  the  house  without  consideration 
merely  on  the  strength  of  the  representations  of  a  lobby  of  prominent  citizens  of 
that  city.  When  it  came  up  in  the  senate  he  made  a  masterly  analysis  of  the 
measure,  showing  its  many  glaring  defects,  and  proposing  a  series  of  amendments 
changing  its  entire  character.  His  onslaught  was  so  powerful  that  as  to  some 
points  it  was  simply  irresistible,  and  the  amendments  were  either  accepted  or 
forced  through;  but  the  most  vital  were  lost,  and  he  protested  against  its  passage 
in  its  still  imperfect  state.  When  the  bill  went  back  to  the  house  its  supporters 
29 


378  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

found  themselves  so  shaken  by  the  exposure  that  had  been  made  that  it  was 
impossible  to  get  a  vote  of  concurrence.  In  a  word,  the  house  followed  Mr.  Dow, 
repudiating  its  own  previously  considered  action.  Being  appointed  a  member  of 
the  conference  committee  on  the  disagreeing  votes,  Mr.  Dow  succeeded  in  carry- 
ing every  important  amendment  but  one,  that  he  had  proposed,  and  the  bill  so 
perfected  was  passed  by  both  houses.  It  is  rare  indeed  that  a  single  member  has 
the  force  and  tact  to  exert  a  commanding  influence  over  the  two  houses  of  a  leg- 
islative body. 

At  the  close  of  Mr.  Dow's  senatorial  term  he  declined  a  reelection,  and  has 
constantly  declined  to  stand  for  any  office,  and  although  he  has  been  urged  to 
accept  a  judgeship  and  a  seat  in  congress  he  preferred  the  duties  and  pleasures 
of  a  private  life. 

Mr.  Dow  was  married  in  1855  to  Miss  Francis  Ellen  Hill,  daughter  of  Capt. 
Nehemiah  Hill,  of  Biddeford,  Maine,  by  whom  he  has  had  nine  children,  six  of 
whom,  one  son  and  five  daughters,  are  still  living.  Of  pronounced  domestic 
tastes,  Mr.  Dow  finds  in  his  own  home,  presided  over  by  his  estimable  and  accom- 
plished wife,  that  degree  of  social  recreation,  rest  and  repose  essential  to  the 
healthful  development  of  every  faculty  of  head  and  heart.  The  aphorism,  "  the 
boy  is  father  of  the  man,"  finds  new  illustration  in  the  life  of  Mr.  Dow.  Coming 
of  good  stock,  he  inherited  a  disposition  to  rigid  integrity  and  a  great  force  of 
character.  Born  on  the  banks  of  the  Saco,  in  a  region  of  picturesque  beauty, 
communion  with  nature  formed  in  him  the  basis  of  a  true  aesthetic  taste.  Books, 
pictures, —  the  infinite  charm  of  social  recreation, —  those  have  wrought  their 
delightful  impress  upon  an  otherwise  stern,  serious  character.  A  perfect  picture 
of  physical  health,  Mr.  Dow  is  morally  healthy.  His  mind  is  as  upright  as  his 
body  is  erect.  True  as  steel  to  every  friend  and  to  every  engagement,  he  exacts 
equal  fidelity ;  but,  profoundly  observant  of  the  frailties  of  human  nature,  he  is 
generous  to  the  erring  and  unfortunate.  Bold  as  a  lion,  he  is  fit  to  lead,  but  if 
none  follow  he  dares  to  stand  alone  in  defense  of  cherished  convictions.  His 
rugged,  strong  manhood  has  always  led  him  to  take  a  prominent  part  in  out-door 
sports  and  amusements,  especially  those  of  the  turf,  and  here,  as  in  other  walks 
of  life,  have  acknowledged  ability  and  unswerving  integrity  led  to  his  being  called 
to  occupy  important  posts  of  honor  and  trust.  For  the  past  three  years  he  has 
been  president  of  the  Chicago  Driving  Park,  a  position  which  he  has  filled  with 
honor  to  himself  and  in  which  he  has  done  much  to  elevate  the  character  of 
running  and  trotting  races.  As  he  never  wagers  a  dollar  upon  a  race,  but  patron- 
izes it  solely  from  love  of  the  sport  and  admiration  of  the  highly  bred  horse,  his 
presence  in  the  judges'  stand  has  been  invariably  accepted  as  a  guarantee  of  hon- 
orable, upright  management,  and  his  decisions  have  always  passed  unchallenged. 
The  same  qualities  that  have  caused  his  influence  to  be  sought  in  support  of  the 
turf  in  his  own  city  led  to  his  having  been  twice  chosen  as  first  vice-president  of 
the  board  of  review  of  the  National  Trotting  Association,  which  is  a  sort  of  court 
|of  last  resort  for  the  settlement  of  disputed  points  of  turf  law  and  usage,  and 


THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 


279 


which  has  from  time  to  time  numbered  among  its  members  several  of  the  most 
eminent  of  American  jurists;  and  here,  as  in  all  other  positions  to  which  duty  or 
the  suffrages  of  the  public  have  called  him,  his  commanding  ability  has  been  con- 
ceded on  all  hands,  and  his  strict  integrity  has  been  unchallenged. 


E.    L.    KNOTT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  in  1826, 
in  Milford,  Susquehanna  county,  and  is  the  son  of  Sylvanus  Knott  and 
Martha  M.  (Kelley)  Knott.  He  attended  public  and  select  schools  in  Pennsylva- 
nia, and  also  acquired  much  useful  and  practical  knowledge  by  hard  study  out  of 
school.  At  the  age  of  seventeen  he  went  to  the  state  of  New  York  to  live  with  an 
uncle,  and  there  attended  school.  Removing  to  Chicago  in  1848,  he  was  there 
engaged  in  teaching  for  a  time,  and  also  taught  in  Kankakee  county,  at  that  time 
a  part  of  Will  county,  Illinois.  Having  decided  to  fit  himself  for  the  practice  of 
law,  he  began  his  legal  studies  in  1849,  with  Hon.  Calvin  DeWolf,  in  Chicago,  and 
for  some  four  years  thereafter  continued  his  studies,  in  connection  with  teaching, 
by  which  he  earned  means  to  defray  his  expenses  and  maintain  himself.  He  was 
admitted  to  practice  in  1853.  In  1855  he  opened  an  office  for  the  general  practice 
of  the  law,  and  has  devoted  himself  uninterruptedly  to  his  professional  duties 
since  that  time,  well  earning  and  meriting  the  reputation  which  he  has  of  being 
an  able  and  successful  lawyer. 

Mr.  Knott  is  a  gentleman  whose  deportment  is  marked  with  kindness,  and  he 
has  a  faculty  of  putting  at  ease  all  who  favor  him  with  their  calls.  He  is  a  good 
judge  of  human  nature,  and  is  a  practical  man,  and  sensible  without  ostentation. 
He  married  Miss  Josephine  King,  of  Chicago,  and  has  by  her  two  sons. 


RICHARD    BIDDLE    ROBERTS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  Pittsburgh,  August  25,  1825,  and  is  the 
son  of  Edward  I.  and  Elisa  (Campbell)  Roberts.  He  received  a  liberal  edu- 
cation, and  showed  an  aptness  for  the  profession  of  law,  upon  the  practice  of 
which  he  entered  in  early  life.  In  the  years  1853  to  1856  he  held  the  office  of 
district  attorney  for  Allegheny  county,  and  was  United  States  attorney  for  the 
western  district  of  Pennsylvania  from  1857  to  1861.  In  the  year  1854  he  was 
married  to  Miss  Mary  H.  Anderson,  a  member  of  one  of  the  old  and  esteemed 
Pennsylvania  families.  At  the  time  of  the  rebellion,  and  when  hostilities  were 
declared,  he  lost  no  time  in  volunteering,  and  materially  aided  in  raising  the  I2th 
Penn.  regiment,  in  which  he  was  commissioned  captain,  but  was  soon  after  pro- 
moted to  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  on  the  staff  of  Gov.  Curtin. 

Upon  the  formation  of  the  celebrated  Reserve  Corps,  he  was  commissioned 


28O  THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

colonel  of  its  first  regiment.  In  the  opening  engagement  of  the  seven  days'  bat- 
tle on  the  peninsula,  five  companies  of  this  regiment  were  the  first  to  be  attacked, 
but  from  the  sheltered  position  which  they  finally  assumed  behind  Beaver  Dam 
Creek,  and  from  which  the  united  regiment  fought,  little  loss  was  experienced, 
though  the  enemy  was  terribly  scourged.  At  Games'  Mill  on  the  following  day, 
Col.  Roberts  fought  under  the  eye  of  Gen.  Porter,  in  chief  command  upon  the 
field,  and  won  his  approval  by  the  gallantry  and  steadiness  with  which  every 
order  was  executed. 

The  Army  of  the  Potomac  was  never  in  more  imminent  danger  of  rout  and 
destruction,  than  at  Charles  City  Cross  Roads  July  30,  1862.  The  Reserves'  thir- 
teen regiments  of  infantry  were  drawn  up  in  two  lines  across  the  New  Market 
road,  covering  the  Charles  City  and  Quaker  roads.  The  flanks,  not  connecting 
immediately  with  other  troops,  were  exposed,  and  then  the  attack  was  pressed 
severely,  but  the  valor  of  the  Reserves  was  successful  in  breaking  the  force  in 
their  front  until  nightfall,  when  the  battle  ceased,  and  the  foe  retired  from  the 
contest,  abandoning  his  cherished  purpose  of  severing  the  Union  army  and  beat- 
ing it  in  detail. 

Gen.  McCall,  who  commanded  the  Reserves,  says  in  his  official  report:  "Coop- 
er's and  Kern's  batteries  in  front  of  the  center  were  boldly  charged  upon,  each 
time  a  regiment  dashing  up  to  within  forty  or  fifty  yards.  They  were  then 
hurled  back  by  a  storm  of  canister  and  the  deliberate  fire  of  the  first  regiment. 
Col.  Roberts,  whom  I  had  placed  immediately  in  the  rear  of  Kern's,  and  the  ninth, 
Col.  Jackson,  in  the  rear  of  Cooper's.  The  contest  was  severe,  and  put  the  stead- 
iness of  these  regiments  to  the  test.  Both  suffered  heavy  loss,  but  particularly 
the  first  regiment,  whose  gallant  lieutenant-colonel  (Mclntire)  was  severely 
wounded." 

Not  less  gallant  was  the  conduct  of  Col.  Roberts  at  South  Mountain.  The 
Reserves  were  the  first  to  come  up  to  Turner's  Gap,  where  the  rebel  troops  were 
strongly  posted  in  the  fastnesses  of  this  great  natural  barrier.  Far  down  on  the 
breast  of  the  mountain  was  a  stone  wall,  behind  which  was  the  rebel  skirmish 
line.  Against  this  Col.  Roberts  led  his  men  with  unflinching  bravery.  The  fire 
was  severe,  but  undaunted  he  pushed  forward,  and  scaling  the  rugged  breast- 
work, and  following  up  the  advantage,  wavered  not  until  rock  and  steep  acclivity 
were  passed,  and  the  enemy  driven  from  his  well  chosen  position.  At  the  close 
of  this  campaign,  Gov.  Curtin  called  Col.  Roberts  again  to  his  assistance.  His 
executive  and  legal  ability,  with  his  knowledge  of  the  special  duties  of  the  posi- 
tion, fitted  him  to  decide  the  delicate  questions  involved  in  granting  promotions, 
with  rare  tact. 

To  this  call  he  acceded,  and  having  been  discharged  at  the  governor's 
request,  at  once  resumed  its  duties.  By  the  report  of  his  department  for  the  year 
1864,  it  appears  that  four  thousand  commissions  were  issued  from  his  office. 
When  it  is  remembered  that  for  almost  every  one  of  these  were  several  appli- 
cants, and  that  all  the  testimony  in  each  case  had  to  be  considered,  weighed  and 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  28 1 

acted  on,  some  idea  can  be  formed  of  the  amount  of  patient  labor  involved. 
Thirty  thousand  commissions  had  been  issued  previous  to  the  year  1864.  In  1869 
Mr.  Roberts  removed  from  Pittsburgh  (where,  after  the  close  of  the  war,  he  had 
resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession)  to  Chicago  where  he  now  resides,  and  has 
given  his  undivided  attention  to  the  duties  of  his  profession,  and  with  marked 
success.  Although  engaged  in  the  general  practice,  much  of  his  time  is  occupied 
with  corporation  and  patent  cases.  He  avoids  specialties,  and  takes  charge  of 
any  branch  that  may  offer.  He  is  a  republican  in  politics,  but  takes  no  active 
part,  but  in  his  native  state  was  very  prominent.  Previous  to  the  war  he  was  a 
democrat.  Col.  Roberts  is  president  of  the  Bar  Association  of  Chicago,  and  also 
president  of  the  St.  Andrew's  Benevolent  Society  of  Illinois. 


WILLIAM    D.   GATES. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  1852,  at  Ashland,  Ohio,  and  is 
descended  from  an  old  revolutionary  family.  His  father,  Simon  S.  Gates, 
who  was  at  one  time  a  member  of  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  emigrated  to 
Ohio  in  1852.  William  was  educated  at  Wheaton  College,  whence  he  graduated 
in  June  1875.  In  the  following  fall  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law  at  Chi- 
cago, remaining  there  about  one  year,  when  he  was  called  home  by  the  death  of 
his  father,  and  was  engaged  there  attending  to  private  business  for  about  two 
years.  In  1878  Mr.  Gates  returned  to  Chicago,  and  continued  his  studies  at  the 
law  school,  and  in  1879  graduated  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  commenced 
the  practice  of  his  profession  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  and  since  that  time  has 
devoted  to  it  his  whole  attention.  Mr.  Gates  is  a  young  man  of  promise,  and 
with  his  professional  and  business  abilities,  together  with  his  attainments  and 
estimable  personal  qualities,  may  hopefully  look  for  the  realization  of  his  bright- 
est anticipations. 

JOHN    F.    FLOWER. 

JOHN  F.  FLOWER  was  born  at  Colebrook,  Ashtabula  county,  Ohio,  January 
13,  1852,  and  was  the  son  of  James  W.  and  Eliza  Ann  Flower.  He  is  a  third 
cousin  of  Adml.  Porter,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  and  a  grandson  of  Zephraim 
Flower,  who  was  a  captain  in  the  war  of  1812.  He  is  a  second  cousin  of  Hon. 
R.  P.  Flower,  banker  and  member  of  congress,  New  York  city;  nephew  of  Col. 
Lloyd  Wheaton,  of  regular  army;  first  cousin  of  the  wife  of  Col.  Dent,  of  regular 
army,  and  Gen.  U.  S.  Grant's  nephew.  Mr.  Flower  was  educated  at  Fulton  Col- 
lege, Fulton  City,  Illinois,  and  afterward  pursued  a  course  of  legal  study  in  the 
law  department  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  graduated  therefrom  March 
26,  1874.  He  is  a  self-made  man,  and  at  the  early  age  of  eleven  years  commenced 
his  career  by  working  on  a  canal  boat  running  on  what  was  then  known  as  the 


282  THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

Erie,  Pittsburgh  and  Extension  canal,  the  products  of  his  labor  principally  going 
to  the  support  of  his  father's  family,  until  he  was  seventeen  years  of  age.  His 
parents  are  deceased.  His  mother  died  when  he  was  only  two  months  old,  and 
his  father  died  at  Willsburg,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  fall  of  1868. 

He  removed  to  Chicago  in  the  summer  of  1869,  and  by  industry  and  hard 
labor  was  enabled  to  keep  himself  at  school  until  he  was  prepared  to  enter  Fulton 
College.  He  made  some  money  in  speculations,  and  was  enabled  to  pursue  his 
studies  without  interruption  at  Ann  Arbor  until  he  graduated,  after  which  he 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Lansing,  Michigan.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
Illinois  at  Mount  Vernon,  July  30,  1874,  and  has  been  in  general  practice  of  the  law 
in  Chicago  since  that  time,  and  has  been  engaged  in  several  important  cases.  At 
fourteen  years  of  age  he  was  baptized,  and  became  a  member  of  the  Free-will 
Baptist  Church  of  Wellsburg,  Erie  county,  Pennsylvania.  In  1876  he  joined  the 
Fulton  Avenue  Presbyterian  Church,  of  Chicago.  He  was  married  December  27, 
1877,  to  Miss  Clara  Latitia  Meyer,  daughter  of  Berthold  Meyer,  of  Burlington, 
Iowa,  an  extensive  dealer  in  hides  and  furs,  and  large  owner  of  real  and  personal 
property  in  Burlington  and  Chicago.  Mr.  Flower  gives  strict  attention  to  busi- 
ness intrusted  to  his  care,  and  merits  the  confidence  of  his  patrons,  by  promptness 
and  honorable  dealing.  He  has  devoted  special  attention  to  pension  claims  and 
to  locating  lands  under  the  soldiers'  homestead  law,  and  is  thoroughly  versed  in 
these  branches,  as  well  as  in  the  general  practice  of  his  profession. 


RUFUS   KING. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Ithaca,  New  York,  and  was  born 
December  24,  1822,  the  son  of  John  King,  one  of  the  first  settlers  of  that 
part  of  the  state,  and  Irene  (Ely)  King,  a  daughter  of  one  of  the  first  settlers  in 
the  town  of  Hector,  New  York.  Her  brother,  Hector  Ely,  was  the  first  male  child 
born  in  that  town.  The  grandfather  of  Mr.  King  was  a  revolutionary  soldier 
from  Maryland,  who  enlisted  when  he  was  sixteen  years  old,  and  served  through 
the  war.  Rufus  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  the  common  schools,  and  afterward 
took  a  scientific,  classical,  academic  course.  He  studied  medicine,  and  graduated 
from  the  University  of  the  City  of  New  York,  in  the  spring  of  1847.  He  practiced 
medicine  a  few  years,  but  finding  it  unsuited  to  him,  he  abandoned  it,  and  turned 
his  attention  to  the  study  of  law  with  F.  O.  Rogers,  of  Elmira,  New  York. 
Removing  to  the  West  in  1855,  he  settled  at  Prairie  Du  Chien,  Wisconsin,  remain- 
ing there  until  1862,  when  he  enlisted  in  the  jist  regiment  Wis.  Vol.  Inf.  Early 
in  1864  he  was  appointed  by  President  Lincoln,  commissary  of  subsistence,  with 
the  rank  of  captain,  and  assigned  to  duty  at  Stephenson,  Alabama,  where  he 
remained  from  May  i,  until  the  winter  following.  He  was  commissary  for  the 
army  in  the  field,  as  it  moved  up  the  railroad  as  fast  as  it  was  repaired  until  it 
reached  Greenville,  east  Tennessee,  when  Joe  Johnson's  army  surrendered.  He 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  283 

kept  a  depot  of  army  supplies  at  Knoxville,  through  the  fall  of  1865,  and  then 
returned  to  Chattanooga.  He  was  mustered  out  of  the  service,  and  arrived  home 
in  February  1866.  Although  government  property  passed  through  Mr.  King's 
hands  to  the  amount  of  millions  of  dollars,  so  careful  and  accurate  was  he  in  all 
of  the  details  of  his  business,  that  he  never  had  an  account  disputed.  He 
removed  to  Chicago  in  1866,  but  afterward  went  to  Beloit,  Wisconsin,  and  erected 
a  block  of  stores  in  that  place,  and  returned  to  Chicago,  and  formed  a  law  part- 
nership with  Allan  C.  Story.  The  firm  was  engaged  in  important  litigation,  and 
carried  on  an  extensive  business  for  several  years.  Since  its  dissolution,  Mr. 
King  has  been  doing  business  by  himself.  He  is  a  good  lawyer,  having  excellent 
practical  judgment,  whether  in  business  affairs  or  the  investigation  of  legal  ques- 
tions. As  a  lawyer  he  is  cautious  and  pains-taking,  and  especially  able  in  the 
trial  of  cases. 

He  is  a  gentleman  of  culture  and  refinement,  has  a  fine  presence,  is  always 
courteous  and  friendly,  and  maintains  a  character  for  uprightness  and  integrity. 
He  has  been  married  twice.  His  first  marriage  was  to  Miss  Catherine  Gardiner, 
daughter  of  George  Gardiner,  of  Chemung  county,  New  York.  She  died  in  1863, 
while  Mr.  King  was  in  the  army,  leaving  one  son  and  two  daughters.  He  was 
again  married  in  1878,  to  Miss  Lillie  Cogswell,  daughter  of  the  late  W.  A.  Cogs- 
well, a  prominent  citizen  of  Halifax,  Nova  Scotia. 


CHARLES   A.   DIBBLE. 

CHARLES  A.  DIBBLE  was  born  January  31,  1842,  in  Salisbury,  Herkimer 
county,  New  York,  in  which  place  his  father  was  engaged  in  the  lumber  busi- 
ness. In  1849  the  family  moved  to  Columbia  county,  Wisconsin,  where  Charles 
received  the  greater  part  of  his  schooling.  Being  studious,  he  employed  his  leisure 
time  in  self-improvement,  and  in  that  way  developed  his  abilities  and  manhood. 
When  quite  young  he  was  qualified  to  teach  school,  and  engaged  in  that  occupa- 
tion until  the  outbreak  of  the  war,  when  he  enlisted  as  a  sergeant  in  the  2gth  Wis. 
Inf.,  Col.  Charles  R.  Gill,  and  as  a  soldier,  made  a  most  creditable  record.  At  the 
battle  of  Port  Gibson,  Mississippi,  he  received  a  wound  which  resulted  in  the  loss 
of  his  left  leg  below  the  knee.  As  a  soldier  he  signalized  himself  by  his  bravery 
and  faithfulness  to  duty.  When  mustered  out  of  the  service  he  returned  to 
Columbia  county,  Wisconsin,  and  resumed  school  teaching  there  and  at  Fox 
Lake,  in  Dodge  county;  thence  he  went  to  Milwaukee  and  attended  the  Markham 
Academy  during  the  summer  and  fall  of  1866,  taking  a  partial  course  in  law  in 
addition  to  his  academic  studies.  In  the  fall  of  1866  he  was  elected  clerk  of  the 
court  of  the  ninth  judicial  circuit,  and  was  reflected  to  two  successive  terms. 
During  these  terms  of  clerkship  he  read  law  under  the  direction  of  Israel  Holmes, 
now  of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Wisconsin  bar  in  the  fall  of  1871,  when 
he  resigned  his  clerkship  and  removed  to  Chicago,  arriving  there  the  day  after 


284  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  great  fire  ;  commenced  the  practice  of  law,  and  has  been  so  engaged  ever 
since,  with  a  more  than  average  success  in  all  respects. 

Owing  both  to  his  natural  fitness  and  experience  in  public  affairs  his  friends 
have  enthusiastically  urged  his  candidacy  for  several  important  public  trusts. 
He  takes  an  interest  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  soldiers,  and  is  judge  advocate 
of  the  Veteran  Union  League,  vice-president  of  the  Union  Veteran  Club,  and 
senior  vice-commander  of  Post  28,  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  and  is  an  active 
and  highly  respected  member  of  these  organizations.  He  is  an  active  member  of 
the  republican  party,  and  identifies  himself  with  political  campaigns.  He  is  a 
man  of  exemplary  habits,  and  is  respected  as  a  lawyer,  a  gentleman  and  a  citizen. 
In  1870  he  married  the  daughter  of  Dr.  Peter  Winter,  formerly  of  Horicon,  Wis- 
consin, now  of  Chicago. 


GEORGE    W.   KRETZINGER. 

EORGE  WASHINGTON  KRETZINGER  is  a  native  of  Scioto  county, 
V_T  Ohio,  and  was  born  August  u,  1844,  the  son  of  Rev.  Isaac  Kretzinger,  a 
clergyman  of  the  United  Brethren  denomination.  His  paternal  grandfather 
immigrated  from  Germany,  and  settled  in  the  state  of  Virginia.  George  W. 
received  a  collegiate  education,  and  during  the  years  that  he  was  pursuing  his 
studies,  by  working  on  a  farm  and  in  other  avocations,  earned  the  means  for 
defraying  the  expenses  of  his  education,  as  well  as  of  his  personal  maintenance. 
After  his  graduation-  he  went  to  Iowa,  when  he  became  a  teacher  in  the  Keokuk 
classical  school,  and  also  began  the  study  of  law,  under  the  preceptorship  of  Hon. 
George  W.  McCrary,  an  ex-member  of  President  Hayes'  cabinet,  and  now  (1883) 
judge  of  the  United  States  circuit  court  for  the  district  of  Iowa.  Mr.  Kretzinger 
finished  his  legal  studies  with  Henry  Strong,  now  of  Chicago,  then  of  Keokuk, 
and  at  that  time  a  leading  railway  attorney  in  Iowa,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
of  Iowa  in  March  1867.  Soon  after  his  admission  to  practice,  he  removed  from 
Keokuk,  and  in  the  September  following  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  R.  L. 
Hannaman  at  Knoxville,  Illinois,  which  continued  until  1873,  when  Mr.  Kret- 
zinger removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  formed  a  partnership  with  John  I.  Bennett, 
now  master  in  chancery,  of  the  United  States  circuit  court.  This  partnership 
was  dissolved  by  mutual  consent,  and  Mr.  Kretzinger  has  now  associated  with 
him  his  younger  brother,  under  the  name  and  style  of  G.  W.  and  J.  T.  Kretzinger. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  has  made  a  special  study  of  corporation  law,  and 
his  business,  which  is  very  extensive,  is  largely  confined  to  that  branch  of  prac- 
tice. Since  1877  he  has  been  general  solicitor  for  the  Chicago  and  Iowa  Railway 
Company,  and"  has  represented  various  other  railway  companies  in  some  of  the 
most  important  legal  controversies  which  have  arisen  since  1873. 

Mr.  Kretzinger  has  a  keen  and  logical  mind,  a  tenacious  memory  and  mental 
operations  of  remarkable  quickness  and  accuracy.  He  is  full  of  resource,  and 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  287 

fertile  in  invention,  and  possesses  a  tireless  energy,  which  renders  him  almost 
invincible,  when  once  fairly  aroused  and  thoroughly  interested.  As  a  lawyer  he 
posesses  a  powerful  reason,  comprehends  the  scope  of  a  complicated  case  with 
great  clearness,  and  analyzes  the  legal  propositions  involved,  with  accuracy.  As 
a  speaker,  he  is  vigorous,  logical  and  terse,  and  does  not  strive  so  much  for  ornate 
diction,  or  well  rounded  periods,  as  to  set  forth  succinctly,  forcibly  and  clearly, 
the  legal  propositions  upon  which  he  relies,  and  to  arrange  and  present  facts  to 
which  the  legal  principles  involved  are  applied.  Mr.  Kretzinger  was  married 
August  29,  1878,  to  Miss  Clara  J.  Wilson,  of  Rock  Island,  and  has  one  son. 


JOHN   JOHNSTON,  JR. 

r  I  ""HE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Illinois.  He  was  born  in  Knoxville, 
.L  April  3,  1843,  and  is  the  son  of  John  Johnston,  one  of  the  first  settlers,  and  a 
well  known  and  successful  business  man  in  that  part  of  the  state.  His  mother 
was  Annie  (Mitchell)  Johnston.  His  paternal  grandfather,  John  Johnston,  was  an 
Episcopal  clergyman,  who  lived  in  Belfast,  Ireland. 

Our  subject  attended  the  high  school  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  for  several  years;  he 
was  one  year  in  Kenyon  College,  at  Gambier,  Ohio,  and  graduated  from  Yale 
College  in  1863.  He  attended  Albany  Law  School,  and  graduated  from  that 
institution  late  in  1864.  He  afterward  continued  his  legal  studies  in  the  office  of 
Thomas  G.  Frost  in  Galesburg,  Illinois,  and  later  in  the  offices  of  Emery  A. 
Storrs,  Cyrus  Bentley,  and  W.  C.  Goudy,  of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Illinois  in  1865.  He  practiced  law  in  Chicago  until  1879,  since  which  time 
he  has  retired  from  active  practice  in  the  courts,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  care 
of  his  property,  and  that  of  his  family,  together  with  other  real  estate  interests. 

Mr.  Johnston  was  married  in  1871,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  C.  Gay,  by  whom  he  has 
one  son. 

MILO   M.   FASSETT. 

MILO  M.  FASSETT  is  a  native  of  Champlain,  New  York,  and  was  born 
January  19,  1819.  His  grandfathers,  Jonathan  Fassett  and  Ephraim  Smith, 
were  both  revolutionary  soldiers,  and  fought  bravely  at  the  battle  of  Bennington. 
The  father  of  our  subject,  Moses  Fassett,  was  a  prominent  citizen,  and  a  friend 
of  education,  who  devoted  considerable  time  to  its  cause,  and  was  one  of  those 
whose  influence  caused  the  establishment  of  the  free-school  system  of  Canada. 
His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Lucy  Smith.  Milo  M.  received  a  very  thorough 
education  in  the  common  schools,  and  in  St.  Lawrence  Academy  at  Potsdam, 
New  York.  Later,  he  taught  school  some  six  years,  and  justly  earned  the  reputa- 
tion of  being  one  of  the  best  educators  in  the  state.  He  afterward  read  law  with 
Geo.  R.  Rich,  at  Auburn,  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to  the  New  York  bar.  He 
3° 


288  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

then  went  to  Red  Creek  in  Wayne  county,  New  York,  and  practiced  law  with 
good  success  for  one  year,  after  which  he  enlisted  and  served  three  years  in  the 
war  of  the  rebellion.  He  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  battle  of  Williamsport, 
West  Virginia;  was  also  in  the  battles  of  Monocacy  Junction,  Maryland,  and 
Morefield,  West  Virginia.  He  was  a  brave  soldier,  fearless  in  battle,  and  ever 
attentive  to  duty,  both  in  camp  and  in  the  field. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  he  settled  at  Valparaiso,  Indiana,  and  there  resumed 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  with  a  degree  of  success  that  gained  for  him  the 
distinction  of  being  an  able  lawyer.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1867,  and  has 
become  well  and  favorably  known  as  a  skillful  and  successful  practioner  at  the 
bar  of  this  city. 

Mr.  Fassett  suffered  materially  in  the  great  fire  of  October  9,  1871,  but  man- 
fully meeting  his  misfortune,  applied  himself  with  characteristic  energy  and  vigor 
to  make  good  his  losses.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  qualities;  social,  generous  and 
genial,  and  with  his  rare  fund  of  knowledge  gained  from  his  varied  experiences, 
and  his  conversational  powers,  is  a  most  agreeable  companion.  As  a  lawyer  he 
has  the  respect  of  his  professional  brethren,  and  the  fullest  confidence  of  his 
clients. 

Mr.  Fassett  was  married  April  30,  1849,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Lynn.  Of  the  five 
children  that  have  been  born  to  them  four  are  living.  Their  second  son  lost  his 
life  in  attempting  to  save  the  goods  of  his  employer  in  the  fire  of  1871. 


JAMES    FRAKE. 

JAMES  FRAKE  was  born  at  the  town  of  Loughborough,  in  the  county  of  Lei- 
cester, England,  March  29,  1841.  He  is  a  son  of  George  Frake,  who  emigrated 
to  this  country  in  the  year  1844,  and  in  October  of  that  year  settled  on  a  farm  at 
Wheeling,  Cook  county,  Illinois,  but  did  not  long  survive  his  arrival  there,  dying 
in  March,  1846. 

James  worked  on  a  farm  with  his  step-father  (his  mother  having  again  mar- 
ried) till  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age.  He  then  started  out  for  himself  by  entering 
the  preparatory  school  connected  with  the  Northwestern  University  at  Evanston, 
from  which  latter  institution  he  graduated,  July  12,  1866,  with  degree  of  B.A. 
During  the  entire  period  of  his  education  he  supported  himself,  and  in  order  to 
bring  down  his  expenses  to  the  lowest  point,  he,  with  other  students,  kept  bachelor's 
hall.  He  passed  through  college  successfully  and  with  honor,  and  was  at  the 
head  of  his  class.  Unfortunately,  during  the  whole  of  his  academic  career,  his 
health  at  times  was  very  bad,  and  continued  in  a  precarious  condition  for  five 
years  after  he  commenced  practice,  but  he  is  now  apparently  in  the  enjoyment  of 
good  health,  but  still  not  of  a  strong  or  robust  nature. 

James  Frake  is,  and  always  has  been,  of  quiet,  temperate  and  studious  habits, 
which  fact  probably  led  to  his  choosing  the  legal  profession  as  being  suited  to 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  289 

his  temperate  and  studious  nature.  After  graduating,  he  was  principal  of  Bloom 
Academy  for  one  year;  then  went  abroad  for  the  following  year.  On  his  return 
he  attended  the  Chicago  Law  School,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1869,  and 
obtained  his  license  to  practice  law  from  the  supreme  court  in  May  of  that  year. 
In  June,  1874,  he  was  elected  trustee  of  the  Northwestern  University,  being  the 
first  alumnus  elected  to  that  position.  For  several  years  he  has  been  on  the  joint 
board  of  management  of  the  Union  College  of  Law  in  Chicago.  He  was  also  a 
member  of  the  board  of  education  for  an  unexpired  term  of  two  years,  which 
position  he  filled  with  ability  and  also  credit  to  himself. 

Mr.  Frake  has  traveled  somewhat,  having  made  four  trips  to  Europe,  and 
being  a  careful  observer,  has  gained  from  that  source  a  rare  fund  of  practical  and 
valuable  information.  He  is  an  exemplary  Christian,  and  is  connected  with  the 
Centenary  Methodist  Church,  of  Chicago,  being  one  of  its  trustees  and  also  a 
devoted  teacher  in  its  Sunday-school.  In  politics  he  has  always  been  a  republi- 
can, but  takes  no  active  part  therein.  Mr.  Frake  has  been  twice  married.  His 
present  wife  was  Evelyn  M.  Allen,  of  Elk  Grove,  daughter  of  the  late  John  Allen, 
formerly  of  Vermont. 

MAJ.  FRANK  J.  CRAWFORD. 

FRANK  J.  CRAWFORD  was  born  in  Huntingdon  county,  Pennsylvania,  July 
12,  1834,  and  is  the  son  of  J.  W.  Crawford.  The  family  is  of  Scotch  extrac- 
tion, and  descended  from  a  family  of  that  name  that  settled  in  Pennsylvania  dur- 
ing its  early  history.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  resided  in  Pennsylvania  until  he 
was  thirteen  years  of  age,  working  on  a  farm  and  attending  school.  He  then 
moved  to  western  Maryland,  where  he  attended  the  common  schools,  and  finished 
his  education  in  Allegheny  College  at  Meadville,  Pennsylvania.  He  afterward 
taught  school  a  number  of  years  in  Maryland,  Pennsylvania  and  Illinois.  He 
moved  to  Illinois  in  1855,  and  settled  in  La  Salle  county,  and  read  law  in  the  office 
of  Leland  and  Leland,  the  former  of  whom,  Hon.  Edwin  S.  Leland,  was  for  many 
years  judge  of  the  ninth  judicial  circuit,  and  was  afterward  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  appellate  court.  The  junior  member  of  the  firm  also  has  occupied  a  judicial 
position.  Mr.  Crawford  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1858,  having  been  examined 
by  the  old  committee,  consisting  of  Judges  Beckwith,  Peck  and  Mr.  Judd,  and 
devoted  himself  to  the  practice  of  the  law  until  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion,  in  1861.  Responding  to  President  Lincoln's  call  for  volunteers,  he 
enlisted  in  the  5jd  regiment,  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  as  a  private,  and  passed  through  all  of 
the  different  gradations,  to  the  rank  of  captain,  and  was  breveted  major  for  mer- 
itorious services  in  the  field.  He  served  in  western  Tennessee  and  rose  to  the 
rank  of  first  lieutenant,  and  November  10,  1862,  was  appointed  by  the  president 
commissary  of  subsistence,  with  the  rank  of  captain. 

Gen.  J.  G.  Lauman,  in  his  official  report  of  the  battle  of  Hatchie  River,  says: 
"To  Capt.  Scofield,  my  assistant  adjutant-general,  and  Lieut.  Frank  J.  Craw- 


290 


THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 


ford,  my  aide,  I  tender  my  most  sincere  thanks  for  the  valuable  assistance  they 
rendered  me.  I  can  truly  say  they  were  the  right  men  in  the  right  place." 

Maj.  Crawford  was  in  active  service  all  of  the  three  years  and  eight  months  he 
was  in  the  army;  and  in  the  field  all  of  that  time,  except  one  year  when  he  was 
stationed  at  Port  Hudson,  Louisiana.  During  the  Vicksburg  campaign,  and 
until  after  the  capture  of  Jackson,  he  was  on  the  staff  of  Maj. -Gen.  Alvin  P. 
Hovey,  of  Indiana,  and  was  afterward  on  the  staff  of  Maj. -Gen.  Geo.  L.  Andrews, 
who  since  the  war  has  been  one  of  the  faculty  of  West  Point. 

At  the  close  of  the  war  Maj.  Crawford  returned  to  Illinois  and  resumed  his 
profession.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1871,  since  which  time  he  has  been  con- 
nected with  much  important  litigation. 

In  his  political  sentiments  Maj.  Crawford  is  a  republican.  He  cast  his  first 
ballot  for  Gen.  Fremont,  and  since  that  time  has  uniformly  supported  the  repub- 
lican party. 

He  was  married  in  1865,  to  Miss  Max  Fyffe,  daughter  of  the  late  Gen.  E.  P. 
Fyffe,  of  Ohio.  In  his  profession  Mr.  Crawford  maintains  a  high  standing,  as  an 
able,  upright  and  thorough  lawyer,  and  by  devotion  to  his  duties  and  faithfulness 
to  his  clients,  has  established  a  large  practice  and  a  most  enviable  reputation.  He 
is  a  man  of  excellent  social  qualities,  and  is  the  center  of  a  wide  circle  of  friends, 
who  esteem  him  for  his  genuine  manliness. 


UZZIEL    P.    SMITH. 

T  TZZIEL  P.  SMITH  was  born  in  Orange,  Massachusetts,  December  18,  1836, 
\J  and  was  the  eldest  son  of  Humphrey  and  Sophronia  A.  Smith.  He  received 
his  primary  education  at  the  high  school  in  Townsend,  Vermont,  and  afterward 
went  to  college  at  Oberlin,  Ohio,  where  he  studied  about  one  year.  He  then 
entered  Harvard  Law  School  and  commenced  the  study  of  law,  graduating  in 
1858.  The  same  year  he  was  admitted,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  supreme 
court  at  Boston.  Coming  west  Mr.  Smith  settled  in  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  where  he 
entered  into  partnership  in  the  practice  of  law  with  Judge  Bates.  In  the  fall  of 
1859  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  office  of  Messrs.  Scales,  McAllister 
and  Jewett,  where  he  continued  until  the  fall  of  1861.  Afterward,  in  September, 
1862,  he  entered  the  office  of  Messrs.  Walker  and  Dexter,  and  in  1863  became  a 
partner  in  that  firm,  under  the  name  and  style  of  Walker,  Dexter  and  Smith. 
Subsequently,  on  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Walker  to  take  the  presidency  of  the 
Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  railroad,  the  style  of  the  firm  became  Dexter 
and  Smith,  and  so  continued  until  January,  1878.  After  that  time  Mr.  Smith  was 
out  of  practice  for  about  two  years,  but  resumed  practice  in  the  spring  of  1881  in 
connection  with  his  brother,  Abner  Smith,  and  J.  M.  H.  Burgett,  under  style  of 
Smith  and  Burgett,  which  firm  now  exists. 

In  .September,  1861,  Mr.  Smith  recruited  what  was  known  as  McAllister's  Bat- 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  2Q  I 

tery  ist  111.  Light  Artillery,  and  was  appointed  second  lieutenant.  He  was  quar- 
tered with  his  battery  during  the  winter  of  1861-2,  and  joined  the  Army  of  the 
Tennessee  in  February,  1862,  being  with  the  land  forces  operating  in  support  of  the 
gunboats  in  the  attack  on  Fort  Henry,  and  also  participated  in  the  attack  on  Fort 
Donaldson.  The  health  of  his  wife  failing,  and  not  being  able  to  obtain  leave  of 
absence,  Mr.  Smith  resigned  his  commission  in  the  army  and  returned  to  his 
home  in  Chicago. 

Mr.  Smith  has  been  and  is  prominently  connected  with  building  enterprises  in 
Chicago,  and  is  in  the  truest  sense  a  public  spirited  man.  Among  the  many 
improvements  which  the  city  owes  to  him  is  what  is  known  as  Aldine  square, 
located  on  Vincennes  avenue,  in  the  southern  limits  of  the  city,  and  built  by  him 
in  1875  and  1876,  and  which  is  one  of  the  beauty  spots  in  this  the  Queen  City  of 
the  West. 

Mr.  Smith  is  a  republican,  but  takes  no  active  part  in  political  matters. 


MICHAEL  W.  ROBINSON. 

MICHAEL  WALLER  ROBINSON  was  born  October  13,  1837,  near  Fulton, 
Missouri  ;  the  son  of  an  enterprising  and  successful  farmer  and  stock 
raiser.  Mr.  Robinson  attended  the  public  and  high  schools  in  Fulton,  and  in 
1854  went  to  Georgetown  College,  Kentucky,  where  he  remained  only  one  year, 
when  he  entered  Yale  College  in  the  junior  class,  and  graduated  with  the  rank 
of  orator  in  1857.  On  his  return  to  Missouri  he  was  chosen  professor  of  Latin  and 
Greek  in  the  William  Jewell  College  at  Liberty,  Missouri,  which  position  he  held 
for  three  years,  during  the  last  year  of  which  term  he  was  acting  president  of  the 
college.  In  the  meantime  he  had  been  studying  law  under  the  direction  of  Gen. 
A.  W.  Doniphan,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Missouri  in  1859,  and  resigning 
his  professorship  he  went  to  Harvard  Law  School,  where  he  graduated  in  1861. 
He  then  returned  to  Fulton  and  began  practice  in  partnership  with  Gen.  John  A. 
Hockaday,  late  attorney  general  of  Missouri,  and  remained  there  until  October 
1864,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago.  For  one  year  he  was  associated  with  Norman 
C.  Perkins,  then  for  nearly  a  year  with  J.  P.  Clarkson,  and  then  with  Judge  Lam- 
bert Tree  from  1866  (in  which  year  he  was  married)  until  Judge  Tree  was  elected 
to  the  bench  of  the  circuit  court  in  1870.  Thereafter  he  formed  a  connection  with 
John  V.  Lemoyne,  which  lasted  for  about  three  years,  and  from  1876  until  1878  he 
had  associated  with  himself  L.  V.  Ferris,  and  since  that  time  A.  W.  Green. 

Mr.  Robinson  is  a  democrat,  and  has  for  years  been  actively  identified  with  the 
workings  of  the  democratic  party.  He  represented  Callaway  county,  Missouri, 
in  the  state  legislature  from  1861  to  1863,  and  was  a  director  of  the  state  lunatic 
asylum  at  Fulton,  and  curator  of  the  State  University  at  Columbia,  Missouri.  He 
was  a  delegate  to  the  democratic  national  convention  of  1864,  held  in  Chicago, 
which  nominated  McClellan  for  President,  and  it  was  during  that  visit  that  he 


292  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

decided  to  remove  thither.  In  1875  Mr.  Robinson  was  elected  to  the  state  senate 
from  the  seventh  senatorial  district  of  Illinois,  and  served  in  the  3oth  and  315! 
general  assemblies,  and  was  president  of  the  democratic  state  convention  of  1878. 

Mr.  Robinson  has  a  large  general  civil  practice.  He  is  notable  for  good  judg- 
ment and  sagacity,  and  experience  and  skill  in  conducting  business  negotiations; 
for  sound  judicious  counsel,  and  for  a  certain  forcibleness  in  presenting  cases  to 
juries. 

As  attorney  of  the  town  of  Lake  View  he  began  and  has  conducted  through  all 
their  stages  to  final  success  in  the  supreme  court,  the  suits  against  the  North 
Chicago  City  Railway  Company,  involving  the  question  of  the  right  of  the  muni- 
cipality to  prohibit  the  use  of  steam  motive  power  in  streets.  The  validity  of  a 
slave  marriage  and  the  rights  of  inheritance  of  a  child  born  of  slave  marriage 
were  established  in  a  case  tried  by  Mr.  Robinson,  which  was  the  first  case  of  the 
kind  in  Illinois.  He  has  been  giving  some  attention  to  real  estate  investments 
with  considerable  success,  and  is  a  permanent  resident  of  Lake  View,  and  some- 
what actively  identified  with  the  municipal  affairs  of  that  suburb. 


HON.  MASON    B.   LOOMIS. 

MASON  B.  LOOMIS  was  born  in  Harrisville  township,  Medina  county, 
Ohio,  in  1838.  His  father,  Milo  Loomis,  was  a  tanner.  His  mo.ther's 
maiden  name  was  Lucy  Ann  Greenly.  Mason  attended  the  village  school  until 
fifteen  years  of  age.  During  his  sixteenth  year  his  father  and  mother  died,  leav- 
ing him  to  make  his  way  in  the  world  without  parental  care.  Shortly  after  this 
he  went  to  Oberlin  College,  Ohio,  and  from  there  came  west,  and  was  in  differ- 
ent places  clerking  and  bookkeeping  until  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age,  when 
he  returned  to  Ohio  in  1859,  and  married  Mary  Ellen  Ainsworth,  a  native  of  the 
same  place  he  was. 

He  commenced  reading  law  in  Wooster,  Ohio,  with  Bliss  and  McSweeney. 
The  latter,  John  McSweeney,  is  the  noted  criminal  lawyer,  and  Mr.  Bliss  is  also  a 
noted  lawyer  in  Ohio.  During  the  spring  of  1861  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
and,  returning  to  Illinois,  settled  in  Kankakee  in  practice,  remaining  there  until 
June,  1870,  doing  a  successful  business.  During  that  time,  .in  the  fall  of  1868,  he 
was  elected  state's  attorney  for  the  then  twentieth  judicial  district,  comprised  of 
the  counties  of  Livingston,  Iroquois  and  Kankakee.  He  was  elected  for  four 
years,  but  resigned  the  office  and  removed  to  Chicago  in  June,  1870,  and  became 
a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Runyan,  Avery,  Loomis  and  Comstock,  in  which  con- 
nection he  remained  until  January,  1874,  when  he  withdrew  and  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Hon.  Charles  H.  Wood,  late  judge  of  the  former  twentieth  judicial 
circuit,  the  partnership  being  continued  until  the  fall  of  1877,  when  he  was 
elected  county  judge  of  Cook  county  for  four  years,  and  served  five  years,  an 
amendment  to  the  constitution  of  the  state  extending  the  term  one  year.  His 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  293 

term  expired  in  the  fall  of  1882,  when  he  resumed  practice  in  partnership  with 
Mr.  Needham,  the  firm  being  Needham  and  Loomis,  which  is  already  enjoying  a 
good  first-class  practice. 

In  his  judicial  capacity  Mr.  Loomis  stood  high  in  the  esteem  of  the  bar  and 
the  public  as  a  conscientious,  impartial  and  painstaking  judge.  He  was  studious, 
quick  of  apprehension,  independent  and  upright,  doing  what  he  considers  exact 
justice  to  those  who  come  before  him.  He  possesses  the  same  qualities  as  a 
lawyer.  He  is  a  pleasant  and  genial  gentleman,  and  held  in  high  estimate  by  all 
who  come  in  contact  with  him  in  any  capacity. 


WALTER    M.   JA.CKSON. 

WALTER  M.  JACKSON  was  born  in  the  city  of  Quebec,  Canada,  February 
2,  1847,  and  is  the  son  of  Alfred  Jackson,  who  has  been  for  many  years 
one  of  the  most  prominent  physicians  in  that  city,  where  he  still  resides.  His 
education  was  principally  received  in  the  common  and  grammar  schools  of  Que- 
bec. In  1867  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  was  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits  up 
to  the  year  1877,  when  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  J.  W. 
Bennett,  and  also  at  the  Union  College  of  Law,  from  which  institution  he  gradu- 
ated. Continuing  his  studies  up  to  1881,  he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
opening  an  office  in  this  city.  He  takes  no  active  part  in  politics,  and  being 
an  "  independent,"  is  not  tied  down  by  party  lines.  He  is  a  young  man  of  enter- 
prise, able  and  studious,  and  with  his  talents  and  attainments  may  take  a  promi- 
nent position  in  his  profession. 


JOHN   W.   MARSH. 

JOHN  W.  MARSH  was  born  in  Woodstock,  Vermont,  in  1845,  and  is  a  son 
of  Hon.  Charles  P.  Marsh,  a  member  of  the  late  widely  known  firm  of  Wash- 
burn  and  Marsh,  of  that  place.  He  was  fitted  for  college  under  the  influences  of 
the  excellent  associations  that  surrounded  his  father,  and  entered  Amherst  Col- 
lege in  the  autumn  of  1862.  But  in  1863  he  left  college  and  entered,  as  a  private, 
the  3d  Vermont  battery,  and  served  actively  with  it  until  the  close  of  the  war  of 
the  rebellion,  during  which  time  he  was  promoted  successively  to  the  ranks  of 
ist  sergeant  and  2nd  lieutenant. 

The  battery  joined  the  Army  of  the  Potomac  at  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness, 
and  served  actively  with  that  army  until  the  close  of  the  war,  forming  a  part  of 
the  9th,  and  afterward  of  the  6th  corps. 

In  one  of  the  many  engagements  before  Petersburgh,  he  was  wounded  by  a 
shell  while  commanding  a  section  of  the  battery.  He  was  mustered  out  of  ser- 
vice in  June  1865,  resumed  his  studies  in  Amherst  College  in  1866,  and  graduated 


294  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

therefrom  in  1868.  In  his  earlier  life  Mr.  Marsh  had  familiarized  himself  with 
the  principles  of  law  in  connection  with  his  father's  office  and  business,  both 
by  observation  and  a  faithful  improvement  of  his  spare  moments  in  study,  and 
after  graduating  from  college  entered  the  office  of  Washburn  and  Marsh,  as  a 
a  student,  and  in  the  year  following,  1869,  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  soon 
afterward  went  to  Springfield,  Vermont,  and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  the  law, 
and  remained  there  until  the  autumn  of  1870.  During  this  period  he  was 
appointed  secretary  of  civil  and  military  affairs  for  Vermont,  by  Governors  Wash- 
burn  and  Hendee. 

He  was  married  October  9,  1872,  to  Miss  Annie  S.  Porter,  daughter  of  Hon. 
Frederick  W.  Porter,  of  Springfield,  Vermont,  and  granddaughter  of  Judge  Porter 
of  that  state.  He  began  his  professional  career  in  Chicago  in  1870,  and  in  the 
spring  of  1871  formed  a  partnership  with  L.  H.  Bisbee,  with  whom  he  continued 
until  after  the  great  fire  of  that  year.  He  afterward  formed  a  partnership  with 
J.  S.  Grinnell,  now  city  attorney  of  Chicago,  which  continued  several  years. 

Mr.  Marsh  being  able  to  control  a  large  amount  of  capital  in  the  East  and 
elsewhere,  has  for  several  years  past,  in  connection  with  his  law  business,  been 
engaged  in  loaning  money  on  real  estate  securities,  and  is  so  engaged  at  the 
present  date,  1883.  He  has  established  a  large  and  successful  business;  is  a  gen- 
tleman of  high  character  and  integrity,  and  is  much  esteemed  in  social  and  busi- 
ness circles. 

LAWRENCE  M.  ENNIS. 

THE  majority  of  mankind  are  imitators  who  follow  the  lead  of  others,  because 
they  lack  the  aggressive  element  which  makes  them  originators.  A  man 
who  possesses  this  element  will  naturally  stem  the  tide  instead  of  drifting  with 
it,  and  thus,  coming  into  collision  with  the  masses,  he  produces  commotion  and 
becomes  in  his  degree  a  leader. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch,  a  Chicagoan  by  birth,  is  a  young  man  of  marked 
ability,  whose  motto  is  a  characteristic  one  :  "In  the  bright  lexicon  of  youth 
there  is  no  such  word  as  fail." 

Mr.  Ennis  was  born  November  3,  1859.  His  mother,  also  a  native  of  Chicago, 
was  Mary  A.  (Sexton)  Ennis,  and  was  of  Irish  descent,  and  his  father,  James  Ennis, 
who  was  often  known  as  the  German-Irish  lawyer,  was  one  of  the  old  practitioners 
of  the  Chicago  bar,  a  native  of  Ireland,  settling  in  Chicago  in  1854.  His  career  as  a 
member  of  the  fraternity  is  found  elsewhere  in  this  work.  Lawrence  received  his 
early  education  in  the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  and  from  private  instruction, 
when  he  continued  the  study  of  the  languages,  graduating  from  the  high  school 
July  27,  1877.  Immediately  after  leaving  school  he  entered  his  father's  office  and 
began  the  study  of  law,  where  he  remained  until  the  death  of  his  father,  Novem- 
ber 9,  1880.  At  this  time,  although  but  one  week  over  age,  he  entered  into  part- 
nership with  F.  W.  Walker,  but  a  few  years  older  than  himself,  and  together 


J   iyeOWill,.-.,   «  R. -JV 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  297 

they  took  immediate  charge  of  his  father's  business,  which  was  very  large,  and  a 
great  portion  of  which  was  among  vthe  Germans,  whose  language  Mr.  Ennis 
speaks  fluently. 

On  November  16,  1880,  young  Ennis  made  application,  and  was  examined 
before  the  appellate  court.  The  judges,  understanding  the  circumstances,  gave 
him  permission  to  practice  until  the  convening  of  the  supreme  court  January  12, 
"1881,  when  he  was  formally  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  Illinois  bar.  Mr.  Ennis 
succeeded  in  retaining  his  father's  clients,  and  at  once  began  the  active  duties 
of  his  profession,  and  although  engaged  in  active  litigation  he  did  not  try  his  first 
jury  case  until  March  1881,  when,  before  Judge  Anthony,  he  had  the  opportunity 
to  display  his  talents  and  ability,  his  address  to  the  jury  moving  the  entire  panel 
to  tears,  and  gaining  his  case.  Mr.  Ennis,  being  so  young  in  appearance,  was 
regarded  by  some  as  not  a  very  dangerous  antagonist,  but  during  his  first  year  at 
the  bar,  in  which  he  tried  over  one  hundred  jury  cases,  and  several  in  the  supreme 
and  appellate  courts  in  which  he  was  successful,  he  dispelled  the  opinions,  and  has 
proved  that  he  is  well  qualified  in  his  profession,  although  the  youngest  attorney 
in  the  state  who  has  an  active  practice.  Mr.  Ennis  favors  advocacy  and  as  an 
advocate  wins  his  success;  he  is  essentially  a  jury  lawyer.  His  personal  appear- 
ance is  striking,  he  being  six  feet,  one  and  one-half  inches  tall,  having  prominent 
features,  indicative  of  his  restless  energy.  On  account  of  his  power  of  observa- 
tion, his  ability  to  discern  the  motives  of  men,  and  his  unusual  foresight  since  his 
boyhood,  he  has  often  been  known  among  his  comrades  as  Lynx  Eyed  Ennis,  a 
nom  de plume  which  he  accepted,  and  he  has  written  many  articles  over  the  signa- 
ture "  Lynx  Eye." 

Mr.  Ennis,  at  the  death  of  his  father,  was  the  oldest  of  ten  orphans,  six  boys 
and  four  girls,  his  mother  having  died  some  year  previous.  This  was  a  consider- 
able stimulant  to  his  energies,  as  his  father's  estate,  although  large,  was  mostly 
unimproved  property,  yielding  no  income,  and  was  not  available  without  consid- 
erable trouble  and  delay,  therefore  Mr.  Ennis  has  been  obliged  to  be  the  support 
of  the  family  ever  since. 

In  politics  he  is  an  active  democrat.  In  June  1880,  although  not  yet  of  age,  he 
was  called  upon  by  the  democratic  state  committee  to  stump  the  state,  and  during 
the  campaign  he  made  sixty-seven  speeches  for  Hancock,  English,  and  Trumbull, 
making  an  enviable  record  as  a  campaign  orator,  and  was  one  of  the  original 
eighteen  who  organized  the  "  Iroquois  Club,"  a  democratic  social  organization, 
well  known  throughout  the  Northwest.  In  October  1881  Mr.  Ennis  was  tendered 
the  nomination,  as  clerk  of  the  criminal  court  of  Cook  county,  by  the  democratic 
convention,  which  he  peremptorily  declined,  wishing  to  devote  his  entire  time 
and  energy  to  his  profession. 

Mr.  Ennis  is  well  known  in  the  political,  educational,  military  and  social  circles 

of  Chicago.     At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  entered  a  literary  and  debating  society, 

and  for  eight  years  devoted  himself  to  literary  work,  and  was  during  that  time 

the  president  of  thirteen  different   literary  societies  in   Chicago.      He  was  the 

3' 


2Q8  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

organizer  of  the  literary  society  in  the  north  division  high  school  and  at  various 
other  institutions.  Remembering  his  alma  mater  he  sends  a  gold  medal  each  year 
to  the  north  division  high  school,  to  be  awarded  to  the  best  essayist  in  the 
graduating  class.  It  is  known  as  the  Ennis  Essay  Medal. 

Mr.  Ennis  while  in  the  high  school  published  a  small  daily  manuscript  paper, 
and  after  that  became  editor  of  the  "  Literary  Review,"  a  journal  devoted  to  the 
Chicago  literary  societies,  and  has  done  much  work  in  journalism. 

As  a  speaker  Mr.  Ennis  is  successful,  being  very  enthusiastic  and  convincing, 
entering  into  his  subject  with  his  whole  heart.  During  the  campaign  he  was 
known  as  the  boy  orator  of  Chicago. 

His  religion  is  Roman  Catholic,  and  he  is  an  active  worker  in  the  church  of 
his  faith. 

GEORGE    SAWIN. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  was 
born  April  14,  1834.  He  is  the  fourth  son  of  John  and  Charlotte  (Lash) 
Sawin,  the  former  of  whom  was  of  Scotch  and  the  latter  of  Welsh  ancestry. 
During  his  boyhood  George  attended  school  at  Chelsea,  Massachusetts,  where 
his  parents  resided  for  many  years,  but  subsequently  graduated  from  an  institu- 
tion of  learning  on  Mayhew  street  in  the  city  of  Boston,  under  the  instruction  of 
William  D.  Swan.  He  was  fond  of  study  and  reading,  and  early  decided  to 
enter  the  legal  profession.  Accordingly,  after  closing  his  studies  in  school,  being 
then  about  eighteen  years  of  age,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Samuel  E.  Guild 
and  Hon.  George  S.  Hilliard,  both  prominent  at  the  Boston  bar.  He  remained 
there  for  about  two  years,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time,  and  before  being 
admitted  to  the  bar,  he  was  compelled,  by  reason  of  failing  health,  to  abandon 
his  studies  for  a  time.  He  thereupon  made  an  extensive  trip  through  the  south- 
ern and  western  states,  and  finally,  in  1854,  settled  in  Chicago,  where  he  has  since 
made  his  home. 

In  1855  Mr.  Sawin  accepted  a  position  in  the  mercantile  house  of  W.  W.  and 
L.  H.  Mills,  as  credit  man  for  the  states  of  Wisconsin,  Iowa  and  Minnesota.  In 
1856  he  associated  himself  with  Adam  Carlyle  in  a  real  estate  enterprise,  and 
laid  out  the  town  of  De  Soto  on  the  Mississippi  river,  in  Bad-axe  county,  Wiscon- 
sin, where  he  invested  all  his  possessions  in  a  saw-mill,  warehouse,  ice  house  and 
other  buildings  and  improvements.  The  prospect  seemed  most  favorable  at  the 
opening,  but  the  financial  panic  that  swept  over  the  country  in  1857  proved  dis- 
astrous to  the  enterprise,  and  involved  Mr.  Sawin  in  the  loss  of  all  that  he  pos- 
sessed. Returning  to  Chicago,  he  took  a  position  in  the  dry  goods  house  of 
Stacy  and  Thomas,  which  he  held  until  1859,  when  the  firm  went  into  liquida- 
tion, and  he  took  a  position  in  the  postoffice  at  Chicago,  under  Hon.  Isaac  Cook, 
postmaster.  Being  on  the  night  service,  he  had  some  time  during  each  day  for 
study.  This  he  carefully  employed  in  the  law  office  of  Hon.  James  P.  Root,  and 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  299 

by  hard  work  completed  his  course  of  study,  fitted  himself  for  examination,  and 
was  admitted  to  practice  in  both  the  state  -and  federal  courts.  The  opening  of 
the  war  of  the  rebellion,  however,  deterred  him  from  at  once  engaging  in  his 
profession. 

He  enlisted  in  the  58th  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  November  i,  1860,  and  in  the 
following  February  left  Chicago  for  Ft.  Henry  as  quartermaster  of  that  regiment, 
and  with  the  exception  of  a  short  time  spent  in  Springfield,  upon  the  reorganiza- 
tion of  his  regiment  after  being  liberated  from  Libby  prison,  he  was  constantly 
in  the  field.  He  participated  in  many  of  the  most  important  and  bloody  battles 
of  the  war,  of  which  may  be  mentioned  Shiloh,  Corinth,  Pleasant  Hill  and  Nash- 
ville, serving  a  greater  portion  of  the  time  on  the  staffs  of  Generals  Smith,  Mor- 
row, Dodge  and  Sweny. 

After  the  close  of  the  war  Mr.  Sawin  returned  to  Chicago  and  established 
himself  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  has  since  continued  it  uninterrupt- 
edly, and  achieved  most  satisfactory  success.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  enterprising,  able 
and  upright,  a  careful  and  conscientious  counselor  and  adviser,  a  good  advocate 
and  an  honor  to  the  profession.  As  a  business  man  he  enjoys  the  confidence  of 
all  with  whom  he  has  to  deal,  and  for  upright,  manly  dealing  bears  a  character 
above  reproach.  He  possesses  a  vigorous  and  robust  body,  and  with  his  fine 
mental  attainments  and  unspotted  record  may  confidently  and  hopefully  look 
forward  to  future  achievements. 

Mr.  Sawin  was  married  in  1855  to  a  most  estimable  lady,  Miss  Carrie  L.  Rust, 
daughter  of  Elijah  C.  Rust,  of  Jamesville,  Onondaga  county,  New  York. 


CHARLES  ARND. 

/^~*HARLES  ARND  was  born  at  Bernhard's  Bay,  Oneida  county,  New  York; 
V_^  on  the  26th  day  of  January,  1855.  His  father,  B.  Frederick  Arnd,  and  his 
mother,  Caroline  (Baxter)  Arnd,  are  of  German  origin,  their  ancestry  dating  back 
about  three  hundred  years.  His  father  took  an  active  part  in  the  service  during 
the  late  civil  war,  and  his  immediate  ancestors  have  held  prominent  public  posi- 
tions in  science,  literature  and  theology;  a  grand  uncle  was  abbe  in  Germany, 
another  was  professor  of  Astronomy,  Mineralogy  and  Botany,  and  another  was 
architect  of  the  palaces  constructed  for  the  Prince  of  Hesse,  and  Edward  Arnd, 
the  author  of  the  continuation  of  Becker's  History  of  the  World,  from  1815  to 
the  present,  being  a  distant  relative. 

Charles  received  his  early  educational  training  at  Bath,  Steuben  county,  New 
York,  and  after  being  fully  prepared,  entered  Amherst  College,  Massachusetts, 
and  pursuing  a  full  course  of  studies,  graduated  with  honor,  but  having  a 
thirst  for  knowledge  which  carried  him  beyond  these  acquirements,  he  traveled 
abroad  throughout  Europe,  and  from  the  universities  of  Berlin,  Heidelberg  and 
Paris,  gleaned  what  he  could  from  the  lectures  on  law,  history  and  languages. 


T.OO  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

\J 

Returning  to  America,  he  continued  for  a  time  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of 
McMaster  and  Parkhurst,  in  Bath,  New  York,  but  Charles,  seeing  the  superior 
advantages  offered  in  Chicago,  removed  to  the  West  in  November,  1877,  and  pur- 
sued a  course  of  study  with  Hon.  William  H.  King,  and  Thompson  and  Bishop, 
and  was  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  bar  in  April,  1878,  and  practiced  with  suc- 
cess until  December,  1880,  when  he  was  appointed  justice  of  the  peace  of  North 
Chicago.  Having  obtained  a  great  many  friends,  he  became  a  member  of  the 
young  men's  auxiliary  club,  and  was  elected  secretary  of  the  same,  in  the  fall  of 
1879.  He  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  Zach  Chandler  mass  meeting,  held 
in  Chicago  on  the  night  previous  to  Mr.  Chandler's  death,  and  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  public  mass  meetings,  held  during  the  Garfield  campaign,  and  was  dele- 
gate from  the  eighteenth  ward  of  Chicago  to  the  Farwell  Hall  presidential  con- 
vention during  the  Garfield  campaign.  His  learning  and  experience  have  fully 
equipped  him  for  the  active  duties  of  the  position  which  he  now  occupies  as  jus- 
tice of  the  peace,  and  a  member  of  the  Chicago  bar. 


COL.  JOHN  W.   BENNETT. 

JOHN  WESLEY  BENNETT  was  born  in  Westmoreland,  New  Hampshire,  in 
the  year  1837.  His  father,  Rev.  John  G.  Bennett,  was  a  teacher  in  the  semi- 
nary at  Newbury,  Vermont,  and  one  of  the  old  circuit  preachers  of  the  Methodist 
church.  Col.  Bennett  is  the  oldest  of  a  large  family  of  children,  and  when  quite 
young  he  went  to  live  with  Judge  Jackson,  who  owned  and  conducted  a  large 
farm  in  Cornish,  New  Hampshire,  and  was  judge  of  the  district  court  there. 
While  with  him  John  worked  on  the  farm  and  in  a  saw  mill,  etc.  In  his  youth  he 
evinced  the  possession  of  will-power,  self-reliance,  independence  and  decision  of 
character.  He  is  essentially  self-educated.  Later  while  working  on  the  farm  he  was 
studious  as  well  as  industrious;  it  was  his  custom  to  study  from  four  to  six  o'clock 
in  the  morning,  work  until  six  in  the  evening,  during  the  summer  season,  and 
continue  his  study  and  reading  until  nine  in  the  evening,  when  he  retired,  and  in 
the  morning  resumed  the  same  routine  for  the  next  day.  By  this  course  were  devel- 
oped both  mind  and  body.  Later  he  attended  the  academy  of  Meriden,  New 
Hampshire,  at  West  Brattleboro,  and  at  Newbury,  Vermont,  and  was  among  the 
best  scholars  in  his  classes.  He  was  fitted  to  enter  the  sophomore  class  in  any 
college.  Being  the  oldest  of  a  large  family,  he  determined  to,  and  did  make  his 
way  without  material  assistance  from  any  source.  He  engaged  in  teaching  school 
and  at  the  same  time  continued  the  work  of  self-improvement.  He  was  not  only 
a  student  of  books  but  of  men  and  things,  and  laid  up  a  fund  of  practical  and 
useful  knowledge,  such  as  he  could  not  have  obtained  in  the  colleges,  so  far  as 
practical  knowledge  is  concerned.  He  was  a  young  man  of  studious  habits,  and 
energetic,  with  firmness  and  stability  of  character,  as  a  foundation  upon  which  to 
build. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  30! 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  war  he  was  among  the  first  to  offer  himself  in  the  three 
months'  service,  but  was  not  accepted  because  of  an  injury  he  had  sustained  in  his 
right  foot.  He  was  disappointed  but  not  discouraged,  and  was  determined  to 
get  into  the  service  and  believed  he  would  succeed,  as  he  had  heretofore  suc- 
ceeded in  accomplishing  what  he  had  determined  upon.  Hearing  of  a  recruiting 
officer  for  the  cavalry  near  Bradford,  Vermont,  he,  with  three  other  young  men 
went  there  and  was  accepted.  Being  an  entire  stranger  to  the  remainder  of  those 
who  had  enlisted  in  the  same  company,  he  could  not  expect  to  get  a  commission, 
made  no  effort  to  that  end,  but  he  drilled  a  squad  of  men,  and  made  so  favorable 
an  impression  on  his  comrades  that  he  was  unanimously  elected  first  lieutenant  of 
Co.  D.  When  a  regiment  was  filled  and  organized  it  was  mustered  as  the  ist  Vt. 
Cavalry,  and  ordered  to  Annapolis  for  drill,  where  it  remained  several  months, 
during  which  time  Gen.  John  P.  Hatch,  commanding  the  brigade,  appointed  him, 
unsolicited  on  Lieut.  Bennett's  part,  brigade-quartermaster,  commissary  and  aide- 
de-camp  on  his  personal  staff.  He  performed  all  of  his  duties  in  an  efficient  and 
satisfactory  manner,  and  when  he  rendered  his  final  accounts,  preparatory  to  tak- 
ing the  field,  they,  were  found  correct  to  a  cent.  He  had  had  no  previous  experience 
in  these  capacities,  hence  the  appointment  and  the  outcome  were  decidedly  cred- 
itable to  the  young  soldier,  and  indicated  the  estimate  in  which  he  was  held  by 
the  commanding  officer.  Gen.  Hatch  was  then  ordered  to  join  McClellan  (Ben- 
nett remaining  on  his  personal  staff  as  aide-de-camp),  which  he  did,  but  was 
immediately  afterward  ordered  to  join  Banks  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  and  his 
command  then  participated  in  the  disastrous  retreat  down  the  valley.  He  served 
on  Hatch's  staff  until  that  officer  was  succeeded  by  Gen.  John  Buford,  and  con- 
tinued to  serve  on  the  staff  of  the  latter.  He  was  soon  promoted  to  the  rank  of 
captain,  and  later  to  major,  when  at  his  own  request,  he  rejoined  his  regiment, 
marched  with  it  to  Gettysburg,  was  attached  to  Kilpatrick's  command,  and  partici- 
pated in  fifteen  battles  in  sixteen  days,  in  that  memorable  campaign.  Subse- 
quently he  was  in  the  battles  of  the  Wilderness,  where  he  was  wounded,  and  with 
Sheridan  in  the  Shenandoah  Valley,  in  all  which  he  exhibited  bravery,  gallantry, 
cool  and  calculating  daring,  and,  above  all,  strategy  in  the  way  of  accomplishing 
what  he  was  commissioned  to,  with  the  smallest  possible  loss  of  men  and  material. 
He  had  been  promoted  to  lieutenant-colonel,  and  was  in  command  of  his  regiment 
when, with  five  hundred  men,  he  made  the  brilliant  advance  cavalry  charge  at  Cedar 
Creek,  capturing  forty-five  rebel  artillery  pieces,  the  largest  capture  of  artillery 
by  that  number  of  men,  in  a  single  charge,  of  which  history  gives  any  account. 
He  won  and  received  from  his  superiors  much  of  the  credit  and  many  of  the 
honors  attached  to  that  decisive  blow  in  the  final  engagement  which  resulted  in 
the  checking  of  the  rebel  movements  and  the  final  overthrow  of  the  cause  in  that 
valley.  It  was  thought  by  his  friends  that  his  brilliant  and  successful  achieve- 
ments there  entitled  him  to  a  brigadiership. 

In  the  latter  part  of  1864  he  returned  to  Vermont  and  took  command  of  the 
Canada  frontier,  after  the  rebel  raid,  with  headquarters  at  St.  Albans;  he  was 


3O2  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

subsequently  mustered  out  of  service,  leaving  in  history  a  record  any  one  could 
justly  be  proud  of.  He  was  in  most  of  the  great  engagements  of  the  eastern 
army;  was  under  fire  over  one  hundred  times.  When  mustered  out  he  returned 
to  Brattleboro,  Vermont,  and  resumed  his  law  studies  with  Field  and  Tyler,  one 
of  the  ablest  law  firms  in  the  state,  the  latter  having  been  representative  in  con- 
gress for  two  or  three  terms.  After  he  had  been  examined  and  passed,  he  went 
to  the  Albany  Law  School  to  get  the  general  advantages  that  school  affords,  and 
graduated  in  1867,  and  came  west  in  the  fall  of  that  year.  After  traveling  for  a 
time  he  settled  at  Chicago,  in  practice,  and  has  been  there  ever  since,  doing  a 
successful  business.  Having  a  thorough  knowledge  of  law  and  its  bearing  upon 
facts  and  conditions,  he  makes  an  able  and  reliable  counselor;  painstaking  and 
sedulous  in  forming  an  opinion  in  the  case  presented  by  his  client.  He  is  a  man 
of  thorough  integrity,  entirely  responsible  as  a  lawyer,  a  man,  or  in  a  commercial 
sense.  He  has  been  engaged  in  many  important  cases,  and  always  to  his  credit. 

In  politics  he  is  an  active  republican,  and  takes  part  in  the  more  important 
campaigns.  His  friends  put  his  name  forward  for  congressman  and  came  very 
near  securing  his  nomination,  and  he  has  often  been  urged  to  allow  the  use  of  his 
name  for  different  positions,  but  has  persistently  declined,  as  his  business  requires 
his  entire  time,  though  he  has  accepted  positions  of  trust,  which  did  not  materially 
interfere  with  it.  He  is  a  forcible  and  interesting  public  speaker,  and  his  voice  is 
often  heard  when  important  issues  arise. 

In  1870  he  married  Harriet  E.  Frink,  youngest  daughter  of  the  late  John 
Frink,  well  known  in  the  West  as  the  Vanderbilt  of  the  stage  business  in  the  time 
of  stages.  Mr.  Bennett  is  one  of  Chicago's  best  citizens,  and  a  gentleman  of 
many  excellent  qualities. 

HENRY   W.  CLARKE. 

HENRY  W.  CLARKE  was  born  at  Whitestown,  Oneida  county,  New  York, 
March  15,  1815.  His  father,  Dr.  Henry  Clarke,  was  a  surgeon  in  the  army, 
during  the  war  of  1812,  and  on  retiring  from  the  army  settled  in  Otsego  county, 
New  York,  and  practiced  medicine  and  surgery.  He  was  a  skillful  physician  and 
surgeon,  and  a  warm-hearted,  genial  man,  and  died  in  1853  at  the  age  of  sixty 
years,  having  risen  to  considerable  distinction  in  the  medical  profession. 

Henry  W.  attended  the  academy  at  Bridgewater,  New  York,  and  in  1829 
entered  Oneida  Institute,  where  he  graduated  in  1832.  In  May  of  the  same  year, 
he  began  reading  law  in  the  office  of  George  C.  Clyde,  at  Burlington,  New  York, 
and  afterward,  for  two  years  was  a  student  in  the  office  of  the  distinguished  Judge 
Gridley,  judge  of  the  fifth  circuit  of  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
the  supreme  court  of  New  York,  in  July  1836.  He  began  practice  in  Herkimer, 
New  York,  as  a  partner  of  Judge  Aaron  W.  Hackley,  ex-member  of  congress, 
which  partnership  continued  until  June,  1838,  when  Mr.  Clarke  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, where  he  has  been  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  to  the  present 


THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  303 

time.     He  is  a  man  of  ability,  and  high  standing  in  the  community  ;  is  genial  and 
social  in  his  manners,  and  scholarly  in  his  tastes. 

Mr.  Clarke  was  city  attorney  of  Chicago  for  two  terms.  In  politics  he  is  a 
republican,  and  has  been  for  many  years  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church.  He 
married,  in  1839,  Miss  Harriet  R.  Crumb,  daughter  of  Silas  Crumb,  of  Otsego 
county,  New  York,  and  has  two  children  living:  Frederick  W.  Clarke,  a  merchant 
in  Chicago,  and  a  daughter,  Mrs.  Elizabeth  Underhill. 


HERBERT    B.    JOHNSON. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Kendall,  Orleans  county,  New  York, 
September  5,  1844,  and  is  the  son  of  Dr.  Caleb  C.  Johnson,  a  well  known 
physician  and  surgeon  of  forty  years'  practice  in  western  New  York  and  Hills- 
dale,  Michigan,  and  a  son  of  one  of  the  pioneers  of  western  New  York.  The 
mother  of  Herbert  B.  was  Julia,  daughter  of  Capt.  Henry  W.  Bates,  also  one  of 
the  pioneers  of  western  New  York.  Both  parents  were  descended  from  New 
England  ancestry. 

Herbert  entered  Genesee  Seminary,  at  Lima,  New  York,  at  an  early  age,  and 
in  1867  graduated  from  Union  College,  Schenectady,  New  York.  He  then  spent 
two  years  as  principal  of  the  Lowell,  Michigan,  union  school.  Later  he  pursued 
a  course  of  study  at  the  Albany  Law  School,  entering  in  1869,  and  upon  his  grad- 
uation therefrom,  in  June,  1870,  removed  to  Chicago.  In  1874  he  received  the 
honorary  degree  of  A.M.  from  Hillsdale  College,  Michigan.  At  the  time  of  the 
great  fire,  in  1871,  Mr.  Johnson  was  in  partnership  with  the  late  Col.  R.  W.  Ric- 
aby,  and  suffered  a  considerable  loss  in  that  disaster.  Since  1872  he  has  been  in 
the  successful  practice  of  his  profession  by  himself.  He  has  conducted  many 
important  cases,  involving  interesting  questions  of  law,  and  established  a  fine 
reputation  as  a  careful,  able  lawyer.  Mr.  Johnson  is  a  man  of  sound,  practical 
judgment,  well  read  in  his  profession,  and  discriminating  in  his  practice. 


ISAAC    HARWOOD    PEDRICK. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  son  of  Richard  and  Susanna  B.  Pedrick,  and 
was  born  January  10,  1845,  at  Richmond,  Indiana.  His  ancestors  were  of 
the  Society  of  Friends  or  Quakers,  for  more  than  two  hundred  years,  and  of  the 
Puritan  order.  Soon  after  the  restoration,  they  took  proprietary  grants,  the 
deeds  of  which  Mr.  Pedrick  now  has,  for  lands  in  New  Jersey,  then  called  Nova 
Cesarea.  They  left  London,  England,  and  settled  in  1672  on  the  left  bank  of  the 
Delaware,  nearly  opposite  Wilmington,  State  of  Delaware,  where  some  of  the 
family  are  now  living.  Roger  Pedrick  or  Peddrick,  as  the  name  was  then 
spelled,  was  a  dissenter,  whose  views  and  estimates  respecting  the  value  of  civil 


304  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  religious  liberty,  caused  him  and  his  family,  as  history  states,  to  immigrate 
to  America.  His  house  having  been  burned  soon  after  its  erection,  he  lived 
opposite  for  a  while,  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Delaware  River.  While  there  he 
was  a  member  of  the  first  grand  jury  assembled  in  Pennsylvania,  and  his  daugh- 
ter, Hannah  (according  to  Smith's  history  of  Delaware  county),  was  the  first  child 
born  of  English  parents  in  that  state. 

Isaac  H.  Pedrick  was  educated  at  the  University  of  Michigan,  and  was  gradu- 
ated in  the  year  1870.  He  then  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago,  and 
has  remained  here  ever  since.  He  was  first  led  to  take  an  interest  in  the  study  of 
law  as  a  profession,  when  he  was  eleven  years  old,  through  hearing  a  speech 
delivered  by  Salmon  P.  Chase,  at  Richmond,  Indiana,  during  the  celebrated  polit- 
ical campaign  of  1856. 

In  November,  1882,  he  entered  into  partnership  with  George  E.  Dawson, 
under  the  present  firm  name  of  Pedrick  and  Dawson,  their  specialties  being  real 
estate  law  and  commercial  law.  In  these  branches  both  have  attained  much  dis- 
tinction and  success,  through  faithful  and  close  application  to  the  trusts  commit- 
ted to  their  charge,  and  though  a  comparatively  young  firm,  their  prospects  for 
a  long  and  successful  career  are  most  promising.  In  politics  Mr.  Pedrick  is  a 
republican,  but  does  not  take  any  very  active  part  beyond  voting  regularly  with 
his  party.  His  religious  proclivities  are  Congregational,  but  he  is  considered 
very  liberal  in  his  views.  In  manner  and  speech  he  is  somewhat  retiring,  and  is 
universally  esteemed  and  appreciated  by  all  who  have  the  pleasure  of  his 
acquaintance,  for  his  many  amiable  and  social  qualities. 


CHARLES   S.   CUTTING. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  Highgate,  Vermont,  March  i,  1854, 
the  son  of  Charles  A.  Cutting,  a  hotel  keeper,  and  Laura  E.  (Averill)  Cutting, 
daughter  of  a  member  of  the  legislature  in  that  state.  When  Charles  was  nine 
years  old,  his  parents  removed  to  Maquoketa,  Jackson  county.  Iowa,  thence  to 
Sterling,  Illinois,  and  from  there  to  Hastings,  Minnesota,  where  he  attended  high 
school  five  years.  He  then  removed  to  Salem,  Oregon,  and  attended  college  at 
Willamette  until  the  junior  year.  Being  then  but  seventeen  years  of  age,  he  was 
made  assistant  editor  of  the  Cedar  Rapids,  Iowa,  "Times,"  in  which  capacity  he 
acquired  considerable  celebrity  as  a  writer.  After  continuing  in  this  employment 
a  year  and  a  half,  he  was  elected  principal  of  the  Palatine  public  schools  in  Cook 
county,  Illinois,  a  position  which  he  held  six  years.  During  this  time  and  after- 
ward, he  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1878.  Immediately  there- 
after he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  connection  with  R.  S.  Williamson, 
continuing  until  the  fall  of  1880,  when  Judge  Williamson  was  elected  to  the 
bench  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county,  and  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
A.  N.  Tagert,  his  present  partner, 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  305 

Mr.  Cutting  is  a  very  thorough  lawyer  for  a  man  of  his  years,  and  a  gentle- 
man who  is  liberal  and  sociable  among  his  associates.  Careful  and  accurate  in 
all  of  his  business  transactions,  he  is  a  safe  counselor,  and  a  confiding  and  true 
friend.  In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Cutting  is  a  republican.  He  was  married 
June  27,  1876,  to  Miss  Annie  E.  Lytle,  and  has  by  her  one  child.  He  resides  in 
Palatine,  Illinois. 

CHESTER    KINNEY. 

HESTER  KINNEY  was  born  July  15,  1827,  in  Onondaga  county,  New  York. 
His  father,  Ethel  P.  Kinney,  a  well  known  ship-builder  in  New  York  and 
Canada,  and  his  mother,  Lavinia  (Porter)  Kinney,  were  well  known  citizens  of 
different  portions  of  the  state.  Chester  received  a  thorough  education.  He  pur- 
sued his  preliminary  and  preparatory  studies  at  Clinton  Liberal  Institute,  Oneida 
county,  and  Fally  Seminary,  Oswego  county,  and  afterward  entered  Hamilton 
College  one  year  in  advance,  and  graduated  at  the  end  of  a  three  years'  course, 
when  he  was  twenty-three  years  of  age.  After  leaving  college  he  taught  school 
for  four  years  in  Liverpool  and  Baldwinsville,  small  towns  in  central  New  York, 
and  at  the  same  time  studied  law  with  Noxon,  Leavenworth  and  Comstock,  of 
Syracuse,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York  state  January  2,  1854.  Mr. 
Kinney  began  the  duties  of  his  profession  in  Syracuse,  and  remained  there  three 
years,  at  the  end  of  which  time,  in  1857,  he  removed  to  Middleport,  then  a  small 
town  in  Iroquois  county,  Illinois,  which  is  now  known  as  Watseka.  Here  he  prac- 
ticed with  success  for  eight  years.  In  1865  he  moved  to  Chicago,  and  has  since 
been  an  active  member  of  the  Chicago  bar. 

March  26,  1857,  Mr.  Kinney  married  Miss  Louisa  L.  Spencer,  daughter  of  Col. 
J.  C.  Spencer,  and  niece  of  Judge  John  C.  Spencer,  both  well  known  citizens  of 
Syracuse.  Mr.  Kinney  has  given  his  entire  attention  to  his  profession,  and  enjoys 
a  good,  profitable  business,  and  is  a  well  known  member  of  the  legal  fraternity. 


DANIEL  C.  NICHOLES. 

DANIEL  C.  NICHOLES  was  born  March  17,  1817,  in  Caldwell,  Warren  county, 
New  York,  at  the  head  of  Lake  George,  and  is  a  son  of  Daniel  and  Dianthe 
(Hawley)  Nicholas.  After  completing  his  preliminary  studies  he  fitted  for  college 
at  Wyoming  village,  Wyoming  county,  New  York,  and  afterward  completed  a  full 
classical  course  at  Union  College,  Schenectady,  and  graduated  with  honors  from 
that  institution.  He  studied  law  two  years  while  in  college,  and  continued  the 
same  one  year  after  graduating,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  fall  of  1847 
at  Ithaca,  New  York.  Immediately  thereafter  he  established  himself  in  business 
at  that  place,  and  there  remained,  meeting  with  good  success,  until  July  3,  1848. 
Having  determined  to  settle  in  the  West  he  closed  his  affairs,  and  removing  to 
32 


306  THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

Chicago,  formed  a  partnership  with  his  brother,  Ira  J.  Nicholas,  which  was  con- 
tinued until  1854.  During  the  succeeding  two  years  he  was  associated  in  business 
with  John  T.  Wentworth,  now  a  circuit  judge  on  the  bench  in  Wisconsin.  From 
1856  to  1861  he  was  connected  with  William  McKinley,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Nicholes  and  McKinley,  after  which  he  was  again  associated  with  his  brother 
under  the  style  of  D.  C.  and  I.  J.  Nicholes.  This  firm  existed  until  1857,  when 
Thomas  Morrison  was  taken  into  the  business.  After  the  great  fire  of  1871 
Mr.  McKinley  became  again  connected  with  the  business,  and  the  name  of  the 
firm  was  changed  to  Nicholes,  McKinley  and  Morrison,  and  so  remained  until 
1875,  when  D.  C.  Nicholes  withdrew  and  formed  the  partnership  with  his  son,  C. 
W.  Nicholes,  which  still  exists.  From  1857  to  1867  the  attention  of  the  firm 
was  devoted  entirely  to  law  practice,  but  during  the  remainder  of  the  time 
referred  to  the  business  has  pertained  especially  to  real-estate  matters  and  to 
loans.  This  firm  was  financially  successful,  and  has  been  identified  with  the 
growth  and  prosperity  of  Chicago.  D.  C.  and  I.  J.  Nicholes  founded  the  town  of 
Englewood  in  1852,  and  the  prosperity,  rapid  growth  and  development  of  that 
suburb  is  due  largely  to  the  liberality  and  enterprise  and  business  sagacity  of 
these  gentlemen. 

Mr.  D.  C.  Nicholes  is  a  man  of  profound  learning,  sound  practical  judgment 
and  business  sagacity,  and  well  merits  the  reputation  which,  throughout  his  long, 
active  and  eventful  life,  he  has  sustained  for  honorable,  upright  and  conscientious 
fair  dealing.  He  is  one  of  Chicago's  honorable  and  honored  business  men,  well 
deserving  that  esteem  and  respect  universally  accorded  him. 


CHARLES  W.   NICHOLES. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  junior  member  of  the  law  firm  of  D.  C.  and  C.  W. 
Nicholes,  combining  the  benefits  derived  from  association  in  the  extensive 
business  heretofore  conducted  by  his  father  and  the  polish  and  culture  afforded 
by  a  thorough  classical  education,  together  with  fine  native  endowments,  a  genial 
temperament  and  a  high  sense  of  honor,  he  is  at  once  a  good  lawyer,  a  conscien- 
tious and  successful  business  man,  a  high-minded  gentleman  and  a  generous, 
whole-souled  companion.  He  is  the  son  of  Daniel  C.  Nicholes,  and  was  born  in 
Chicago,  December  17,  1853. 

After  passing  the  public  schools  of  Chicago  he  prepared  for  and  entered  the 
University  of  Chicago,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  with  the  class  of  1875. 
In  college  he  not  only  maintained  a  high  standard  of  scholarship,  but  among  his 
classmates  and  college  companions  was  known  for  his  genial,  jovial  disposition, 
his  courteous,  amiable  manners,  and  general  good-fellowship,  as  an  evidence  of 
which  it  need  but  be  stated  that  he  was  honored  by  an  election  to  the  Psi  Upsilon 
Fraternity.  Having  early  determined  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he  pursued  a 
course  of  study  in  the  Union  College  of  Law,  at  Chicago,  being  at  the  same  time 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  307 

associated  with  his  father  in  business,  and  after  graduating  in  June,  1877,  passed 
a  rigid  examination  before  the  supreme  court  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  bar  of  the  state. 

Although  well  read  in  the  various  branches  of  the  law  Mr.  Nicholes,  since 
engaging  in  practice,  has  devoted  his  principal  attention  to  real-estate  matters 
and  loans.  He  is  a  young  man  of  careful  and  close  business  habits,  and  in  what- 
ever he  engages  is  characterized  by  fairness,  frankness  and  unswerving  integrity, 
and  with  his  liberal  culture,  temperate  habits  and  practical  views,  together  with 
an  ability  to  apply  himself  to  hard  work,  cannot  but  realize  his  most  cherished 
expectations. 

LEVI  M.  COMSTOCK. 

EIVI  M.  COMSTOCK  was  born  February  i,  1832,  in  Mayville,  Chautauqua 
county,  New  York,  and  is  the  son  of  Jedediah  and  Harriet  (Miller)  Corn- 
stock.  He  was  left  an  orphan  at  the  tender  age  of  two  years.  He  received  his 
early  education  in  the  common  schools  of  Chautauqua,  but  when  sixteen  years  of 
age  went  to  the  town  of  Troy,  Ohio,  and  worked  as  a  cabinet  maker  and^carpenter, 
and  thus  obtained  means  with  which  he  paid  his  way  at  the  select  schools,  Free- 
dom and  Benton  academies,  where  he  prosecuted  his  studies  about  four  years. 
In  1851  he  borrowed  books  of  William  O.  Forrest,  and  commenced  the  study 
of  the  law,  and  during  the  same  year  became  a  law  student  in  the  office  of 
Hon.  Ceberry  Ford,  at  Burton,  Ohio.  In  the  fall  of  1852  he  went  to  Allegan, 
Michigan,  where,  seven  years  later,  in  1859,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Thence 
he  went  to  Ottawa  county,  Michigan,  and  practiced  law  three  years,  after  which 
he  went  to  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  and  practiced  law  until  the  spring  of  1882, 
when  he  moved  to  Chicago,  and  on  June  15,  following,  was  licensed  by  the 
Illinois  supreme  court  to  practice  in  all  of  the  courts  of  the  state.  Mr.  Comstock 
is  the  author  of  a  work  on  mechanic's  liens,  published  in  Milwaukee  in  1878;  he 
is  now  (1883)  engaged  on  a  work  on  the  same  subject,  designed  to  be  a  complete 
work  on  the  laws  and  practice  in  the  United  States,  and  to  contain  a  complete 
digest  of  the  American  law  on  the  subject.  Mr.  Comstock  is  a  clear  and  concise 
writer,  and  possesses  a  happy  faculty  of  citing  cases,  peculiarly  and  forcibly  to 
his  subject.  He  is  also  something  of  a  journalist,  and  has  been  a  correspondent 
for  some  of  the  leading  journals.  He  has  seldom  given  his  attention  to  politics, 
and  has  always  refused  to  allow  his  name  to  be  used  in  that  connection  with  a 
single  exception.  In  the  year  1862  he  was  prevailed  upon  to  accept  the  office  of 
school  inspector  at  Allegan,  Michigan,  and  held  that  position  one  term,  giving 
universal  satisfaction.  He  is  very  liberal  in  his  religious  views,  and  is  inclined  to 
the  Episcopal  forms  and  service. 

He  was  married  in  June  1853,  to  Miss  Lydia  G.  Miller  and  has  by  her  five 
children,  three  of  whom  are  living.  His  son,  Clayton  E.,  now  twenty-three 
years  of  age,  was  educated  in  Michigan,  and  learned  the  printer's  trade.  He 


308  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

went  to  the  Rocky  mountains  in  1880  and  formed  the  acquaintance  of  and  mar- 
ried a  beautiful  young  lady,  an  heiress,  who  was  born  and  raised  in  the  Rocky 
mountains,  and  the  one  thing  remarkable  about  the  matter  is  she  has  not  yet  ven- 
tured to  leave  her  mountain  home.  Mr.  Comstock's  daughter  married  William 
H.  Willard,  who,  together  with  his  son  Clayton  and  wife,  own  a  joint  one-third 
interest  in  the  celebrated  Willard-Burgess-Comstock  group  of  five  mines  near 
Breckinridge,  Colorado,  said  to  be  among  the  richest  mines  in  that  state.  His 
son,  G.  O.  Comstock,  sixteen  years  of  age,  attended  school  at  Grand  Haven,  Michi- 
gan, eight  years,  and  has  since  graduated  from  the  Spencerian  Business  College 
of  Milwaukee,  and  is  now  acting  as  clerk  in  the  office  of  his  father  in  Chicago. 


D.    HARRY   HAMMER. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Springfield,  Illinois,  and  was 
born  December  23,  1840;  the  son  of  John  Hammer  and  Eliza  (Witner) 
Hammer.  His  parents  settled  at  Springfield  in  1837,  the  father  having  formerly 
been  a  merchant  and  manufacturer  at  Hagerstown,  Maryland.  The  mother  was 
a  native  of  Maryland,  and  a  daughter  of  John  Witmer,  a  soldier  of  the  war  of 
1812.  In  1842,  when  Harry  was  about  two  years  old,  his  family  removed  to  Ogle 
county,  and  there  he  passed  his  boyhood  and  youth  in  attending  the  district 
schools,  and  in  the  ordinary  routine  of  a  farmer  boy's  life,  and  also  during  this 
period  of  his  life  learned  the  harness  and  saddlery  trade,  and  during  several  win- 
ters employed  his  time  in  teaching.  Possessed  of  a  native  taste  for  study  and 
literary  culture,  he  made  the  best  use  of  his  time,  and  at  the  age  of  seventeen 
began  a  course  of  study  in  the  Rock  River  Seminary,  at  Mount  Morris,  Illinois. 
After  graduating  from  that  institution,  having  determined  to  devote  himself  to 
the  legal  profession,  he  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  the  law  department  of  Mich- 
igan University,  graduating  in  the  class  of  1865.  He  afterward  spent  some  time 
traveling  through  the  several  western  and  northern  states,  and  finally  established 
himself  for  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  Owing,  however, 
to  the  unsettled  state  of  affairs  after  the  close  of  the  war,  he  met  with  little  success, 
and  conseqently  abandoned  the  law  and  began  work  at  his  trade.  He  continued 
thus  employed  until  the  following  year,  when  he  was  compelled  to  leave  St.  Louis 
by  reason  of  the  cholera  epidemic. 

About  this  time  Mr.  Hammer  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Benj.  F.  Taylor,  of 
the  Chicago  "  Evening  Journal,"  who  was  lecturing  through  the  West,  and-  fol- 
lowing his  advice,  removed  to  Chicago  and  resumed  his  profession.  The  move 
was  a  most  happy  one,  and  marked  the  turning  point  in  his  life.  Entering  with 
all  the  vigor  of  his  young  manhood  into  the  work  of  his  profession,  with  a  deter- 
mined purpose  to  succeed,  he  soon  made  for  himself  a  name  at  the  Chicago  bar, 
and  built  up  an  extensive  and  lucrative  practice. 

In  1879  Mr.  Hammer  was  appointed,  by  Gov.  Shelby  M.  Cullom,  one  of  the 


H.C.CoQperJr   t    CD. 


E.PI;  by  F.  0  WiJIum-j  tBro  NY 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of   CHICAGO.  "MI 

*J 

justices  of  the  peace  for  the  city  of  Chicago,  for  a  term  of  four  years,  and  in 
1883  he  was  reappointed  by  Gov.  John  M.  Hamilton  for  another  term.  The  office 
is  one  to  which  he  is  well  adapted,  both  by  his  judicial  mind  and  his  practical 
knowledge  of  the  law,  and  to  these,  together  with  his  great  popularity,  may  be 
attributed  his  almost  unparalleled  success,  he  having,  since  his  appointment,  dis- 
posed of  about  four  thousand  cases  each  year.  Aside  from  his  professional 
duties,  Mr.  Hammer  has  always  kept  himself  well  posted  on  matters  of  public 
interest,  and  besides  being  an  able  and  successful  lawyer,  has  always  been  known 
as  an  enterprising  and  public  spirited  man. 

He  is  a  gentleman  of  cultivated  tastes  and  fine  literary  attainments,  and  takes 
an  active  part  in  all  movements  tending  to  advance  the  interests  of  art  and  lite- 
rary culture  in  the  community  where  he  resides.  His  private  library,  comprising 
some  five  thousand  volumes,  is  one  of  the  finest  and  most  select  collections  of 
books  in  the  city  of  Chicago. 

In  political  sentiment  Mr.  Hammer  is  and  always  has  been  a  republican.  He 
is  married  to  Emma  L.  Carpenter,  of  Athens,  Ohio,  and  has  two  daughters, 
Maude,  aged  sixteen  years,  and  Hazel  Harry,  born  July  4,  1881.  Although  he 
has  scarcely  reached  the  meridian  of  life,  Mr.  Hammer  has  accumulated  an  ample 
fortune,  and  lives  in  the  enjoyment  of  all  the  comforts  of  a  happy  and  cheerful 
home.  Domestic  in  his  habits,  and  social  in  his  tastes,  he  is  a  most  genial  com- 
panion, and  in  nothing  takes  more  delight  than  in  dispensing  to  his  many  friends^ 
a  generous  hospitality. 

Mr.  Hammer  is  an  active  member  of  Chevalier  Bayard  Commandery  of  Knights 
Templar,  and  other  societies.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  Calumet  and  Union 
League  Clubs,  of  Chicago. 


SAMUEL    A.  FRENCH. 

SAMUEL  A.  FRENCH  was  born  in  Steuben  county,  New  York,  April  8,  1832, 
and  is  a  son  of  Joshua  French,  one  of  a  family  of  considerable  prominence  in 
the  state  of  New  York.  He  first  attended  school  in  the  public  school  of  his 
native  county,  and  his  father  having  moved  to  Illinois  in  1844,  he  two  years  later 
entered  the  high  school  at  Jackson,  Michigan.  In  1847  he  left  school,  and  began 
clerking  for  M.  P.  Potter  of  Algonquin,  McHenry  county,  Illinois,  where  he 
remained  until  1854,  when  he  went  into  business  for  himself  with  Luther  Kim- 
ball,  opening  a  general  store  at  Algonquin.  He  remained  in  business  there  until 
1867,  when  he  removed  to  Elgin,  Illinois,  and  engaged  extensively  in  business, 
his  operations  extending  to  the  states  of  Iowa  and  Michigan.  In  1871  he  sold  out 
his  entire  business  and  removed  to  Chicago.  In  Chicago,  Mr.  French  entered  into 
the  wholesale  paint  and  oil  business  with  Thomas  Todd,  under  style  of  French 
and  Todd.  In  1875  he  retired  from  business  and  began  the  study  of  law  with 
Rogers  and  Appleton,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1878,  and  began  practice  at 


312  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

once,  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Decker  and  French.  This  firm  dissolved  July  i, 
1881.  Since  then  he  has  been  alone.  Although  comparatively  brief,  his  profes- 
sional career  has  been  reasonably  successful,  and  he  has  evidenced  good  legal 
talent,  and  an  ability  to  take  a  prominent  position  among  his  professional  breth- 
ren. He  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  Masonic  fraternity,  having  organized 
several  very  prominent  lodges  in  this  state,  and  organized  and  was  for  two  years 
commander  of  Bethel  Commandery,  No.  36,  Knights  Templar.  He  also,  in  1861, 
enlisted  and  equipped,  at  his  own  expense,  a  company  of  the  i5th  111.  Inf.  for  the 
war,  but  was  prevented  by  press  of  business  from  accompanying  them. 


MILTON   R.   FRESHWATERS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Brooke  county,  Virginia,  in  1844.  His 
father,  George  Freshwaters,  was  a  member  of  one  of  the  oldest  families  in 
that  part  of  the  state,  the  family  having  settled  there  early  in  the  eighteenth  cen- 
tury. Having  received  his  primary  education  at  Allegheny  College,  at  Meadville, 
Pennsylvania,  and  at  Hopedale  Seminary  in  Ohio,  Milton  entered  Bethany  Col- 
lege, in  the  junior  class,  in  1864,  and  graduated  in  1866.  He  at  once  began  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Joseph  Pendleton,  at  Wheeling,  West  Virginia,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1869.  He  began  practice  in  Wheeling,  forming  a  part- 
nership with  Nathaniel  Richardson,  a  prominent  criminal  lawyer,  which  partner- 
ship was  six  months  later  dissolved,  on  account  of  the  election  of  Mr.  Freshwaters 
to  the  office  of  state's  attorney,  of  Brooke  county,  which  office  he  held  for  two 
years.  He  was  also  elected  county  superintendent  of  education.  In  1872  he 
removed  to  Chicago  and  opened  an  office,  and  eschewing  politics,  has  devoted 
himself  entirely  to  his  profession. 


WILL  H.  MOORE. 

WILL  H.  MOORE,  one  of  the  active  younger  members  of  the  Chicago  bar, 
was  born  at  Buena  Vista,  Ohio,  November  28,  1850.  His  parents  were 
Charles  W.  and  Sallie  Moore.  His  mother  was  the  daughter  of  Jacob  Traber  and 
the  sister  of  a  notable  family  of  brothers,  five  of  whom  are  merchants,  two  prac- 
ticing attorneys,  and  one  a  circuit  judge  in  Ohio.  From  this  branch  of  his 
ancestry  Mr.  Moore  inherited  his  personal  characteristics,  the  most  prominent  of 
which  are,  energy,  quick  perception,  a  tendency  to  the  practical  and  business 
ability  as  distinguished  from  the  scholar  or  philosophical  thinker. 

His  first  six  years  were  spent  in  tin  Ohio  village,  and  the  next  ten  on  a  fron- 
tier farm  in  western  Illinois,  near  excellent  schools,  which  he  attended  during 
the^winter  months,  and  so  availed  himself  of  such  advantage  that  his  seventeenth 
and  eighteenth  years  were  spent  in  teaching,  mostly  in  charge  of  a  department 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CfffCAGO.  313 

of  the  Keithsburg,  Illinois,  schools,  he  having  been  granted  one  of  the  only  seven 
first-grade  teachers'  diplomas  issued  in  that  populous  and  intelligent  county. 

He  then  began  a  college  course  of  study,  but  by  reason  of  financial  inability 
was  compelled  to  forego  a  full  classical  education  and  graduating  honors.  Dur- 
ing the  two  years  after  leaving  school,  spent  in  a  Davenport,  Iowa,  store  as 
bookkeeper  and  in  the  county  recorder's  office,  he  strove  to  quiet  his  strong 
desire  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  but  read  elementary  legal  works  and  became 
familiar  with  laws  of  conveyancing.  His  judgment  and  plans  tended  toward  a 
business  career,  and  his  idea  was  that  as  a  lawyer  any  business  talent  he  might 
have  or  develop  would  be  lost.  But  with  experience  and  observation  his  ideas 
radically  changed  and  he  idealized  a  lawyer,  who  by  natural  disposition  and 
actual  experience,  with  study,  should  combine  legal  learning  and  business 
ability;  a  lawyer  competent  to  advise,  not  only  as  to  the  law,  but  as  to  policy  and 
business  advantage;  not  only  to  win  a  case  in  court,  but  in  negotiation,  investi- 
gation and  honorable  strategy,  an  expert.  He  became  also  a  believer  in  "  special- 
ist "  lawyers,  who,  while  being  generally  intelligent  in  legal  learning,  might  be 
thorough  masters  of  some  special  branch  thereof.  Deciding  finally,  at  the  age  of 
twenty-one,  to  try  and  attain,  in  some  degree,  his  ideal  and  to  specially  devote 
himself  to  a  thorough  study  of  the  law  of  realty,  and  qualify  himself  as  an 
expert  adviser  in  all  that  pertains  to  real  estate,  he  removed  to  Chicago  without 
money  or  acquaintances,  and  set  about  the  prosecution  of  his  plans.  He  at  once 
entered  the  office  of  an  extensive  and  prosperous  dealer  in  real  estate,  where, 
during  three  years  while  continuing  his  studies,  he  enjoyed  the  business  experi- 
ence and  contact  his  plans  required,  and  proved  an  adroit  and  successful  mana- 
ger of  his  employer's  and  others'  large  interests.  He  then  entered  the  law 
office  of  Fuller  and  Smith,  and  for  three  years  received  the  benefit  of  their 
counsel,  and  a  limited  participation  in  their  large  practice,  since  which  time 
alone,  year  by  year,  Mr.  Moore  has  not  only  more  nearly  realized  his  ideal  as  a 
lawyer,  but  has  had  his  labors  liberally  rewarded  by  an  extensive  clientage. 

He  is  not  a  litigious  lawyer  and  takes  few  of  his  clients  into  court,  and  can- 
not be  classed  as  a  proficient  trial  lawyer  or  technical  pleader,  but  as  a  negotia- 
tor of  settlements  of  complicated  issues,  his  activity,  alertness  and  knowledge  of 
human  nature  have  enabled  him  to  become  an  adept.  As  a  counselor,  his  advice 
is  practical  and  generally  covers  the  case  both  as  to  the  law  and  policy. 

His  principal  study,  advice  and  practice  pertain  to  real  estate  titles  and  pro- 
ceedings in  regard  thereto,  and  also  in  the  values  of  Chicago  real  estate,  present 
and  future,  he  is  unusually  well  posted. 

He  sinks  professional  pride  before  business  success  and  his  clients'  welfare, 
and  often  openly  employs  for  his  clients  other  attorneys,  expert  in  the  special 
line  required.  He  is  an  ardent  and  consistent  advocate  of  professional  courtesy, 
especially  in  the  trial  of  a  cause.  In  national  politics  he  is  a  republican,  but  on 
local  issues  votes  for  men  instead  of  party.  He  takes  no  active  part  in  politics 
except  always  to  vote.  He  was  married  in  1875  to  Miss  Fannie  Curtis,  of  Chi- 


314  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

cago,  and  his  delightful  home  life  seems  to  be  the  height  of  his  social  ambition. 
He  has  a  taste  for  rural  life  and  spends  his  non  professional  hours  in  his  attrac- 
tive and  semi-rural  home  on  the  Grand  Boulevard,  and  his  vacations  on  his  cattle 
farm  in  southwestern  Nebraska. 


RICHARD   WATERMAN. 

ICHARD  WATERMAN  was  born  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  January  20, 
_L\.  1841.  His  father's  name  is  Rufus  Waterman;  his  mother  was  Elizabeth 
B.  (Greene)  Waterman,  now  deceased.  She  was  a  descendant  of  the  distinguished 
Greene  family  of  Potowhomut  Manor,  in  Warwick,  Rhode  Island.  This  estate 
was  bought  from  the  Indians  in  1736  by  James  Greene,  who  came  to  this  country 
with  Roger  Williams,  and  was  the  ancestor,  on  the  mother's  side,  of  the  subject  of 
this  sketch.  Between  17^0  and  1770  he  built  the  homestead  on  the  property, 
which  still  stands,  and  is  occupied  by  the  family.  Gen.  Nathaniel  Greene,  of  rev- 
olutionary fame,  was  the  great-uncle  of  Richard  Waterman,  and  Col.  Christopher 
Greene,  also  of  the  revolution,  was  his  grandfather.  His  great-grandfather  mar- 
ried a  niece  of  Benjamin  Franklin.  His  ancestor,  Col.  Richard  Waterman,  on 
his  father's  side,  was  also  one  of  the  Roger  Williams  colony.  The  old  homestead 
of  the  Waterman  family,  which  originally  adjoined  the  burying  ground,  on  the 
site  of  which  the  family  monument  now  stands,  in  the  heart  of  the  city  of  Provi- 
dence, on  the  corner  of  Waterman  and  Benefit  streets,  is  still  standing.  It  will 
be  seen  that  Richard  was  descended  on  both  sides,  from  old  and  notable  New 
England  families. 

He  was  educated  in  New  England  ;  in  1853-4  was  a  student  in  Phillips  Acad- 
emy at  Andover,  Massachusetts,  and  in  1855-8  was  in  Lyon  Brothers'  school  in 
Providence.  In  the  fall  of  1858  he  entered  Williams  College,  remained  one  year, 
and  in  the  fall  of  1859  entered  Brown  University,  where  he  remained  until  April 
1 6,  1 86 1,  when  the  war  broke  out,  and  Gov.  William  Sprague,  having  tendered 
the  government  one  thousand  infantry  and  a  company  of  artillery  for  immediate 
service,  called  for  volunteers.  Mr.  Waterman  was  among  the  first  to  enlist  as  a 
private  in  the  ist  R.  I.  Inf.,  under  Col.  (later  Maj.-Gen.)  Ambrose  E.  Burnside. 
A  full  regiment  was  enlisted  in  forty -eight  hours,  equipped  and  started  for  Wash- 
ington within  a  week's  time.  Having  enlisted  for  three  months  only,  the  time 
expired  just  before  the  first  Bull  Run  battle,  but  the  regiment  remained  in  the 
service,  and  participated  in  that  battle,  and  did  good  fighting.  In  September, 
following,  he  again  offered  his  services  to  the  government,  and  was  appointed  first 
lieutenant  in  the  ist  New  England  Cavalry,  and  detailed  in  the  recruiting  ser- 
vice. The  regiment  was  soon  filled  up,  changed  to  ist  R.  I.  Cavalry,  mustered  in 
December  14,  1861,  commanded  by  Col.  R.  B.  Lawton,  and  the  following  year  by 
Col.  A.  N.  Duffie,  and  served  as  independent  cavalry  in  the  Pope  campaign  in 
1862,  aiding  in  covering  the  retreat  of  our  army  at  the  second  Bull  Run  fight. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  -MS 

\J        «J 

His  regiment  took  a  prominent  part  at  Cedar  Mountain,  Groveton  and  Chantilly. 
On  December  5,  following,  he  resigned  on  account  of  a  long  and  severe  attack  of 
typhoid  fever,  and  left  the  service. 

In  May,  1863,  he  went  to  California,  and  engaged  in  farming  to  recruit  his 
health;  remained  there  until  the  fall  of  1864,  when  he  returned  home;  he  entered 
the  Harvard  Law  School  in  the  spring  of  1865,  from  which  he  graduated  in  1867, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  Suffolk  bar  in  Boston;  was  subsequently  employed  for 
eighteen  months  in  the  law  office  of  Brooks  and  Ball,  prominent  lawyers  in  Bos- 
ton. In  the  fall  of  1868  he  moved  to  Chicago,  and  spent  six  months  in  the  law 
office  of  J.  L.  Stark,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar,  and  commenced 
practice.  In  April,  1870,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Henry  I.  Sheldon,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Sheldon  and  Waterman.  This  firm  was  dissolved  December  i, 
1877,  since  which  time  Mr.  Waterman  has  been  alone  in  practice.  He  is  a  general 
practitioner,  but  gives  much  attention  to  real  estate  business.  He  is  regarded  as 
a  faithful  and  reliable  attorney,  and  a  conscientious,  upright  man.  June  21,  1865, 
he  married  Virginia  P.  Rhodes,  of  Providence,  Rhode  Island.  Of  the  three  chil- 
dren that  have  been  born  to  them,  two  are  living. 


GEORGE    A.    HAWLEY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Rochester,  New  York,  in  1848.  His 
father,  Capt.  Charles  E.  Hawley,  was  proprietor  of  canal  boats  on  the  Erie 
canal.  When  George  was  about  a  year  old,  his  father  moved  with  his  family  to 
Michigan,  and  engaged  in  farming.  There  the  boy  lived  and  worked  on  the 
farm  until  1864,  when  he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  ist  Mich.  Cavalry.  He  parti- 
cipated with  his  regiment  at  the  battle  of  Five  Forks,  and  wherever  the  regiment 
was  engaged,  up  to  the  surrender  of  Richmond,  when  it,  with  the  Michigan  cav- 
alry brigade,  was  sent  to  the  plains  to  fight  the  Sioux  Indians.  In  November 
following,  the  regiment  reached  Salt  Lake  City,  where  it  remained  in  quarters 
until  March,  1866,  and  was  there  mustered  out.  He  then  went  to  California  for 
pleasure  and  recreation,  and  returned  in  the  summer  of  the  same  year  to  Michi- 
gan. Having  saved  some  money  during  the  service,  he  determined  to  obtain  an 
education  and  prepare  himself  for  the  profession  of  law.  To  this  end  he  attended 
school  in  Ionia,  Michigan,  for  two  years,  supporting  himself  by  doing  whatever 
his  hands  found  to  do.  In  the  fall  of  1868  he  went  to  Ann  Arbor  and  prepared 
for  college,  and  thence  into  the  country  and  engaged  in  teaching  school,  until  the 
spring  of  1870,  when  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  with  Mitchell  and  Marble, 
in  Ionia.  The  winter  following  he  went  to  Detroit,  and  entered  the  law  office 
of  Dickinson  and  Dickinson.  Finishing  his  studies  in  May,  1873,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Michigan,  and  in  June  following  removed  to 
Chicago,  and  took  a  position  as  clerk  with  the  then  law  firm  of  Tenney,  Flower 
and  Abercrombie.  In  the  spring  of  1875  he  became  a  member  of  the  firm,  and 
33 


316  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

remained  such  until  January,  1878,  when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Aber- 
crombie.  A  few  months  later  he  went  to  Gunnison  City,  Colorado,  where  he 
spent  two  years  engaged  in  mining.  In  1882  he  returned  to  Chicago,  and  resumed 
the  practice  of  his  profession.  His  practice  has  been  mainly  in  commercial  law, 
which  is  his  specialty.  He  is  a  self-made  young  man,  and  exceptionally  success- 
ful as  a  commercial  lawyer.  He  stands  well  at  the  bar,  and  commands  the  respect 
of  his  professional  brethren  as  an  honorable  and  reliable  attorney. 


LORIN    C.   COLLINS,    JR. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  son  of  Rev.  L.  C.  Collins,  a  Methodist 
minister  who  was  one  of  the  first  men  who  withdrew  from  connection  with 
the  Methodist  Episcopal  church  on  account  of  disbelief  in  the  doctrine  of  eternal 
punishment.  Lorin  C.  was  born  in  Wapping,  Connecticut,  August  i,  1848.  His 
father  moved  to  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  in  1852,  and  was  at  the  time  of  his  with- 
drawal from  the  church  a  member  of  the  Minnesota  conference.  The  son  pursued 
a  preparatory  course  of  study  at  the  Ohio  Wesleyan  University  at  Delaware,  Ohio, 
after  which,  in  1868,  he  entered  the  Northwestern  University  at  Evanston,  Illinois, 
and  graduaded  in  1872.  He  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Clarkson  and 
Van  Schaack,  of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  September,  1874. 

Mr.  Collins  is  a  prominent  member  of  the  republican  party  and  a  rising  young 
man.  Beginning  with  1878,  he  has  for  three  successive  terms  been  elected  to 
represent  the  seventh  district  in  the  general  assembly  of  Illinois,  and  is  at  the 
present  time  (1883)  speaker  of  that  body,  being  the  youngest  man  who  has  ever 
held  that  position  in  the  state,  an  honor  which  is  all  the  more  complimentary 
since  it  was  conferred  without  any  bartering  on  his  part. 

As  an  attorney  he  is  well  and  favorably  known,  while  as  a  member  of  the 
legislature  he  has  made  his  influence  felt  as  an  effective  speaker,  a  ready  debater, 
a  skilled  parliamentarian  and  a  shrewd  party  leader. 


HENRY  WALLER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  Henry  Waller,  was  born  in  Frankfort,  Kentucky, 
November  9,  1810.  His  father  was  Hon.  William  S.  Waller,  who  was 
cashier  of  the  Bank  of  Kentucky  for  forty-four  years.  Young  Waller  was  edu- 
cated at  the  private  academies  in  Frankfort,  and  at  the  celebrated  school  of 
Dr.  Louis  Marshall,  in  Woodford  county;  thence,  in  1829,  he  went  to  West 
Point,  from  which  institution  he  graduated  in  1833.  He  then  commenced  the 
study  of  law  in  Kentucky,  and  went  through  the  law  department  of  Transyl- 
vania University  at  Lexington,  Kentucky.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Maysville,  Kentucky,  in  1835.  He 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  317 

remained  there  until  1855.  In  1845  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  legislature, 
where  he  served  until  1847.  From  1851  to  1854  he  was  president  of  the  Maysville 
and  Lexington  Railroad  Company.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1855  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  the  law,  and  has  remained  there  ever  since.  In  that  year 
was  formed  the  copartnership  of  Waller,  Caulfield  and  Bradley,  which  continued 
a  few  years  until  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Bradley.  The  firm  of  Waller  and  Caulfield 
was  continued  until  1863.  In  1864  the  firm  of  Waller,  Stearns  and  Copeland  was 
formed,  from  which  the  junior  member  shortly  retired,  and  the  firm  of  Waller  and 
Stearns  was  continued  until  1867,  when  Mr.  Stearns  died,  and  Mr.  Waller  contin- 
ued the  practice  of  the  law  alone.  In  July  1876,  he  was  appointed  master  in 
chancery  by  Judges  Williams,  Farwell,  Rogers,  Booth  and  McAllister,  which  office 
he  still  holds.  His  wide  and  long  experience  at  the  bar  peculiarly  fits  him  for  the 
position  of  master  in  chancery.  His  decisions  are  marked  by  unusual  wisdom  and 
clearness  and  knowledge  of  the  law,  and  are  respected  by  bench  and  bar. 


GEORGE  C.  CAMPBELL. 

WHILE  many  lawyers  have  gained  distinction  by  giving  attention  to  a  spe- 
cialty, the  subject  of  this  sketch  has  attained  very  high  rank  at  the  Chicago 
bar  by  thoroughly  mastering  all  of  the  details  in  every  branch  of  the  profession. 
He  is  a  student  in  the  most  comprehensive  sense  of  the  term;  industrious  and 
persevering,  he  has  accomplished  herculean  tasks,  subjecting  himself  to  mental 
strains  that  have  once  or  twice  seriously  threatened  his  health.  He  is  frank,  gen- 
erous, honest  and  open  hearted;  his  manner  is  such  that  he  gains  one's  confidence 
at  once,  and  always  retains  it.  He  sees  clearly  and  quickly,  and  grasps  his  subject 
comprehensively,  having  an  analytic  logical  mind  and  a  well  balanced  judgment, 
and  is  always  cool,  calm  and  courageous.  He  is  a  formidable  opponent,  yet  he 
harbors  no  animosity,  bitterness  or  revenge.  He  has  a  good  command  of  lan- 
guage, and  always  presents  a  case  clearly,  pointedly  and  comprehensively,  making 
every  point  that  the  case  contains.  Although  Mr.  Campbell  is  without  guile,  he  is 
a  shrewd  manager  in  a  law  suit;  his  foresight  is  remarkable,  and  he  seldom  fails 
in  a  cause  to  which  he  has  given  his  deliberate  attention.  He  is  equally  at  home 
either  in  the  preparation  of  cases  for  trial,  the  trial  of  causes,  or  as  a  special 
pleader.  His  long  association  with  his  senior  partner,  the  able  jurist  and  lawyer, 
Judge  Lawrence,  has  had  its  influence  in  ripening  him  into  the  mature  lawyer 
that  we  find  him. 

George  Cook  Campbell  was  born  at  Ira,  Cayuga  county,  New  York,  May  3, 
1833,  and  is  the  son  of  Charles  Campbell,  who  was  the  fifth  in  descent  from 
Robert  and  Janet  Campbell,  who  were  members  of  a  Scotch  colony  that  settled 
the  town  of  Voluntown,  Connecticut,  in  the  year  1723.  His  mother  before  mar- 
riage was  Miss  Eliza  Cook,  sister  of  Hon.  B.  C.  Cook,  of  Chicago.  She  was  a  lin- 
eal descendant  from  Henry  Cook,  who  immigrated  to  this  country  from  England 


318  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

about  the  year  1600,  and  settled  at  Salem.  He  was  a  brother  of  Francis  Cook, 
one  of  the  Mayflower  pilgrims.  His  father  moved  to  Ottawa,  La  Salle  county, 
Illinois,  in  1835,  and  was  a  merchant  in  that  place  for  years.  In  1839  he  returned 
to  Cayuga  county,  took  up  his  residence  at  Aurora,  and  continued  to  reside 
there  until  his  death  in  1869.  Our  subject  prepared  for  college  at  the  Cayuga 
Academy  in  Aurora,  and  in  the  fall  of  1849  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  Ham- 
ilton College,  at  Clinton,  Oneida  county,  New  York,  and  was  graduated  in  July 
1852,  at  the  age  of  nineteen.  In  order  to  support  himself  while  he  pursued  the 
study  of  the  law  he  became  professor  of  mathematics  in  Ithaca  Academy,  at  Ithaca. 
Tompkins  county,  New  York.  His  health  becoming  somewhat  impaired  by  in- 
door life,  in  the  summer  of  1854  he  entered  the  employ  of  the  state  of  New 
York,  as  a  member  of  the  corps  of  civil  engineers,  on  the  Erie  canal  enlargement, 
and  was  stationed  at  Rochester,  New  York.  In  the  spring  of  1856  he  was 
appointed  first  assistant  engineer  under  Ely  S.  Parker,  who  was  state  resident 
engineer  at  Rochester,  and  who  was  appointed  chief  engineer  of  the  Chesapeake, 
Albemarle,  and  Currituck  ship  canal,  and  accompanied  the  engineering  corps  to 
Norfolk,  Virginia,  and  was  employed  upon  that  work  until  the  spring  of  1857,  when 
he  resigned  and  went  to  Ottawa,  Illinois,  where  he  commenced  the  study  of  the 
law.  In  1859  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  supreme  court  of  the  state  of 
Illinois,  and  in  1861  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Glover,  Cook  and  Campbell, 
and  practiced  law  as  a  member  of  that  firm  at  Ottawa,  Illinois,  until  the  spring  of 
1869,  when  he  was  appointed  general  solicitor  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and 
Pacific  Railroad  Company,  and  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  resided  since 
that  time.  In  October,  1872,  he  resigned  the  office  of  general  solicitor  of  the  rail- 
road company,  and  since  that  time  has  been  engaged  in  the  general  practice  of 
his  profession  in  Chicago.  In  1869  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States.  He  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Winston,  Camp- 
bell and  Lawrence.  In  1874  Hon.  C.  B.  Lawrence  who  had  just  retired  from  the 
bench  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  became  the  senior  member  of  the  firm, 
and  soon  after  Mr.  Winston  withdrew,  and  the  firm  name  became  Lawrence, 
Campbell  and  Lawrence. 

He  was  appointed  special  United  States  attorney  for  the  prosecution  of  what 
was  known  as  the  custom-house  case,  and  tried  that  case  in  the  federal  courts 
with  marked  ability.  The  firm  of  Lawrence,  Campbell  and  Lawrence  have  been 
engaged  in  many  important  cases,  and  for  the  last  two  years  have  been  largely 
occupied  in  the  somewhat  notable  litigation  in  regard  to  the  Chicago  and  Western 
Indiana  railroad,  and  were  also  employed  in  the  extensive  Riverside  litigation, 
and  the  litigation  between  the  city  of  Chicago  and  David  A.  Gage  and  his  sure- 
ties, also  in  the  case  of  the  United  States  vs.  Jacob  Rehm.  Their  practice  is 
largely  made  up  of  railroad,  real  estate  and  corporation  cases.  This  firm  has  no 
superior  in  point  of  talent,  and  for  integrity  it  is  especially  noted. 

Mr.  Campbell  was  married  July  9,  1862,  to  Julia  Hart  Glover,  only  daughter 
of  Hon.  J.  O.  Glover  and  Jeanette  Hart,  his  wife,  at  Ottawa,  La  Salle  county, 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  319 

Illinois.  Mr.  Glover  now  resides  in  Chicago,  and  a  sketch  of  his  life  may  be 
found  in  the  foregoing  pages.  They  have  two  daughters,  Gertrude  Eliza,  and 
Jeanette  Hart. 

Mrs.  Campbell,  who  is  still  living,  is  a  lineal  descendant,  on  the  paternal  side, 
from  Charles  Glover  of  Salem,  who  emigrated  to  America  about  the  year  1600,  and 
upon  the  maternal  side  descended  from  Deacon  Stephen  Hart,  who  immigrated 
from  England  to  Newtown  (now  Cambridge,  Massachusetts),  about  the  year  1600, 
and  afterward  removed  with  Rev.  Thomas  'Hooker's  church  to  the  Connecticut 
valley,  where  the  town  was  named  after  him  Hartsford,  now  Hartford. 


ROBERT    EDWIN    JENKINS. 

WHILE  the  United  States  bankruptcy  law  was  in  force,  the  practice  under 
that  law  was  a  profession  by  itself.  Of  the  lawyers  whose  practice  was 
largely  in  the  United  States  bankruptcy  court,  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was,  by 
far,  the  most  prominent,  nearly  one-third  of  the  cases  before  that  court  having 
been  placed  in  his  hands. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  is  one  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago  bar, 
having  been  born  in  Clark  county,  Missouri,  February  6,  1846.  His  mother  hav- 
ing died  when  her  son  was  but  eight  months  old,  he  was  sent  to  Fairfield,  Iowa, 
where  he  spent  his  early  boyhood  under  the  care  of  his  aunt.  Here  he  attended 
the  common  school  until  he  was  twelve  years  old,  when  he  went  back  to  Missouri 
to  his  father's  home. 

His  life  on  his  father's  farm  was  that  of  a  farmer's  boy,  doing  the  rugged  farm 
work  in  the  summer,  and  attending  school  in  the  winter;  the  life  that  has  built 
up  so  many  robust  professional  and  business  men,  for  physique  must  back  brains 
in  order  to  insure  the  best  success  in  life. 

At  the  age  of  nineteen  young  Jenkins  entered  the  Jacksonville,  Illinois,  Col- 
lege, intending  to  take  the  full  course,  but  circumstances  compelling  him  to 
change  his  plans,  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  what  is  now  known  as  the 
Union  College  of  Law;  took  the  full  course  and  graduated  with  the  class  of  1867, 
and  was  soon  after  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  the  state. 

After  graduation,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Haines  and  Story,  where  he 
remained  for  about  a  year,  when  he  accepted  a  position  in  the  office  of  Lincoln 
Clark,  register  of  bankruptcy.  The  unequaled  opportunities  here  afforded  to 
master  the  intricacies  of  the  law  were  not  neglected  by  young  Jenkins  He  is 
one  of  those  men  who  enter  the  door  of  opportunity  when  it  swings  on  its  hinges, 
and  that  is  success.  After  a  year  spent  in  the  register's  office  he  opened  an  office 
for  himself;  in  slang,  legal  phrase,  hung  out  his  own  shingle,  for  the  general 
practice  of  the  law,  but  with  the  intention  of  giving  his  special  attention  to  the 
bankruptcy  cases.  That  he  had  mastered  this  branch  of  the  profession  was  soon 
made  evident,  for  contrary  to  the  usual  experience  of  young  lawyers,  his  rooms 


32O  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

were  soon  thronged  with  clients,  it  having  become  generally  known  that  his 
knowledge  of  the  ins  and  outs  of  the  law  was  more  reliable,  his  judgment  surer 
than,  and  his  fidelity  to  his  client's  interest  at  least  as  great  as,  that  of  any  of  his 
brethren  giving  attention  to  the  same  branch  of  the  law.  As  before  said,  nearly 
one-third  of  the  cases  before  the  bankruptcy  court  were  entrusted  by  the  clients 
to  this  one  man,  and  when  it  is  remembered  that  the  great  fire,  and  the  panic 
which  swiftly  followed,  gave  Chicago  a  large  share  of  these  cases,  some  idea  of 
the  enormous  business  done  by  Mr.  Jenkins  during  these  years  may  be  gained. 
So  great  was  this  business,  indeed,  that  although  the  law  was  repealed  in  1878, 
Mr.  Jenkins  is  even  now  engaged  in  settling  some  of  the  cases  which  came  in 
with  such  a  wild  rush  during  the  last  hours  of  its  existence. 

It  is  pleasant  to  be  able  to  say  that  while  millions  of  dollars  passed  through 
Mr.  Jenkins'  hands,  no  one,  of  a  class  quick  enough  to  see  injustice,  ever  accused 
him  of  unfair  dealing,  and  that  no  lawyer  at  the  bar  more  thoroughly  enjoys  the 
esteem  of  his  professional  brethren  or  of  the  public  at  large.  Mr.  Jenkins  was 
never  a  specialist,  in  a  narrow  sense,  and  after  the  repeal  of  the  bankrupt  law,  as 
soon  as  he  could  get  in  a  measure  released  from  the  crush  of  business  which  the 
culmination  of  the  law  gave  him,  he  gave  his  attention  to  the  care  and  manage- 
ment of  real  estate  and  the  general  practice  of  the  law,  and  his  well-earned  repu- 
tation in  the  earlier  field  has  brought  deserved  success  to  him  in  the  new  line  of 
practice. 

It  is  not  often  that  a  man  finds  himself,  at  the  age  of  thirty-five,  in  a  com- 
manding position  in  the  world  by  his  own  unaided  efforts,  and  when  this  has 
been  achieved  in  a  hand-to-hand  struggle  before  the  bar,  it  is  success  indeed. 
Such  has  been  Mr.  Jenkins'  achievement. 


HENRY  T.  STEELE. 

HENRY  THORNTON  STEELE  was  born  in  East  Bloomfield,  Ontario 
county,  New  York,  July  8,  1821.  His  father,  Rev.  Julius  Steele,  a  Presby- 
terian clergymen,  graduated  at  Yale  College  in  1811,  and  settled  in  East  Bloom- 
field  in  1814,  and  was  directly  descended  from  one  of  the  oldest  Puritan  families, 
being  the  sixth  generation  from  John  Steele,  who  came  from  the  county  of  Essex, 
England,  in  1631,  to  Cambridge,  then  Newtown,  Massachusetts.  John  Steele  was 
also  one  of  the  first  company  that  went  from  Newton  with  Hooker  in  1635,  and 
settled  Hartford,  Connecticut,  was  a  leader  and  magistrate,  and  was  for  nearly 
twenty  years  recorder  of  Hartford. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  in  early  life  worked  on  his  father's  farm,  and 
received  much  of  his  primary  and  preparatory  education  from  his  father  who 
tutored  him  in  his  classical  studies  principally;  later  he  attended  the  Geneva 
Lyceum,  New  York,  and  entered  the  branch  of  the  University  of  Michigan,  located 
at  White  Pigeon,  whither  his  father  had  moved  in  1838,  where  he  studied  until  1841. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  321 

During  the  winter  of  1838-9  Mr.  Steele  taught  a  district  school,  and  after  leaving 
college  in  1841,  taught  for  one  year  the  languages  and  higher  mathematics  at  La- 
Grange  Collegiate  Institute,  near  Lima,  Indiana.  In  1842  he  entered  Yale  Col- 
lege, and  graduated  there  in  1846,  and  from  that  time  until  1848  was  preceptor 
in  the  union  school  at  New  London,  Connecticut,  and  then  for  two  years  in  Bacon 
Academy,  at  Colchester,  Connecticut. 

In  1849  he  returned  to  Michigan;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Jackson,  July  4, 
of  that  year,  and  began  practice  at  Constantine,  Michigan,  where  he  remained  until 
1856,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago.  After  settling  in  Chicago,  Mr.  Steele  was  asso- 
ciated in  practice  with  A.  D.  Rich,  under  the  name  and  style  of  Rich  and  Steele, 
which  connection  lasted  two  years;  he  afterward  formed  a  partnership  which 
lasted  three  years,  with  W.  A.  Porter,  who  later  was  on  the  bench  of  the  supreme 
court,  and  died  in  1873.  Mr.  Steele  then  practiced  alone  until  1878,  when  he 
formed,  with  J.  B.  Jones,  the  present  firm  of  Steele  and  Jones.  He  has  a  large 
general  civil  practice,  has  made  a  specialty  of  chancery  practice,  and  has  been  very 
successful.  He  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  of  Chicago  from  1860 
to  1866,  and  has  been  master  in  chancery  of  the  superior  court  since  January  1873. 

Mr.  Steele  is  a  republican,  but  takes  no  active  part  in  politics,  but  devotes 
himself  entirely  to  his  profession. 

He  was  married  November  5,  1851,  to  Miss  Rebecca  Knox,  of  Carlisle,  Penn- 
sylvania, and  has  five  children:  four  sons,  three  of  whom  are  married,  and  one 
daughter. 

PLINY   U.    HASKELL. 

PLINY  U.  HASKELL  was  born  on  a  farm  in  North  Bloomfield,  Trumbull 
county,  Ohio,  August  1845.  He  attended  the  district  schools  of  his  neigh- 
borhood, and  after  completing  his  preliminary  studies,  entered  the  Western 
Reserve  College  in  1866,  where  he  remained  during  the  freshman  and  sophomore 
years,  when  he  accepted  the  principalship  of  the  high  school  in  his  native  town, 
which  he  taught  one  year.  He  then  entered  the  junior  class  of  Amherst  (Mass.)  Col- 
lege, and  graduated  in  1871  with  high  standing  in  scholarship.  After  graduating 
he  was  immediately  appointed  superintendent  of  schools  of  the  village  of  Hyde 
Park,  Chicago's  largest  suburb,  in  which  capacity  he  served  that  intelligent  peo- 
ple and  their  excellent  schools  until  1876,  during  which  time  he  fitted  several 
students  for  college  in  the  classics,  and  in  general  preparation.  He  then  resigned 
and  engaged  in  the  study  of  law,  first  in  the  office  of  Ayers  and  Kales,  and 
subsequently  with  Leonard  Swett,  in  the  meantime  pursuing  a  course  in  the 
Chicago  Union  College  of  Law,  where  he  took  his  degree.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  November,  1877,  and  became  associated  with  Leonard  Swett,  and  has 
been  with  him  since,  for  the  past  two  years  as  partner.  While  yet  young  in 
years,  and  in  practice,  he  has  evidenced  marked  ability  as  a  thorough  and  close 
student  of  law,  having  prepared  several  elaborate  briefs  in  important  cases,  some 


322  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

of  them  of  national  repute  ;  notably  the  Charter  Oak  Life  Insurance  Company 
case,  in  defense  of  Furber  and  others  criminally  indicted  ;  the  Sidney  Meyers  and 
other  cases  well  known  in  the  court  annals.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  scholarly 
attainments  ;  a  member,  since  its  organization,  of  the  Chicago  Literary  Club,  and 
keeps  bright  his  literary  pursuits,  while  he  devotes  himself  assiduously  to  his 
profession. 

In  1880  he  married  Clara  A.  Stolp,  daughter  of  J.  S.  Stolp,  of  Aurora,  widely 
known  as  a  manufacturer,  and  an  enterprising  business  man.  He  is  a  brother-in- 
law  of  Rev.  Dr.  Sidney  H.  Marsh,  founder  of  the  Pacific  University  of  Oregon, 
and  late  president  of  that  institution. 


HON.    IRUS  COY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Chenango  county.  New  York,  July  25, 
1833,  and  is  the  son  of  John  and  Almira  (Pierce)  Coy.  His  father  was  a 
soldier  in  the  war  of  1812.  Our  subject  received  his  primary  education  in  the 
district  schools,  and  afterward  entered  Central  College  in  Courtland  county,  New 
York,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1853.  He  attended  the  New  York 
State  and  National  Law  School  at  Poughkeepsie,  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  Albany  in  the  spring  of  1857.  During  that  same  year  he  removed  to 
Kendall  county,  Illinois,  and  entered  at  once  into  the  successful  practice  of  the  law, 
doing  a  large  business.  He  at  once  became  the  leading  lawyer  in  that  section  of 
the  state.  His  counsel  was  sought  by  clients  far  and  near,  and  his  eloquence  at 
the  bar  gave  him  a  widespread  reputation,  and  he  was  engaged  in  nearly  every 
trial  of  importance  in  the  circuit  court  that  was  tried  in  Kendall  county  during 
his  residence  there.  In  1871  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  been  attorney  for 
the  Union  Stock  Yards  and  Transit  Company  since  that  time. 

Mr.  Coy  represented  Kendall  county  in  the  state  legislature  in  1869  and  1870, 
and  in  that  body  attained  to  a  high  rank,  his  counsel  was  sought  by  his  associates 
in  all  matters  of  importance,  and  he  soon  advanced  to  the  position  of  a  leader, 
and  was  considered  by  many  as  the  ablest  debater  in  either  branch  during  those 
sessions.  He  was  alwavs  found  at  the  post  of  duty,  and  worked  untiringly  in  the 
interests  of  his  constituents.  He  guarded  faithfully  the  interests  of  the  state,  and 
no  important  measure  could  be  carried  without  his  influence,  and  some  of  his 
speeches  were  the  most  eloquent  of  any  ever  delivered  in  the  Illinois  legislature. 
Mr.  Coy  was  one  of  the  presidential  electors  who  voted  for  Gen.  Grant  in  1872. 
In  political  sentiments  he  is  a  republican.  Personally  he  has  many  elements  of 
popularity,  being  courteous,  liberal,  and  possessing  ease  and  grace  in  his  manners. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Coy  is  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  statute  law  and  the 
decisions  of  the  state  and  federal  courts.  He  is  an  eloquent  advocate,  having  an 
excellent  voice;  his  enunciation  is  clear  and  distinct,  and  he  possesses  physical 
power  and  personal  magnetism  excelled  by  none;  his  arguments  are  logical,  his 


"CCo.pir  Jr  S  Cc 


u 


InE  GWX,,;,t  BrUY 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  325 

language  pure  and  elevated.  He  has  a  fine  presence,  being  six  feet  in  height  and 
weighing  two  hundred  and  fifty  pounds,  and  stands  erect.  His  gestures  are  easy 
and  graceful.  Few  men  wield  the  influence  over  both  court  and  jury  that  Mr.  Coy 
is  accustomed  to  do.  Combining  with  his  eloquence  and  legal  lore  a  character 
for  uprightness  and  true  manhood  unsurpassed,  he  sustains  his  own  reputation 
and  the  dignity  and  honor  of  his  chosen  profession. 

Few  young  men  set  out  in  life  under  more  discouraging  circumstances  than 
our  subject.  Depending  entirely  upon  his  own  energy  and  industry  for  success, 
the  next  day  after  leaving  Central  College  he  entered  the  hayfield  as  a  laborer, 
and  worked  through  haying  and  harvesting  to  procure  means  to  come  West.  In 
the  fall  of  that  year,  with  $50  in  money  and  both  hands  blistered,  he  started  for 
Illinois,  where  he  found  employment  as  clerk  in  a  dry  goods  store,  and  by  care- 
fully saving  his  earnings,  accumulated  sufficient  means  to  defray  his  frugal  ex- 
penses in  the  law  school.  After  being  admitted  to  the  bar  he  returned  to  Illinois, 
and  on  taking  an  inventory  of  his  effects  found  that  he  had  only  thirty-five  cents 
in  money,  the  suit  of  clothes  he  had  on  at  the  time,  and  a  few  text  books  he  had 
used  in  the  law  school ;  with  this  capital  he  entered  the  field  to  compete  with  the 
skill  and  experience  of  the  profession. 

Mr.  Coy  was  married  in  1859  to  Miss  Julia  A.  Manchester,  a  highly  educated 
lady,  accomplished  and  refined,  the  daughter  of  Asa  Manchester.  They  have  four 
bright  interesting  children,  two  boys  and  two  girls. 


HENRY  C.   NOYES. 

HENRY  C.  NOYES  is  a  native  of  Vermont,  and  was  born  January  22,  1846, 
at  Derby  Line,  in  Orleans  county,  and  is  the  son  of  Adam  S.  Noyes,  a 
banker,  who  in  1858  settled  at  Rockford,  Illinois,  but  returned  to  Boston  in  1867. 
Our  subject  belongs  to  a 'patriotic  family,  five  brothers  and  a  brother-in-law 
having  served  in  the  Union  army  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  Henry  C. 
entered  the  army  in  1863,  and  served  until  he  was  mustered  out  at  the  close  of  the 
war.  He  was  six  months  in  the  i34th  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  under  Capt.  Mulligan,  and 
was  for  a  time  connected  with  the  7th  111.  Vol.  Cavalry. 

He  commenced  his  education  in  the  public  schools,  and  afterward  entered 
Beloit  College.  In  1866  he  entere  1  the  law  department  of  Michigan  University, 
at  Ann  Arbor,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  the  spring  of  1868,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar.  He  then  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  at  once  upon  a  successful 
career  as  a  lawyer.  He  has  given  special  attention  to  railroad  law,  and  is  an 
expert  in  that  branch  of  legal  practice.  He  is  attorney  for  the  Belt  Line  railroad, 
the  Fox  River  Manufacturing  Company,  and  the  Massachusetts  Mutual  Life  Insur- 
ance Company,  and  the  American  Cable  Car  Company.  Mr.  Noyes  is  a  thorough 
lawyer,  a  good  advocate,  and  a  gentleman  highly  respected  for  his  integrity  and 
upright  dealing.  He  is  urbane  in  his  manner,  and  a  gentleman  of  refinement. 
34 


326  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Noyes  has  succeeded  admirably,  pecuniarily  as  well  as  professionally,  and  is 
one  of  the  wealthy  members  of  the  Chicago  bar. 

In  politics  Mr.  Noyes  is  a  republican,  but  does  not  take  an  active  part  therein. 
He  was  a  candidate  for  probate  judge  in  the  autumn  of  1877. 

He  was  married  June  19,  1873,  to  Miss  Angelia  A.  Elmer,  formerly  of  Belville, 
Ontario.  They  have  two  children,  a  son  and  a  daughter. 


WOLFRED  N.  LOW. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Canada,  and  was  born  May  22, 
1846,  in  Mariposa,  Victoria  county.  He  is  a  son  of  Charles  Low,  late  of 
Shabbona  Grove,  De  Kalb  county,  Illinois,  and  Lanor  Low,  still  living. 

Charles  Low  entered  the  British  army  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  and  at  the  age 
of  twenty  seven  had  attained  the  rank  of  captain,  when  he  resigned,  married  Miss 
Lanor  Richardson,  and  soon  commenced  the  life  of  a  farmer.  He  was  an  ardent 
reformer  in  Canadian  politics,  and  in  common  with  his  cousin,  Dr.  Wolfred  Nel- 
son, of  Montreal,  who  was  a  cousin  of  the  British  Admiral  Nelson,  took  part 
in  the  Canada  rebellion,  which  proved  disastrous  to  the  reformers.  After  having 
sentence  of  death  passed  upon  him,  and  witnessing  the  execution  of  Cols.  Lount 
and  Matthews,  he  was  pardoned  through  the  instrumentality  of  Lord  Durham, 
resumed  his  agricultural  pursuits,  and  during  the  remainder  of  his  residence  in 
Canada,  almost  continually  held  some  office  under  the  Canadian  government.  The 
paternal  grandfather  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  a  native  of  Aberdeen,  Aber- 
deen-shire, Scotland;  was  a  captain  in  the  British  navy,  and  had  command  of  the 
British  gunboats  on  the  lakes,  with  headquarters  at  Quebec,  where  he  died  at  a 
good  old  age. 

In  1856  Charles  Low,  with  his  family,  removed  from  Canada  and  settled  upon 
a  farm  at  Shabbona,  De  Kalb  county,  Illinois,  where  he  died  in  1862.  Before  he 
was  sixteen  years  of  age  Wolfred  N.  Low  commenced  teaching  school  at  $1.00  per 
day,  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  money  with  which  to  pay  off  indebtedness  exist- 
ing upon  the  home  farm.  Three  of  his  brothers  served  in  the  Union  army  during 
the  war,  one  in  Battery  G,  2nd  111.  Lt.  Artillery,  and  two  in  the  io5th  111.  Inf., 
one  of  the  latter  dying  from  exposure  on  the  field  of  battle,  and  at  a  little  past 
seventeen  vears  of  age  the  subject  of  this  sketch  also  enlisted  in  Battery  G,  2nd 
111.  Lt.  Artillery,  served  under  Gen.  A.  J.  Smith,  in  the  i6th  army  corps,  was 
engaged  in  the  fifteen  days  fight  at  Spanish  Fort,  Fort  Blakey,  and  capture  of 
Mobile,  the  last  battles  of  the  war,  and  after  doing  garrison  duty  at  Montgomery, 
Alabama,  during  the  summer  of  1865,  was  mustered  out  of  the  service  at  Spring- 
field, Illinois,  September  n,  1865. 

Upon  his  return  from  the  army  he  devoted  all  his  savings  to  paying  off  the 
incumbrance  on  the  farm,  and  then  commenced  a  literary  course  of  study  at  the 
seminary  at  East  Paw  Paw,  De  Kalb  county,  Illinois,  attending  school,  springs  and 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  327 

falls,  supporting  himself  by  teaching,  winters,  and  graduating  in  the  spring  of 
1871.  One  year  more  was  devoted  to  teaching,  to  get  means  with  which  to  take  a 
legal  course,  and  in  the  fall  of  1872  he  entered  the  law  department  of  Michigan 
University  at  Ann  Arbor,  from  which  he  graduated  in  March,  1874,  spending  the 
seven  months  of  the  summer  vacation  as  a  student  in  the  law  office  of  Runyan, 
Avery,  Loomis  and  Comstock,  of  Chicago.  Shortly  after  his  graduation  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  State  of  Illinois,  and  in  June,  1874,  came  to  Chicago 
with  $100  and  plenty  of  grit  for  his  capital,  without  acquaintance  or  influence, 
and  established  himself  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  where  he  has  been  doing 
a  successful  business  ever  since.  In  the  spring  of  1875  he  formed  a  partnership 
with  L.  H.  Gault,  under  the  name  of  Gault  and  Low,  which  has  been  continued 
ever  since. 

November  10,  1880,  Mr.  Low  married  Mrs.  Kate  Pickrell,  a  native  of  Shelby- 
ville,  Kentucky,  and  daughter  of  A.  J.  Fry,  of  Mexico,  Missouri. 

Mr.  Low  has  received  no  assistance  from  any  source,  nor  has  he  been  aided  by 
any  influence  whatever,  since  he  entered  upon  his  professional  career,  all  that 
he  has  accomplished  being  the  result  of  his  own  individual  exertions.  He  is 
active  and  prompt,  although  firm,  is  courteous  and  kind,  and  has  a  pleasing 
address  that  wins  many  friends,  and  is  respected  and  esteemed  by  all,  as  a  well 
read  and  honorable  member  of  the  bar. 


LOUIS    KISTLER. 

EUIS  KISTLER  was  born  June  25,  1835,  at  Strasburg,  Germany;  the  oldest 
son  of  Mary  and  Andrew  Kistler.  His  father  had  distinguished  himself 
by  his  bravery  during  the  Napoleonic  wars,  but  in  consequence  of  exposures 
and  several  wounds  received  in  the  conflicts,  after  years  of  suffering  died  in 
1847,  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-seven,  leaving  his  son,  a  lad  of  only  twelve  years. 
During  the  following  year  young  Kistler  formed  the  purpose  of  seeking  his  for- 
tune in,  and  becoming  a  citizen  of,  the  great  Republic  of  the  West.  Arriving  at 
that  early  age  in  the  city  of  Rochester,  New  York,  among  strangers,  without  a 
knowledge  of  the  language  of  the  country,  he  applied  himself  to  the  task  of  mas- 
tering the  elements  of  the  English  tongue.  He  afterward  resolved  to  pursue  a 
thorough,  classical  course  of  study,  with  the  purpose  of  ultimately  entering  upon 
the  practice  of  the  law.  His  desire  for  a  classical  education  was  finally  realized, 
he  graduating  in  the  year  1858.  Thereafter  he  was  appointed  teacher  of  the 
classics  in  the  Greenwich  Academy,  Rhode  Island,  a  position  which  he  held  until 
1862,  when  a  strong  desire  to  revisit  the  old  world  prompted  him  to  sever  his 
relations  with  the  institution.  After  two  years  of  diligent  study  at  the  University 
of  Berlin,  under  the  direction  of  its  eminent  professors,  he  returned  to  the  coun- 
try of  his  adoption,  and  was  at  once  called  to  a  professorship  in  the  Northwestern 
University,  at  Evanston,  Illinois,  which  position  he  held  continuously  for  fourteen 


328  THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

years,  when  he  resigned  to  enter  upon  the  active  practice  of  the  law,  for  which 
he  was  eminently  fitted. 

Mr.  Kistler  is  one  of  the  few  men  of  German  birth  who  have  acquired  the  art 
of  speaking  the  English  language  with  a  faultless  accent.  He  can  use  it  with 
effect  both  in  the  forum  and  on  the  platform  whenever  the  occasion  demands. 
His  pure  and  spotless  life  has  gained  him  the  respect  of  all  classes,  and  he  is 
highly  esteemed  by  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  acquaintances.  In  the  year  1861 
he  married  Miss  Frances  Dow,  a  New  England  lady  of  refinement  and  culture, 
the  fruit  of  which  union  was  three  boys  and  two  girls,  all  of  which,  with  the 
exception  of  one  lad  of  thirteen  years,  have  died.  His  son  is  a  bright,  smart 
youth  of  great  promise.  In  the  year  1878  he  suffered  an  almost  irreparable  loss 
by  the  destruction  of  his  large  and  valuable  library,  in  the  burning  of  his  resi- 
dence, comprising  not  only  his  law  books,  but  the  literary  work  of  his  previous 
years,  and  even  manuscripts  ready  for  publication. 

Mr.  Kistler  is  a  republican  in  politics,  and  in  years  past  has  rendered  valuable 
service  to  the  cause,  but  of  late  years  his  profession  and  love  of  literary  work  have 
absorbed  all  his  time  and  energies.  Mr.  Kistler  is  in  the  prime  of  life,  and  sin- 
cerely attached  to  his  domestic  and  social  duties,  in  which  he  is  thoroughly  happy 
and  content. 

JARVIS  BLUME. 

JARVIS  BLUME  was  born  May  6,  1842,  in  Baden,  Germany,  and  was  the  son 
of  Joseph  Blume,  who  emigrated  to  America  in  1848,  having  become  obnox- 
ious to  the  government  on  account  of  his  political  opinions,  his  cousin,  Robert 
Blum,  the  noted  political  martyr,  having  been  shot  in  Austria  for  holding  like 
'opinions.  Joseph  Blume  died  of  cholera  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  had  settled,  in 
1850.  By  his  death  the  family  were  left  dependent  on  their  own  efforts  for  their 
support,  and  the  son  Jarvis  went  to  work  for  his  uncle,  with  whom  he  remained 
until  he  was  twelve  years  of  age,  when  he  ran  away  and  hired  out  as  a  bell  boy 
in  a  hotel  in  Cincinnati,  where  he  remained  two  years.  He  then  obtained  employ- 
ment in  a  wholesale  hardware  store,  where  he  remained  until  1861,  when  he 
entered  the  army.  In  the  meantime  he  had  attended  a  night  school  during  two 
winters,  which  was  the  full  extent  of  his  scholastic  education.  He  served  through- 
out the  war  and  was  in  many  of  the  important  engagements  of  the  Armies  of  the 
Cumberland  and  Ohio,  and  was,  during  the  last  year  of  the  war,  on  detached 
duty  as  chief  clerk  of  the  provost-marshal-general's  office  at  Nashville.  He  was 
mustered  out  of  the  service  in  1865,  after  which  he  lived  in  various  southern 
cities  until  1867,  when  he  returned  to  Cincinnati.  Early  in  1871  Mr.  Blume  went 
to  Boston  and  began  the  study  of  law,  entering  the  office  of  his  brother,  Andreas 
Blume,  who  is  an  eminent  lawyer  of  that  city,  and  also  attended  the  regular  two 
years'  course  at  the  law  school  of  Boston  University.  In  1876  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  removing  to  the  West  settled  in  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  and  began 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  329 

practice,  and  married  Miss  Olivia  A.  Little,  of  that  city.  In  the  spring  of  1877 
he  removed  to  Chicago,  and,  resuming  his  profession,  has  since  that  time  devoted 
to  it  his  undivided  attention.  In  politics  he  is  an  ardent  and  active  republican. 
Mr.  Blume  has,  for  ten  years  past,  been  a  contributor  to  various  periodicals, 
among  them  the  Boston  "  Advertiser,"  and  ''  Post,"  Chicago  "  Tribune,"  and 
"Alliance."  His  articles  in  relation  to  the  battles  of  Shiloh,  and  Chickamauga, 
and  various  sketches  of  the  leading  Union  generals,  published  by  the  "  Tribune  " 
during  the  last  three  years,  being  highly  commended  for  their  accuracy  and 
vigor.  A  series  of  twenty-five  "Sketches  of  Celebrated  Men  and  Women,"  pub- 
lished in  the  "Alliance,"  have  been  widely  copied  east  and  west,  and  are  remark- 
able evidences  of  literary  ability.  Among  these  are  the  biographical  sketches  of 
Edwin  Forrest,  Charlotte  Cushman,  Webster,  Clay,  Edgar  A.  Poe,  Andrew  Jack- 
son, Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Abraham  Lincoln,  Robert  E.  Lee,  and  Henry  Ward 
Beecher.  Mr.  Blume  has  also  published  a  series  of  papers  in  the  "  Alliance  " 
upon  social  and  moral  subjects,  the  most  elaborate  of  which  may  be  mentioned, 
"Husband  and  Wife,"  "Marriage  and  Divorce,"  "The  Abolition  of  the  Saloon," 
"The  Abolition  of  Poverty,"  "Success  and  Failure,"  "Music,"  "The  Drama," 
"Gambling,"  "The  Depravity  of  Man." 


FRANCIS  W.  WALKER. 

T^RANCIS  W.  WALKER  was  born  in  Chicago,  October  12,  1856.  His  father, 
J.  Lucas  B.,  and  mother,  Lucinda  (LeSeur)  Walker,  were  natives  of  New  York 
state,  and  his  father  was  at  one  time  a  commission  merchant  of  Chicago.  Frank 
received  his  early  education  in  Chicago,  entering  the  high  school  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  years,  and  after  graduating  therefrom,  attended  Dr.  Dyrenfurth's  college 
for  one  year.  Having  determined  to  become  a  lawyer,  he  entered  the  office  of 
Luther  Laflin  Mills,  and  there  devoted  three  years  to  study,  -at  the  same  time 
attending  the  Union  College  of  Law,  from  which  he  graduated  in  June  1877. 
After  being  admitted  to  the  bar,  he  practiced  alone  for  three  years,  until  Novem- 
ber, 1880,  when  he  entered  into  partnership  with  Lawrence  M.  Ennis,  under  the 
firm  name  of  Ennis  and  Walker.  Mr.  Walker  is  a  member  of  the  Iroquois  Club 
and  an  active  democratic  politician,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  campaign 
of  1880.  He,  at  an  early  age,  entered  into  literary  work  and  won  a  reputation  as 
a  fine  debater  and  deep  argumentative  speaker.  He  is  a  close  student  of  history, 
both  general  and  political,  and,  possessing  clear  and  profound  reasoning  faculties, 
has  paid  much  attention  to  metaphysics  and  science. 

In  law,  as  in  general  literature,  he  has  the  faculty  of  grasping  the  theories  upon 
which  jurisprudence  is  based,  and  has  acquired  a  knowledge  of  the  fundamental 
principles,  rarely  attained  by  a  young  lawyer.  Both  he  and  his  partner,  Mr. 
Ennis,  soon  after  beginning  to  practice,  earned  a  general  reputation  as  jury  law- 
yers and  able  speakers.  Mr.  Walker's  success  is  an  assured  fact,  and  no  young 
lawyer  practicing  at  the  Chicago  bar  has  brighter  prospects, 


330  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Walker  is  unmarried.  He  has  one  sister;  and  his  parents,  although 
beyond  the  prime  of  life,  are  still  hale  and  hearty.  The  firm  of  Ennis  and 
Walker  has  before  it  a  most  promising  future.  Its  members  have  been  compan- 
ions from  childhood,  and  are  bound  together  by  nearer  ties  than  merely  those 
of  business.  Both  are  young  men  of  brilliant  associations,  talents,  devoted  to 
their  profession,  and  already  maintain  an  honorable  rank  among  the  younger 
class  of  lawyers  now  practicing  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


FRANK    S.    WEIGLEY. 

FRANK  S.  WEIGLEY  was  born  in  Galena,  Illinois,  April  4,  1854,  and  is  a 
son  of  Wellington  Weigley.  His  father  was  a  lawyer  in  Galena  for  forty 
years,  and  had  a  very  large  and  lucrative  practice,  and  was  a  partner  of  both 
John  S.  Jewett  and  the  late  E.  A.  Small,  of  the  Chicago  bar.  The  subject  of  this 
sketch  attended  the  common  schools  in  Galena,  Illinois,  and  Dubuque,  Iowa,  and 
for  two  years,  1871  and  1872,  studied  at  Hamilton  College.  He  at  once,  after 
leaving  Hamilton,  entered  his  father's  office  as  a  law  student,  and  after  remaining 
there  one  year,  moved  to  Omaha,  Nebraska,  and  studied  in  the  office  of  E.  F. 
Smythe,  a  prominent  lawyer  there,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Nebraska  in 
the  fall  of  1874.  He  then  removed  to  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of 
Illinois,  and  was  employed  as  a  short-hand  reporter  in  the  courts  until  1876,  when 
he  began  practice.  He  was  assistant  to  the  county  attorney  in  1876-7.  He  has 
a  very  extensive  practice  for  so  young  a  man,  and  is  one  of  the  rising  young  men 
of  the  bar. 

He  married  in  1879,  a  daughter  of  the  late  Dennison  Card,  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  who  for  several  years,  during  Mr.  Lincoln's  administration,  served  as  a 
diplomatic  agent  of  the  United  States,  in  South  America. 


WILLIAM    S.   JOHNSON. 

WILLIAM  S.  JOHNSON  was  born  in  Albany,  New  York,  June  i,  1850.  His 
father,  James  Johnson,  removed  to  Chicago  in  1863,  and  will  be  remem- 
bered as  one  of  the  best  of  departed  capitalists  and  citizens.  From  1863  the 
family  have  resided  in  Chicago,  one  of  the  sons,  Rev.  D.  S.  Johnson,  D.D.,  having 
for  a  number  of  years  been  the  pastor  of  the  Hyde  Park  Presbyterian  Church. 
The  subject  of  this  sketch  at  an  early  age  entered  Phillips  Academy,  at  Andover, 
Massachusetts,  and  spent  three  years  there  in  preparation  for  college.  When 
eighteen  years  of  age  he  entered  Williams  College,  Massachusetts,  where  he 
remained  two  years,  and  until  his  father's  death.  Not  returning  and  finishing 
his  collegiate  course  after  his  father's  death,  he  began  the  study  of  the  law  in 
Chicago,  in  the  office  of  Hon.  James  P.  Root.  Having  been  admitted  to  the  bar 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of-'  CHICAGO.  331 

in  1875,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs  in  that  year.  Upon 
his  father's  death,  in  1870,  Mr.  Johnson  came  into  possession  of  considerable 
property,  and  for  some  time  thereafter  enjoyed  the  many  comforts  that  wealth 
affords.  In  the  panic  of  1872-3-4  he  lost  everything  except  the  educational  capi- 
tal he  had,  with  which,  as  a  foundation,  he  accepted  the  situation  bravely  and 
began  life  anew. 

Mr.  Johnson  has  been  very  successful  in  his  practice,  and  has  been  employed 
in  several  important  matters  before  the  courts  of  Chicago.  Though  not  address- 
ing any  especial  attention  to  criminal  practice,  still  he  has  been  employed  in  some 
of  the  most  important  criminal  causes  of  the  last  few  years,  notably  the  Stern 
murder  case,  in  which  he  defended  the  prisoner,  Arthur  B.  Stern. 


BENJAMIN    F.    CUMMINS. 

BENJAMIN  F.  CUMMINS  was  born  in  Green  county,  Pennsylvania,  Septem- 
ber 4,  1856;  the  youngest  son  of  Thomas  L.  and  Sarah  B.  Cummins.  He 
was  educated  at  the  Carmichaels  Academy,,in  Pennsylvania,  which  institution  he 
attended  until  November,  1875,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago.  In  Chicago  Mr. 
Cummins  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  McClellan  and  Cummins,  the 
junior  partner  of  that  firm  being  his  brother.  In  the  April  term  of  1878  he  was 
•admitted  to  the  bar,  and  January  i,  1880,  became  the  junior  member  of  the  firm 
of  McClellan,  Tewksbury  and  Cummins.  He  was  married  January  17,  1880,  to 
Helen  H.,  daughter  of  John  J.  McClellan,  his  own  partner.  Mr.  Cummins  has  by 
his  own  exertions  raised  himself  to  his  present  position,  being  entirely  self-edu- 
cated and  self-made,  and  is  one  of  the  rising  young  men  of  the  bar  of  Chicago. 


L.  VERNON  "FERRIS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  rising  Chicago  lawyer.  He  is  a  native  of  New 
York  and  was  born  in  Lawrenceville,  St.  Lawrence  county,  July  15,  1843, 
and  is  the  son  of  Lemuel  P.  and  Anna  P.  (Hall)  Ferris.  Mr.  Ferris  was  a  student 
in  Lawrenceville  Academy,  and  entered  Middlebury  College,  Vermont,  in  1863, 
and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1867.  He  taught  school  during  winters 
in  Vermont  and  was  principal  of  Windsor  high  school  from  1867  to  1871,  reading 
law  in  the  meantime. 

He  was  married  in  1870  to  Miss  Anna  M.  Stone,  a  daughter  of  Samuel  Stone,  a 
prominent  citizen  of  Windsor,  Vermont.  From  1871  to  1874  he  was  superintendent 
of  the  Troy  (Ohio)  public  schools,  giving  general  satisfaction,  and,  having  pre- 
pared for  examination,  was,  in  the  spring  of  the  last  named  year,  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Ohio.  In  the  following  fall  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  been  engaged 
in  the  general  practice  of  the  law  since  that  time.  Mr.  Ferris  is  a  good  trial 


332  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

lawyer,  being  quick  of  perception,  apt  and  ready,  with  a  faculty  of  applying  his 
knowledge  when  it  is  needed.  He  is  also  a  good  advocate.  Conscientious  and 
painstaking,  he  prepares  his  cases  with  the  utmost  care,  and  possessing  rare  dis- 
crimination, that  enables  him  to  select  decisions  in  point,  he  has  a  happy  faculty 
of  presenting  the  law  in  a  clear  and  forcible  manner.  His  judgment  is  good,  and 
he  is  always  true  to  his  clients.  As  a  citizen,  Mr.  Ferris  has  rightfully  gained  the 
reputation  of  being  a  high-minded,  honorable  gentleman,  in  whom  all  who  know 
him  have  implicit  confidence. 


WILLIAM  C.  WILSON. 

WILLIAM  C.  WILSON  was  born  in  Champaign  county,  Ohio,  February 
1836;  the  son  of  Hon.  Thomas  H.  and  Mary  (Neal)  Wilson.  His  father, 
a  farmer  by  occupation,  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Noble  county,  Indiana,  settling 
there  in  the  fall  of  1836.  He  afterward  became  a  member  of  the  legislature  of 
Indiana,  and  an  associate  judge  of  Noble  county.  Mr.  Wilson  completed  his  educa- 
tion at  Fort  Wayne  College,  Indiana,  and  began  the  study  of  law  with  his  brother, 
Hon.  H.  D.  Wilson,  of  Columbia  city,  Indiana,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Indiana 
bar  at  Goshen  city  in  1863,  when  he  began  his  practice.  In  1868  he  was  nomi- 
nated, against  his  will,  for  the  office  of  prosecuting  attorney,  but  was  not  elected. 
Since  that  time  he  has  positively  declined  to  take  any  active  part  in  politics,  more 
than  to  perform  his  duties  as  a  citizen. 

December  i,  1869,  Mr.  Wilson  married  Miss  Anna  E.  Fussey,  an  accomplished 
young  lady,  a  graduate  of  Jennings  Seminary,  Aurora,  Illinois,  and  daughter  of 
John  Fussey,  a  well  known  citizen  of  Chicago,  who  emigrated  from  England  to 
Canada,  and  thence  to  Chicago,  in  1841.  In  1874  Mr.  Wilson  settled  at  Evanston, 
and  at  the  same  time  opened  an  office  for  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Chi- 
cago, continuing  alone  in  business  until  the  organization  of  the  present  firm  of 
Wilson  and  Zook.  The  business  of  the  firm  is  general  in  its  scope,  and  under 
careful  management  has  been  eminently  successful.. 


GEORGE  AARON    GIBBS. 

AMONG  the  more  prominent  of  the  younger  class  of  lawyers  practicing  at  the 
Chicago  bar  is  George  Aaron  Gibbs.  He  is  a  son  of  one  of  the  early  pio- 
neers of  Chicago,  Aaron  Gibbs,  who  is  well  known  both  there  and  in  Connect- 
icut. His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Catherine  Gulliver.  George  was  educated 
in  Chicago,  and  at  Cornell  University,  and  after  completing  a  collegiate  and  law 
course,  graduated  in  1872.  He  also  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Waite  and  Clarke, 
of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  under  certificate  from  New  York  state, 
in  1872.  Among  the  more  important  cases  in  which  Mr.  Gibbs  has  been  inter- 
ested, and  which  he  conducted  to  a  successful  issue  in  his  client's  behalf,  was  the 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 


333 


celebrated  Snydam  case,  which  caused  some  excitement  at  the  time  of  the  trial; 
he  was  also  retained  to  assist  H.  M.  Monroe,  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  this 
city  in  the  Joell  Henry  Wells  case  against  the  Northern  Insane  State  Hospital. 

Mr.  Gibbs  is  a  young  lawyer,  possessing  a  sound  legal  mind,  and  when  any  very 
technical  point  has  been  under  consideration  he  has  in  all  instances  exemplified 
that  he  was  competent  to  deal  with  it  in  a  masterly  manner;  genial  and  gentle- 
manly in  disposition,  possessing  all  the  business  alacrity  and  aptitude,  which  are 
the  characteristics  of  his  profession,  he  not  only  possesses  the  good  will  of  his 
confreres  generally,  but  outside  that  circle  is  held  in  the  highest  regard  and 
esteem. 

He  married  in  June,  1881,  Miss  Smith,  youngest  daughter  of  James  P.  Smith, 
an  old  resident  and  merchant  in  Chicago. 


DANIEL  J.   AVERY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  comes  from  New  England  parentage,  and  is  a 
direct  descendant  of  John  Alden  and  Priscilla  (Mullins)  Alden,  whose  mem- 
ory has  been  immortalized  in  the  "Courtship  of  Miles  Standish."  His  parental 
ancestors  were  among  the  very  earliest  settlers  of  Norwich,  Connecticut.  His 
father  was  Ebenezer  W.  Avery,  and  his  mother  Tryphenia  T.  (Davis)  Avery.  The 
Averys  were,  during  the  revolutionary  struggle,  staunch  rebels,  and  rendered 
their  country  valuable  service  on  many  a  well  fought  field.  It  is  said  that  thir- 
teen bearing  the  family  name,  all  brothers  and  cousins,  fell  in  one  battle,  and 
were  buried  in  one  grave.  His  eldest  brother  is  Dr.  Samuel  J.  Avery,  of  Chicago, 
and  his  youngest  brother,  born  at  Avon,  Lake  county,  Illinois,  in  1849,  is  John  A. 
Avery,  now  editor  of  the  Lake  county  "  Republican." 

Daniel  was  born  in  Brandon,  Vermont,  December  i,  1836.  His  father  was  an 
earnest  friend  of  education,  and  would  gather  his  own  and  his  neighbor's  chil- 
dren at  his  own  home,  and  during  the  evenings  give  them  their  early  instructions. 
The  celebrated  Stephen  A.  Douglas  was  in  those  days  one  of  his  pupils,  and 
received  his  earliest  instruction  and  the  necessary  flagellation  at  his  hands,  in 
Brandon,  Vermont. 

In  1843,  Ebenezer  W.  Avery,  with  his  wife  and  family  of  seven  children,  of 
whom  Daniel  was  next  the  youngest,  came  west,  by  way  of  the  Erie  canal  and  the 
lakes.  They  landed  in  Racine,  Wisconsin,  in  October,  and  at  once  preempted  a 
quarter-section  of  land  in  what  is  now  Avon,  in  Lake  county.  Their  nearest 
neighbor  was  three  miles  distant,  and  no  schools  in  the  town.  Daniel  was  pres- 
ent when  the  first  school-house  was  erected  in  his  district.  It  was  a  log  house, 
and  the  neighbors  each  furnished  his  quota  of  logs  to  erect  it.  Daniel  attended 
school  until  about  eighteen  years  old,  working  with  his  father  on  the  farm,  sum- 
mers, and  going  to  school,  winters.  He  studied  the  higher  branches  at  home 
evenings,  under  parental  instruction,  and  furnished  himself  with  books  by  selling 
35 


334  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

quails,  at  twenty-five  cents  per  dozen,  which  he  caught  during  the  winter.  At 
the  age  of  eighteen  he  attended  the  village  academy  of  Waukegan,  then  under 
the  management  of  Francis  E.  Clark,  the  present  county  judge  of  Lake  county. 
There  he  remained  for  six  terms,  preparing  for  college,  but  abandoned  his  purpose 
of  pursuing  a  collegiate  course,  and  decided  instead  to  fit  himself  for  the  legal 
profession.  At  the  age  of  twenty  he  entered  the  office  of  Hon.  J.  B.  Bradwell,  of 
Chicago,  and  became  a  member  of  Mr.  Bradwell's  family,  and  worked  for  his 
board  and  washing.  At  the  end  of  one  year,  however,  he  went  to  the  law  office 
of  Brown  and  Runyan,  where  he  pursued  his  legal  studies  until  June  30,  1859, 
when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  His  examiners  were  Judges  Beckwith,  Judd 
and  Peck.  After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he  practiced  his  profession  until 
July  i,  1862,  when  he  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  ii3th  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  and 
on  October  i  following  was  promoted  to  second  sergeant.  He  was  in  the  reserve 
corps  at  the  battle  of  Chickasaw  Bluff,  December  29,  1862;  fought  in  the  battle 
of  Arkansas  Post,  January  u,  1863.  About  January  22,  he  moved  with  Sherman's 
army  down  to  Young's  Point,  opposite  Vicksburg,  and  awaited  the  cutting  of 
a  channel  across  that  point  by  command  of  Gen.  Grant.  In  December,  1862, 
he  was  accidentally  poisoned  while  temporarily  in  the  regiment's  hospital,  at 
Memphis,  Tennessee,  and  in  March,  1863,  was  sent  to  Lawson,  general  at  St. 
Louis,  and  was  honorably  discharged  from  the  service,  October  12,  1863.  He 
immediately  returned  to  Chicago,  and  resumed  the  practice  of  law.  In  1864  the 
firm  of  Runyan  and  Avery  was  formed,  which  continued  until  1867,  when  Mr. 
Comstock  was  admitted  to  it,  and  in  1869  Judge  Loomis,  who  remained  till  1873, 
when  he  retired  and  was  followed  by  Mr.  Runyan  soon  afterward.  The  firm  was 
then  known  as  Avery  and  Comstock,  which  was  dissolved  in  1877. 

Mr.  Avery  conducted  the  extensive  chancery  business  during  the  whole  his- 
tory of  the  firm,  and  acquired  an  enviable  reputation  in  that  line  of  business,  and 
in  December,  1880,  was  appointed  master  in  chancery  of  the  superior  court  of 
Cook  county,  which  office  he  now  holds. 

He  has  always  been  an  active  republican  in  politics,  and  served  his  party  as 
chairman  of  the  Cook  county  republican  central  committee,  and  other  useful 
positions,  but  has  never  aspired  to  office,  and  never  been  a  candidate  before  the 
people. 

In  1866  he  was  made  Master  Mason,  and  for  three  years  was  master  of  Hespe- 
ria  lodge,  No.  411,  and  for  the  past  eight  years  has  filled  the  office  of  district 
deputy  grand  master  for  the  second  district  of  Illinois.  He  was  one  of  the  thir- 
teen members  who  constituted  the  masonic  board  of  relief  organized  after  the 
great  fire,  and  did  his  fellow  citizens  efficient  service  in  that  capacity.  In  July, 
1874,  he  assisted  in  the  organization  of  the  Northwestern  Masonic  Aid  Association, 
and  was  elected  president,  and  has  been  successively  elected  to  that  position  every 
year  since.  This  is  one  of  the  most  successful  cooperative  benefit  associations  in 
the  country.  Its  membership  now  numbers  more  than  fifteen  thousand,  and  it 
has  disbursed  in  the  eight  years  of  its  existence  over  $800,000  to  beneficiaries. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  335 

In  1867  Mr.  Avery  married  Miss  Mary  Comstock,  of  Wilton,  Saratoga  county, 
New  York,  who  died  January  n,  1873,  leaving  two  children.  May  29,  1874,  he 
married  his  present  wife,  who  was  Miss  Kate  Ellis,  of  New  York  city. 

Like  many  others,  Mr.  Avery  allowed  his  better  judgment  to  be  controlled  by 
his  feelings,  and  became  surety  for  a  friend.  The  venture  failed,  and  in  1867  he 
lost  everything  except  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his  fellow-citizens. 

In  person  Mr.  Avery  is  substantially  built,  tall,  well  proportioned,  and  of  com- 
manding presence.  In  complexion  he  is  a  blonde,  with  a  pleasing  expression, 
very  approachable,  and  a  genial  companion.  He  is  very  proficient  in  his  profes- 
sion, and  is  regarded  as  a  fluent  speaker,  and  a  close,  logical  reasoner. 


ROBERT    E.    MORRISON. 

THE  subject  of   this  sketch  is  a  son  of  A.  L.  Morrison,  the  present  United 
States  marshal  of  New  Mexico,  but  who  formerly  was  a  prominent  citizen 
of  Chicago.     He  was  well  known  in  political  circles;  was  at  one  time  a  member 
of  the  state  legislature  of  Illinois;  was  a  police  magistrate  and  West  Town  col- 
lector in  Chicago,  and  held  many  other  positions  of  trust. 

Robert  E.  was  born  in  Chicago,  July  13,  1856,  and  received  his  preliminary 
education  in  the  public  and  high  schools  of  that  city.  After  deciding  to  devote 
himself  to  the  legal  profession,  he  began  his  studies  in  the  law  office  of  Hon.  J. 
C.  Knickerbocker,  now  judge  of  the  probate  court  in  Chicago.  This  was  in  1873. 
Later,  he  attended  the  Union  College  of  Law  of  Chicago,  and  graduated  from  that 
institution  in  1878,  and  in  July  of  the  same  year  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illi- 
nois. Entering  at  once  into  active  practice  on  his  own  account,  he  met  with  good 
success,  and  so  continued  until  forming  a  partnership  with  M.  C.  Kneip,  the  well- 
known  marine  lawyer,  under  the  firm  name  of  Kneip  and  Morrison.  He  is  a 
young  man  of  talent,  and  a  well  read,  competent  and  successful  lawyer. 


EDWIN  F.  ABBOTT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Wisconsin.  He  was  born  at  Janes- 
ville,  May  4,  1851,  and  is  the  son  of  Nathan  W.  Abbott,  an  eminent  physician 
of  this  city,  who  served  during  the  war  as  surgeon  of  the  8oth  111.  Vol.  Inf. 
His  mother  was  Sarah  Yates,  and  belonged  to  an  old  New  York  family.  When 
Edwin  F.  was  but  a  year  and  a  half  old  his  parents  removed  to  Dixon,  Illi- 
nois. He  spent  two  years  at  the  State  University  at  Champaign,  Illinois.  He 
afterward,  in  1873,  graduated  from  the  law  department  of  Michigan  University, 
at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  and,  settling  in  Chicago  the  following  June,  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Illinois  bar.  He  then  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  in  the 
office  of  Sleeper  and  Whiton,  and  remained  in  that  office  until  1874.  He  has 
since  then  practiced  law  by  himself  with  good  success.  Mr.  Abbott  is  a  well 


;;6  THE   B-ENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHIC  A  CO. 

\J  \J 

read  lawyer  and  a  gentleman  whom  to  know  is  tp  respect.  In  political  senti- 
ments, he  is  a  republican;  in  religious  matters,  is  thoroughly  liberal  and  indepen- 
dent. By  all  who  know  him  he  is  esteemed  as  an  upright,  honorable  man,  and 
a  lawyer  conscientious  and  high  minded  in  his  practice-.  He  is  a  worthy  member 
of  F.A.A.M.  and  R.A.M. 


HON.    BURTON    C.    COOK. 

BURTON  C.  COOK,  a  native  of  Monroe  county,  New  York,  was  born  May  n, 
1819;  the  son  of  Rev.  Chauncey  Cook  and  Almirah  (Hollister)  Cook,  his 
wife.  After  receiving  his  preparatory  edecation,  he  entered  Rochester  Seminary. 
Later  he  pursued  the  study  of  law,  and,  in  r835  removing  to  Illinois,  entered 
.upon  the  practice  of  his  profession,  May  i,  1840.  Settling  at  Ottawa  in  1840,  he 
there  won  a  high  reputation  as  a  successful  and  skillful  attorney,  and  as  a  man  of 
unimpeachable  character.  In  1846  he  was  elected  state's  attorney  for  the  ninth 
judicial  district,  a  capacity  in  which  he  served  until  1852,  when  he  was  elected  to 
the  state  senate.  During  his  service  of  eight  successive  years  as  a  member  of 
that  body,  he  took  an  active  part  in  its  doings,  and  rendered  most  efficient  ser- 
vice.- Early  becoming  identified  with  the  anti-slavery  movement,  he  turned  his 
whole  influence  against  the  institution  of  slavery,  and  upon  the  repeal  of  the 
Missouri  compromise,  with  Hon.  Norman  B.  Judd  and  many  others,  left  the  ranks 
of  the  democratic  party.  Being  at  that  time  in  the  state  senate,  he,  with  N.  B. 
Judd  and  J.  M.  Palmer  in  the  senate,  and  Messrs.  Baker  and  Allen  of  the  house, 
and  others,  joined  with  the  whigs  under  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  succeeded  in 
sending  Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull  to  the  United  States  senate.  In  the  peace  con- 
vention held  in  Washington  in  February,  1861,  he  represented  the  state  of  Illinois, 
and  there  strenuously  opposed  the  recognition  of  slavery,  or  protection  of  it  by 
the  national  government,  in  the  territories;  and  in  connection  with  ex  Gov.  Wood, 
of  Illinois,  caused  his  protest  to  be  entered  on  the  journal  against  the  vote  of  the 
majority  of  the  delegates  from  his  state,  favoring  the  resolutions  adopted  by  the 
convention. 

During  his  service  in  yie  state  senate  he  aided  in  preparing,  and  in  that  body 
had  charge  of,  the  first  bill  establishing  a  state  system  of  free  schools,  to  be  sup- 
ported by  taxation.  This  measure  has  ripened  into  the  present  school  system  of 
the  state.  The  first  legislative  act  of  this  state  recognizing  the  right  of  married 
women  to  hold  separate  property  in  this  state  was  prepared  and  its  passage 
secured  by  Mr.  Cook.  This  act  was  the  germ  of  the  present  liberal  law  of  Illinois 
in  relation  to  the  property  rights  of  married  women. 

In  1864  he  was  elected  to  the  thirty-ninth  congress  from  the  sixth  congres- 
sional district  of  Illinois,  a«d  during  his  term  served  as  a  member  of  the  judiciary 
committee  of  the  house,  and  originated  the  statute  passed  protecting  the  officers 
and  soldiers  of  the  army  from"  suits  for  damages  done  while  on  military  duty 
during  the  war.  Being  returned  to  the  fortieth  congress,  he  served  as  a  member 


.. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  339 

of  the  committee  on  elections,  and  chairman  of  the  committee  on  roads  and 
canals.  From  this  last  named  committee  he  reported  a  bill  authorizing  the  build- 
ing of  a  postal  and  military  railroad  from  Washington  to  New  York,  a  measure 
which  he  supported  with  an  able  speech,  delivered  February  3  and  4,  1869,  in 
which  he  maintained  that  the  power  to  charter  the  proposed  line  of  road  was 
derived  from  the  constitution  of  the  United  States,  providing  that  congress  shall 
have  power  "  to  regulate  commerce  with  foreign  nations  and  among  the.  several 
states."  He  claimed  that  such  power  was  not  limited  to  any  special  branch  or 
instrument  of  commerce,  and  that  it  had  power  to  build  railroads  as  well  as  to 
deepen  rivers.  From  the  committee  on  election,  also,  he  prepared  and  made 
several  valuable  reports  on  various  contested  cases.  His  report  respecting  Beck, 
member-elect  from  Kentucky,  and  others,  was  important  as  laying  down  princi- 
ples to  govern  the  action  of  the  house,  where  persons  were  elected  to  congress 
who  were  disqualified  by  having  taken  part  in  the  rebellion  disloyally,  disqualify- 
ing for  membership.  He  also  reported  a  resolution  establishing  a  basis  on  which 
southern  members  were  admitted.  He  was  reflected  to  congress  in  1868,  and 
again  in  1870,  when  he  served  as  chairman  of  the  committee  on  the  District  of 
Columbia,  and  as  a  member  of  the  judiciary  committee.  The  report  of  the  judi- 
ciary committee  upon  the  memorial  of  the  legislative  assembly  of  Utah,  praying 
for  the  repeal  of  the  act  of  congress  punishing  polygamy,  was  prepared  by  Mr. 
Cook,  in  which  the  relation  of  the  family  to  the  state  was  carefully  considered. 
Resigning  his  seat  in  congress  in  1871,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  whither  he  had 
been  called  to  accept  the  office  of  general  solicitor  of  the  Chicago  and  North  West- 
ern railway,  a  most  honorable  and  responsible  position,  which  he  still  holds. 
Possessed  of  the  highest  order  of  legal  talent,  he  has  become  an  especial  authority 
on  all  matters  pertaining  to  railroad  laws. 

Mr.  Cook  was  married  in  1848,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  Hart,  daughter  of  Judge 
Orris  Hart,  of  Oswego,  New  York,  and  by  her  has  one  child,  Ellen  E.,  wife  of 
Charles  H.  Lawrence. 


MOSES  S.   BOWEN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Niagara  county,  New  York,  and  was 
born  August  18,  1 830,  the  son  of  George  W.  Bowen  and  Phebe  (Courser)  Bowen, 
formerly  of  Bennington,  Vermont,  later  of  Middleport,  Niagara  county,  New  York. 
He  was  educated  at  Wilson  Collegiate  Institute,  New  York,  and  graduated  from  that 
institution  in  1851;  he  studied  law  with  Levant  C.  Rhines,  of  Battle  Creek,  Mich- 
igan, and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  that  state  in  1858,  and  two  years  later  was 
licensed  to  practice  in  the  United  States  circuit  court.  While  at  Battle  Creek  he 
established  a  good  name  as  a  lawyer  of  ability,  and  upon  leaving  there  settled 
at  Coldwater,  Michigan,  where  he  acquired  a  large  practice,  and  added  to  his 
already  established  reputation.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1874,  and  resumed 
his  practice  there,  and  since  that  time  has  been  successfully  and  uninterruptedly 


340  THE   BENCH  AND   RAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

engaged  in  the  same.  Mr.  Bowen  has  a  vigorous,  analytical  mind,  and  readily 
comprehends  the  law.  He  is  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  civil  and  criminal 
practice,  and  is  recognized  as  especially  able  and  skillful  as  a  trial  and  jury  law- 
yer. Faithful  to  his  clients,  and  true  to  his  friends,  he  is  held  in  high  esteem  by 
all,  as  an  honest  man  and  a  genial  gentleman. 

He  was  married  September  28,  1858,  to  Miss  Mary  Helena  Sawyer,  a  daughter 
of  W.  E.  Sawyer,  of  Battle  Creek,  Michigan,  and  by  her  has  one  son  and  one 
daughter. 

JOHN    D.   STORER. 

JOHN  D.  STORER  is  a  native  of  Maine.  He  was  born  May  10,  1837,  in  Car- 
thage, in  the  county  of  Franklin  ;  eldest  son  of  Harrison  Storer,  a  prominent 
citizen  of  that  county,  having  been  elected  to  numerous  offices  of  trust  and  honor, 
and  who  is  highly  respected  for  his  intelligence  and  purity  of  character.  The 
mother  of  John  D.  is  Naomi  J.,  daughter  of  Capt.  Jotham  Bradbury,  of  Farming- 
ton,  Maine,  who  is  still  living  (in  1883).  He  is  active  and  bright  at  the  advanced 
age  of  ninety-two  years.  His  paternal  grandfather  was  John  Storer,  a  prominent 
business  man,  who  was  a  member  of  the  Maine  legislature  the  same  session  in 
which  Simon  Greenleaf,  afterward  Dean  professor  of  the  law  department  of  Har- 
vard College,  was  a  member,  and  enjoyed  the  intimate  friendship  of  that  gentle- 
man. Mr.  Storer's  ancestors  back  several  generations  were  all  American,  while 
his  remote  progenitors  were  Scotch  and  English.  Among  his  relatives  he  num- 
bers several  prominent  lawyers  and  judges,  and  those  who  have  distinguished 
themselves  in  literature  and  music  ;  in  the  last  mentioned  art  his  father,  brother 
Albert,  and  sisters  Emma  and  Laura,  the  latter  deceased,  have  been  considered 
eminent. 

John  D.  worked  on  his  father's  farm  during  the  spring  and  summer  months, 
and  attended  school  winters.  He  taught  school  at  intervals  for  several  years. 
He  received  a  fine  education,  and  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the 
office  of  Isaac  Randall,  in  Dixfield,  Maine,  in  the  spring  of  1855.  He  after- 
ward continued  the  study  of  the  law  with  great  assiduity  in  the  office  of  Hon. 
Timothy  Ludden,  and  after  Mr.  Ludden's  decease,  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Charles 
W.  Walton,  now  an  eminent  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Maine ;  after  a 
four  years'  course  of  study  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Maine,  May  4,  1859, 
and  was  afterward  admitted  to  the  United  States  district  court  at  Portland.  He 
;  then  opened  an  office  in  Monson,  Maine,  where  he  made  an  excellent  beginning 
in  the  practice  of  the  law.  But,  desiring  a  larger  field,  he  came  west,  and  after 
prospecting  for  a  while  he  opened  a  law  office  in  Shakopee,  Minnesota,  but,  his 
health  failing,  he  returned  to  his  native  state.  After  recruiting  his  health  he 
returned  west,  and  entered  the  army  in  the  49th  Wis.  Vols.,  and  for  the  greater 
part  of  his  term  of  service  was  engaged  in  clerical  work  at  headquarters.  He 
was  mustered  out  of  service  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  November  8,  1865.  He 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  341 

removed  to  Chicago,  and  was  for  a  short  time  in  the  office  of  Scales,  Bates  and 
Towsley.  In  the  spring  of  1866  he  removed  to  Maine,  and  devoted  his  attention 
to  divers  kinds  of  business,  and  finally  opened  an  office  at  Wilton,  Maine,  where 
he  practiced  law  with  excellent  success  five  years.  He  then  removed  to  Lewis- 
ton,  Maine,  where  he  practiced  law  seven  years,  doing  an  extensive  business.  In 
the  spring  of  1881  he  turned  his  face  toward  the  west  again,  went  to  Cleveland, 
Ohio,  where  he  practiced  law  and  acted  as  associate  editor  of  the  "  Marine 
Record."  But  not  being  satisfied  with  his  prospects  in  that  city,  he  removed  to 
Chicago  the  following  summer,  where  he  has  resided  ever  since. 

Mr.  Storer  is  a  careful,  painstaking  lawyer,  having  a  well-balanced  judgment, 
and  is  good  counsel.  He  has  a  retentive  memory,  and  is  a  diligent  student.  His 
examination  of  a  subject  is  exhaustive,  and  when  once  begun  he  never  tires  until 
he  has  fathomed  its  depths.  He  compares  conflicting  decisions  with  keen  analy- 
sis, and  has  great  power  of  condensation.  He  usually  comes  into  court  with  a 
few  well  selected  leading  cases  directly  in  point,  and  is  usually  successful.  He  is 
an  excellent  judge  of  human  nature,  which  is  of  great  assistance  to  him  in  the 
trial  of  causes,  in  which  he  is  an  expert.  As  an  advocate,  he  speaks  with  preci- 
sion, earnestness,  and  to  the  point.  He  rises  with  his  subject  and  the  occasion, 
and  is  a  formidable  opponent.  He  naturally  reasons  from  cause  to  effect,  and 
often  enlivens  his  discourses  with  apt  illustrations  and  comparisons.  He  sees  his 
subject  clearly,  and  is  enabled  to  express  his  thoughts  clearly.  Being  endowed 
by  nature  with  great  fluency,  and  polished  by  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  the 
best  authors,  he  has  attained  a  style  of  composition  remarkable  for  its  pure 
English. 

He  was  married  September  3,  1863,  to  Miss  Cornelia  Todd,  an  estimable  lady 
of  Galion,  Ohio,  daughter  of  the  late  Joel  Todd,  a  gentleman  of  fine  scholarship 
and  excellent  mental  powers.  They  have  five  children  :  Harry,  Meade,  Blanche, 
Elsie,  and  Lula. 

MATTHEW   P.   BRADY. 

MATTHEW  P.  BRADY  was  born  June  5,  1849,  in  Liverpool,  England,  and 
is  the  son  of  Owen  J.  Brady,  who  emigrated  to  this  country  about  1865 
and  settled  in  Cass  county,  Illinois,  where  he  now  resides.  He  studied  under  pri- 
vate masters  in  Liverpool,  notably  for  six  years  with  Martin  A.  DeLaney,  a  man 
celebrated  for  his  classical  learning,  and  one  of  the  most  celebrated  graduates  of 
Carlow  College,  in  Ireland,  and  after  Mr.  DeLaney's  death,  with  Jerome  Kelly. 
He  then,  up  to  the  time  of  his  coming  to  America,  attended  the  institute  of  St. 
Phillip  Neri,  at  Mt.  Pleasant,  near  Liverpool,  one  of  the  classical  institutions  of 
the  oratory,  at  the  head  of  which  His  Eminence  Cardinal  Newman  presides.  In 
1865  Mr.  Brady  came  to  America,  having  an  uncle  in  Chicago  who,  being  desirous 
of  educating  his  nephew  for  the  legal  profession,  had  persuaded  him  to  remove 
thither.  His  uncle  dying  shortly  after  his  arrival,  Mr.  Brady  was  thrown  upon 


342  THE    BENCH   AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

his  own  resources,  but  remained  faithful  to  his  uncle's  purpose.  He  secured  a 
deputy  clerkship  in  the  superior  court,  and  held  that  position  till  the  spring  of 
1868,  during  which  time  he  continued  his  former  studies,  adding  to  them  that  of 
law.  He  entered  the  law  department  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  and  gradu- 
ated therefrom  in  1870,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  summer  of  1871.  Mr. 
Brady  then  became  associated  with  Grant  and  Swift  as  special  pleader  until  May, 
1880,  when  he  was  taken  into  partnership  under  style  of  Grant,  Swift  and  Brady. 
He  is  a  republican  in  politics,  but  takes  no  active  part  therein.  He  was  mar- 
ried in  May,  1882,  to  Cordelia  A.  Hansen,  of  New  York  city. 


GEORGE    G.   BELLOWS. 

WHAT  there  is  of  a  man,  so  far  as  the  public  knows,  is  evidenced  by  what 
appears  on  the  surface.  It  is  often  the  case  that  the  true  inwardness  of  a 
man  is  not  known  to  the  public,  and  his  better  qualities  are  hidden,  and  he  goes 
down  to  history  under  an  incorrect  estimate  for  this  reason.  George  G.  Bellows, 
the  subject  of  this  mention,  has  had  a  conspicuous  career.  He  was  born  in 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  in  the  year  1832.  His  father  was  a  prominent  merchant 
and  president  of  a  leading  bank  there,  and  retired  to  the  country  while  George 
was  young;  he  was  a  man  well  known,  and  often  entertained  the  distinguished 
men  of  his  time  at  his  home,  and  young  George  had  the  advantages  of  such  associ- 
ations, and  the  good  sense  to  profit  by  them,  and  to  this  day  has  a  vivid  recollec- 
tion of  many  distinguished  men  who  were  foremost  in  law  and  statesmanship.  His 
preliminary  education  was  obtained  in  Cambridge  and  New  York  city,  and  he  was 
in  Harvard  College'  two  years,  when  he  withdrew  and  commenced  the  study  of 
law  with  Judge  Vose,  in  Walpole,  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  in  New  Hampshire; 
remained  one  year  and  went  to  New  York  and  completed  his  studies  with  the 
then  distinguished  firm  of  Hall,  Butler  and  Evarts;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and 
engaged  in  practice.  During  the  years  immediately  preceding  the  war  he  took 
an  active  part  in  politics,  being  recognized  as  one  of  the  eloquent  public  speakers 
in  the  state  of  New  York,  advocating  knownothingism  up  to  the  time  of  the 
nomination  of  Mr.  Lincoln,  when  he  entered  the  campaign  in  his  behalf,  and  was 
an  efficient  factor  in  securing  the  electoral  vote  of  that  state  for  him,  and  has 
since  been  an  advocate  of  the  principles  of  the  republican  party. 

At  the  outbreak  of  the  rebellion  he  was  active  and  earnest  in  urging  enlist- 
ment in  the  service  of  the  Union,  and  was  instrumental  in  raising  a  regiment  for 
Col.  Fardella,  one  of  Garibaldi's  old  officers.  He  went  to  the  front  with  it,  but 
after  being  in  the  army  eighteen  months  was  obliged  to  resign  on  account  of  ill 
health  and  disease  contracted  in  the  Chickahominy  swamps,  and  returned  home 
and  came  West,  and  for  one  year  engaged  in  lecturing  in  Wisconsin  in  further- 
ance of  the  interests  of  the  United  States  sanitary  commission,  of  which  his  emi- 
nent brother,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  W.  Bellows,  was  president,  and  did  effective  work 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  343 

there  in  this  connection  by  his  eloquent  and  effective  appeals  to  the  people  to  aid 
in  that  philanthropic  and  charitable  work.  Thence  he  returned  to  New  York,  and 
soon  after  moved  his  family  to  Chicago,  and  has  been  here  since,  engaged  in  the 
practice  of  his  profession. 

He  has  been  engaged  in  the  courts  in  important  cases,  with  some  of  the  ablest 
men  at  the  Chicago  bar,  and  has  proven  the  equal  of  the  best.  He  is  a  forcible, 
logical,  fluent  and  impressive  advocate,  a  sound  and  safe  counselor.  He  is  a 
cousin  of  Hon.  Henry  Bellows,  a  distinguished  lawyer  and  chief-justice  of  the 
state  of  New  Hampshire,  since  deceased. 


JOHN    M.   H.  BURGETT. 

JOHN  M.  H.  BURGETT  is  descended  from  old  New  England  stock,  and  was 
J  born  in  Hartland,  Vermont,  April  28,  1850,  the  third  son  of  Daniel  A.  and 
Adeline  Burgett,  who  moved  to  Illinois,  in  1854.  He  received  his  primary  educa- 
tion at  the  high  school  at  Lewiston,  Illinois,  and  in  1868  went  to  the  Michigan 
University,  at  Ann  Arbor,  where  he  took  the  degree  of  Ph.B.  in  1872.  He  at 
once  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  R.  B.  Stevenson,  in  Lewiston,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  at  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois,  in  June, 
1875.  In  September,  1875,  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  began  the  practice  of  law, 
and  April  i,  1877,  went  into  partnership  with  Abner  Smith  under  the  style  of 
Smith  and  Burgett. 

EDWIN    S.    METCALF. 

FEW  men  in  any  calling  or  profession  have  had  more  varied  experiences  than 
the  subject  of  this  sketch.  He  was  reared  among  the  green  hills  of  Vermont, 
where  pure  air,  mountain  streams  and  a  salubrious  climate  stimulate  youthful 
vigor.  He  is  a  son  of  Gilbert  C.  Metcalf  and  Elmira  (Dewy)  Metcalf,  the  latter 
a  daughter  of  Dr.  Thomas  Dewy.  Both  parents  were  of  English  descent.  Edwin 
S.  was  born  March  25,  1842,  in  Washington,  Orange  county,  Vermont.  He  entered 
the  high  school  at  Rutland,  Vermont,  and  in  1861  he  enlisted  and  served  for  three 
years  in  the  Union  army.  He  participated  in  the  engagements  around  Harper's 
Ferry,  but  was  on  detached  duty  during  the  greater  portion  of  his  term  of  ser- 
vice, which  expired  in  1864.  After  he  was  mustered  out  he  proceeded  to  La 
Crosse,  Wisconsin,  where  he  remained  but  a  few  months,  and  then  settled  in 
Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  there  pursued  the  study  of  music  under  Prof.  B.  F. 
Baker.  In  1867  he  was  supervisor  of  music  in  the  public  schools  of  Cambridge, 
and  while  there  was  musical  director  of  several  church  choirs.  To  further  im- 
prove his  musical  education  he  went  to  Europe  in  1869,  and  settled  in  Leipsic. 
He  entered  the  university,  and  took  a  course  in  music,  and  graduated  therefrom 
at  the  end  of  two  years,  and  received  a  diploma.  In  1871  he  went  to  Paris,  where, 
36 


344  THE   BENCH  AN&  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

April  22,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Ada  Philbrook,  of  Boston,  Massachusetts.  From 
Paris  he  went,  by  way  of  the  Mediterranean,  to  Florence,  where  he  remained 
about  one  year,  perfecting  himself  in  music,  and  studying  the  Italian  language. 
In  1872  he  returned  to  Boston,  and  was  connected  with  Petersilea's  music  school. 
During  Gilmore's  great  musical  jubilee  of  that  year,  Mr.  Metcalf  had  the  honor  to 
be  one  of  the  bouquet  of  artists,  besides  being  conductor  of  several  of  the  choir 
societies.  He  removed  to  Salem,  Massachusetts,  in  1873,  and  opened  a  conserva- 
tory of  music,  which  he  conducted  until  1879.  While  at  Salem  he  took  an  active 
part  in  political  matters,  and  was  a  delegate  to  the  prohibition  convention  which 
nominated  Judge  Pitman  for  governor.  In  1878  he  "took  the  stump"  for  Gen. 
Butler,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  that  campaign,  speaking  in  one  instance 
twelve  nights  in  succession. 

For  many  years  Mr.  Metcalf  had  devoted  his  spare  time  to  the  study  of  law, 
and  upon  his  removal  to  Chicago,  where,  in  1879,  he  opened  a  school  of  music 
and  art,  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
March,  1881,  since  which  time  he  has  been  engaged  in  active  practice.  In  former 
days  he  was  a  contributor  to  many  of  the  political  and  musical  journals  of  the 
East,  and  at  one  time  he  was  editor  and  publisher  of  a  musical  edition  called  the 
"  Clarion." 


JAMES  H.  FELCH. 

THE  history  of  him  whose  name  heads  this  sketch  fairly  illustrates  what  may 
be  accomplished  by  perseverance  combined  with  a  clear  intellect,  in  follow- 
ing a  determined  purpose,  even  under  adverse  circumstances.  The  man  who  is 
truly  self-educated,  who  overcomes  the  obstacles  that  hamper  him  in  his  youth, 
first  by  mastering  the  thorough  preparatory  course  of  study  required  to  enter 
eastern  colleges;  then  the  course  of  four  long  years  in  the  study  of  science  and 
literature  before  graduation;  then  assiduously  applying  himself  to  the  study  of 
his  profession,  until  thoroughly  prepared  to  pass  an  examination  and  gain  admit- 
tance to  the  bar,  without  pecuniary  aid,  shows  more  energy,  power  of  self-denial, 
and  true  manhood,  than  many  display  in  accumulating  a  fortune  or  winning  a 
victory  on  the  battle  field. 

James  H.  Felch  is  a  native  of  Maine,  and  was  born  in  Limerick,  York  county, 
June  28,  1834,  and  is  the  son  of  John  and  Susan  Felch.  John  Felch  was  of  Welsh 
descent,  and  a  soldier  in  the  war  or  1812,  and  in  the  Aroostook  war;  he  afterward 
received  a  government  pension  for  disability.  The  mother  of  our  subject  was  a 
sister  of  Gov.  Felch,  of  Michigan.  James  prepared  for  college  at  Andover,  Mas- 
sachusetts, and  entered  Dartmouth  College  in  the  class  of  1858. 

He  entered  the  employ  of  the  United  States  government  in  1856,  as  a  surveyor, 
at  the  head  of  Lake  Superior,  to  assist  in  surveying  the  state  of  Minnesota.  He 
afterward  went  to  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  and  there  assisted  in  surveying  additions 
to  St.  Paul  and  Minneapolis.  He  then  went  to  Dunleith,  Illinois,  and  taught 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  345 

school  four  months;  thence  to  Uubuque,  Iowa,  where  he  read  law  in  the  office  of 
Lowell,  Adams  and  Lowell,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  state  in  1858. 
Thence  he  went  to  Amboy,  Illinois,  and  at  once  entered  into  the  successful  prac- 
tice of  the  law,  and  continued  there  until  the  spring  of  1860,  when  he  removed  to 
Yorkville,  Kendall  county,  Illinois.  In  1869  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  his 
health  became  impaired  to  such  an  extent  that  he  did  not  entirely  regain  it  until 
the  spring  of  1882. 

Mr.  Felch  is  an  able  lawyer,  well  read  in  his  profession,  and  discriminating  in 
his  practice.  He  is  an  eloquent  advocate,  an  excellent  trial  lawyer,  and  a  good 
counselor.  With  a  keen  sense  of  justice  he  is  ever  zealous  for  the  best  interests 
of  his  clients,  and  maintains  his  views  of  the  right  with  an  energy  that  reflects 
credit  upon  himself,  and  upholds  the  dignity  of  his  profession. 

He  has  a  fine  presence,  is  of  medium  height  and  commanding,  with  a  broad, 
intellectual  forehead,  and  sharp,  black  eyes.  A  gentleman  of  refinement,  he  is 
courteous  and  affable  to  all,  and  bears  the  impress  of  a  liberal  minded  man. 

He  was  married,  January  12,  1871,  to  Mrs.  F.  M.  Barclay,  an  estimable  lady  of 
fine  accomplishments. 

In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Felch  was  a  democrat  up  to  1876,  since  which  time 
he  has  been  independent  in  his  views. 


THOMAS    H.   GAULT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  the  county  of  Antrim,  Ireland,  August 
2,  1842,  and  is  the  son  of  John  Gault,  and  Martha  (Adams)  Gault.  John 
Gault  immigrated  from  Ireland  in  1847,  and  lived  in  Monroe  county,  New  York, 
until  1852,  when  he  removed  with  his  family  to  Wisconsin,  where  the  subject  of 
this  sketch  spent  his  youth  and  early  manhood  on  a  farm,  receiving  the  rudi- 
ments of  his  education  in  the  schools  of  Waukesha  county.  August  15,  1862,  he 
entered  the  28th  regiment  Wis.  Vol.  Inf.,  and  went  at  once  to  the  front.  His  first 
battle  was  an  engagement  with  the  rebels  under  Gen.  Bragg,  near  Hindman's 
Station,  in  the  vicinity  of  the  boundary  line  between  Tennessee  and  Mississippi. 
He  then  returned  to  Columbus,  Kentucky,  and  assisted  in  building  a  fort  at  that 
place.  His  command  was  then  ordered  to  Hickman,  on  the  Mississippi  River, 
where  an  engagement  was  had  with  the  enemy,  which  resulted  in  the  taking  of 
six  pieces  of  ordnance  and  a  large  amount  of  military  stores  by  the  Union  forces. 
Returning  to  Columbus,  he  remained  there  but  three  days,  when  he  joined  the 
White  River  expedition  under  Gen.  Steele  at  Helena.  About  five  hundred  rebel 
prisoners  were  captured,  with  ordnance  and  munitions  of  war.  They  then  fol- 
lowed the  enemy  through  Arkansas  in  search  of  the  rebels,  who  were  led  by  Mar- 
maduke  and  Price.  Mr.  Gault  was  in  the  assault  at  Fort  Pemberton  and  at 
Vicksburg.  He  was  in  the  battle  at  Marks'  Mills,  and  at  Helena,  Arkansas,  July 
4,  1864.  He  was  in  the  Alabama  campaign  under  Gen.  Canby,  at  the  capture  of 


346  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mobile  and  the  battles  of  Spanish  Fort  and  Fort  Blakeley,  where  fifteen  hundred 
prisoners  were  taken.  Mr.  Gault  was  mustered  out  of  service  at  Brownsville,  Texas, 
August  15,  1865,  but  he  was  about  two  months  reaching  his  home  in  Wisconsin, 
when  his  friends  celebrated  the  event  of  his  return.  During  his  three  years'  ser- 
vice, he  was  sick  about  six  months,  but  the  remainder  of  the  term  was  able,  and 
at  all  times  ready,  to  do  service  for  his  country  as  a  brave  soldier. 

Soon  after  returning  home,  he  began  his  literary  course  at  Monmouth  College 
in  Warren  county,  Illinois,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1870.  Three 
years  later,  1873,  he  graduated  from  the  law  department  of  the  University  of 
Michigan,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Illinois  the  same  year.  Forming  a 
partnership  with  A.  M.  Martin,  he  entered  at  once  upon  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession. This  partnership  being  dissolved,  he  continued  the  practice  of  law  alone 
until  the  formation  of  the  present  partnership  with  Hilfred  N.  Lowe  in  1875. 
Mr.  Gault  is  a  popular  man  among  his  professional  brethren,  and  enjoys  the  rep- 
utation of  being  a  high-minded,  honorable  gentleman  in  the  community  where 
he  is  best  known,  holding  a  high  position  socially.  He  is  a  good  trial  lawyer, 
apt  and  ready  ;  he  prepares  his  cases  well. 

Mr.  Gault  is  a  leading  member  and  trustee  of  the  United  Presbyterian  Church 
of  Chicago,  also  superintendent  of  the  Sabbath  school,  and  a  member  of  the 
church  choir.  In  politics  he  is  a  staunch  republican.  He  was  married  August 
23,  1870,  to  Miss  Mary  E.  Boyd,  an  estimable  lady,  daughter  of  McNair  Boyd,  of 
Waukesha,  Wisconsin. 

BANNING  AND   BANNING. 

THE  members  of  this  law  firm  are  brothers  and  both  natives  of  Illinois,  and 
were  born  in  McDonough  county.  The  elder,  Ephraim,  was  born  July  21, 
1849,  and  the  younger,  Thomas  A.,  January  16,  1851.  They  are  the  sons  of  the 
late  Ephraim  and  Louisa  C.  (Walker)  Banning,  their  mother  being  a  sister  of 
Judge  Pinkney  H.  Walker,  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois.  They  were  both 
raised  on  a  farm  and  enjoyed  the  benefits  of  a  common-school  and  academical 
education.  Ephraim  studied  law  in  Missouri  and  Chicago  nearly  three  years,  and 
was  admitted  to  practice  in  Chicago  in  1872.  Thomas  A.  studied  law  in  the 
states  of  Missouri  and  Illinois,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  latter  state, 
in  September,  1875.  He  acted  as  assistant  corporation  counsel  in  Chicago,  while 
Judge  T.  Lyle  Dickey  held  that  office,  for  one  and  a  half  years.  They  have  both 
been  actively  engaged  in  practice  in  Chicago  ever  since  they  were  admitted  to 
the  bar,  and  have  had  an  extensive  practice  for  men  of  their  age,  with  a  reason- 
able portion  of  important  business.  By  reason  of  favorable  decisions  in  cases  in 
which  the  brewers  all  over  the  United  States  were  interested,  and  in  litigation 
involving  the  patents  of  certain  agricultural  machinery,  the  firm  of  Banning  and 
Banning  as  successful  patent  attorneys  became  widely  known,  to  which  fact  was 
in  large  measure  due  the  rapid  increase  of  their  business.  They  give  patent  law 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  347 

and  patent  litigation  special  attention,  and  rank  among  the  first  in  this  city  in 
that  line  of  practice.  They  also  have  an  office  in  New  York  in  charge  of  Hubert 
A.  Banning,  another  brother,  and  one  of  the  editors  of  "  Banning  and  Ardens' 
Patent  Cases."  They  are  both  exemplary  men  and  members  of  the  Presbyterian 
church,  and  are  both  republicans  in  political  sentiments. 


CURTIS    H.    REMY. 

/~*URTIS  H.  REMY  was  born  near  Hope,  in  Bartholomew  county,  Indiana, 
V^x  April  29,  1852.  His  father,  Allison  C.  Remy,  is  a  descendant  of  an  old 
French  family,  and  his  mother  is  of  German  descent.  His  father  was  left  wholly 
dependent  on  himself  at  the  age  of  ten  years,  and  is  entirely  a  self-made  man, 
and  one  of  the  most  prominent  citizens  of  Marion  county,  Indiana,  where  he  now 
resides.  Mr.  Remy  was  sent  to  Nazareth  Hall  School,  in  Pennsylvania,  when 
fourteen  years  of  age,  and  afterward  graduated  from  Transylvania  College,  at 
Lexington,  Kentucky,  and  from  the  law  school  there.  Later  he  graduated  from 
the  law  department  of  the  Northwestern  University,  at  Indianapolis,  Indiana. 
He  first  read  law,  however,  in  the  office  of  Judge  Elliott,  now  of  the  supreme 
bench  of  Indiana,  and  afterward  with  Gen.  Thomas  M.  Browne,  then  United 
States  district  attorney  at  Indianapolis.  Mr.  Remy  practiced  law  at  Indianapolis 
from  1872  to  1876,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  opened  an  office.  In  the  fall 
of  1879  he  associated  with  himself  Judge  J.  C.  Chumasero,  then  lately  of  Roches- 
ter, New  York,  under  the  firm  of  Remy  and  Chumasero,  a  firm  which  existed 
until  May,  1882,  when  he  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Flower,  Remy  and 
Gregory.  Mr.  Remy  was  married  October  27,  1875,  to  Miss  Fanny  Wheeler,  and 
has  one  child.  In  politics  he  has  always  been  a  republican. 


GARDNER    G.    WILLARD. 

ARDNER  GOODRICH  WILLARD  was  born  in  Metamora,  Illinois.  From 
V.JT  1857  until  1861  he  attended  Washington  University,  St.  Louis.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1862  he  enlisted  in  the  Chicago  Mercantile  Battery,  and  served  until  the 
following  spring.  In  1865  he  entered  Harvard  College,  graduating  in  1869. 
From  1869  to  1870  he  taught  school  in  Cincinnati,  meantime  reading  law,  and 
attending  law  lectures  at  the  Cincinnati  Law  School.  Returning  to  Chicago,  he 
continued  his  law  studies  at  the  Chicago  Law  School;  graduated,  and  was  ad- 
mitted to  the  Illinois  bar  in  1871.  At  the  time  of  the  great  fire  he  gave  up  the 
law  practice,  begun  immediately  after  admission,  to  assist  his  father,  then  in  very 
poor  health,  in  arranging  and  settling  the  affairs  of  a  large  business,  thrown  into 
great  confusion  by  that  event.  In  1872  he  became  junior  partner  of  the  firm  of 
Willard,  Bacon  and  Company,  of  Chicago,  wholesale  grocers,  from  which  he 
withdrew  in  1874.  In  1876  he  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  has 
been  in  continuous  practice  ever  since. 


348  THE  BENCH  AND   BAK   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Willard's  father,  P.  H.  Willard,  a  resident  of  this  city  since  1861,  was  born 
in  Lancaster,  Massachusetts,  and  went  from  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  to  St.  Louis, 
in  1835.  He  was  a  merchant,  and  when  in  active  business  was  well  and  favora- 
bly known  through  the  northern  Mississippi  valley,  and  nearer  western  states. 
His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Elizabeth  Osgood  Goodrich.  She  was  born  in 
Pittsfield,  Massachusetts,  and  went  from  Pittsfield,  Vermont,  to  St.  Louis,  in  1839. 
She  died  in  1873.  During  the  last  twenty  years  of  her  life  she  was  widely  known 
as  a  frequent  and  earnest  writer  for  various  journals  and  periodicals,  and  as  the 
author  of  several  works  in  behalf  of  her  sex,  to  the  amelioration  and  advancement 
of  whose  conditions  these  years  were  chiefly  given. 

Mr.  Willard's  first  ancestors  in  the  new  world  were,  on  his  father's  side,  Maj. 
Simon  Willard,  a  Kentish  soldier,  who  settled  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  in 
1635,  and  who  was  for  over  thirty  years  a  commander  of  the  colonial  militia  dur- 
ing the  Indian  troubles;  on  his  mother's  side,  William  Goodrich,  who  settled  in 
Wethersfield,  Connecticut,  in  1639. 


LUMAN    ALLEN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Virginia,  and  was  born  November  6, 
1845,  on  Greenwood  Plantation,  near  Winchester,  a  place  that  has  become 
noted  since  the  war  of  the  rebellion  on  account  of  its  becoming  the  property  of 
Byrd  Washington.  He  is  a  son  of  Dr.  Luman  Allen,  of  Baltimore,  Maryland,  and 
Alvernon  (Greene)  Allen,  daughter  of  Dr.  John  Greene,  of  Virginia.  Mr.  Allen  is  a 
direct  lineal  descendant  of  Gen.  Ethan  Allen,  of  Fort  Ticonderoga  fame,  and  of 
Gen.  Israel  Putnam,  of  the  revolution.  He  received  his  education  in  private  schools 
and  academies  in  Virginia,  taking  a  classical  and  scientific  course,  and  modern 
languages.  Entertaining,  with  his  father,  strong  Union  sentiments,  he  left  Vir- 
ginia soon  after  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  enlisted  in  the  2d 
regiment  Ohio  Vol.  Inf.,  in  1862,  but  after  a  short  term  of  service  in  Kentucky,  he 
was  compelled  to  retire,  greatly  against  his  wishes,  in  consequence  of  being  pros- 
trated with  camp  fever.  He  entered  the  law  office  of  Judge  A.  F.  Perry,  of  Cin- 
cinnati, a  recent  member  of  congress,  and  at  the  close  of  his  legal  studies  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Ohio.  He  was  afterward  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  Illinois  by  the  supreme  court  of  that  state,  and  has  been  enrolled  in 
several  federal  court  districts.  From  April,  1869,  to  1871  he  was  private  secretary 
to  Hugh  J.  Jewett,  at  Columbus,  Ohio,  then  president  and  director  of  a  number 
of  railroad  lines.  In  December,  1872,  he  moved  to  Cleveland,  Ohio,  where  he 
engaged  in  the  practice  of  railroad  law.  During  the  year  1873  he  made  an  exten- 
sive trip  through  the  western  territories,  and  returning  to  Cleveland  in  1874, 
became  corporation  attorney  for  several  corporations,  whose  legal  business  was 
of  such  magnitude  as  to  wholly  engross  his  time  and  abilities,  to  the  exclusion  of 
all  general  practice.  Mr.  Allen  is  an  able  lawyer,  and  having  established  himself 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  349 

in  Chicago,  expects  to  devote  himself  to  the  general  practice  of  his  profession. 
He  is  a  man  of  rich  learning  and  literary  tastes  and  habits,  and  the  author  of 
several  works,  including  an  epic  poem  in  heroic  verse,  entitled  "  The  Sage  of 
Mentor,"  a  work  which  was  highly  complimented  at  the  time  it  was  issued  by  the 
press  throughout  the  country.  Our  space  forbids  more  than  a  brief  quotation: 

"A  great  assemblage  met  upon  the  shore 

Of  fair  Columbia's  fairest  inland  lake; 
And  there  were  gathered  those  who  proudly  wore 

Fame's  coronet,  the  Nation's  laws  who  make, — 
Men  of  renown  from  every  sov'reign  state, 
An  august  body  to  deliberate 

On  the  vexed  question  of  a  ruling  chief. 

Judges  these  were,  astute  and  learned,  who  sate 
Observant,  'voiding  every  rock  and  reef; 

Grave  councilors,  and  wise  in  such  debate  : 
A  glittering  roll,  each  name  evoked  acclaim, 
A  people's  tribute  paid  to  honest  fame, 

By  each  brief  phalanx  stood  a  blazoned  shield, 

Bearing  a  word  of  great  or  feeble  power, 
And  sonorous  thro'  the  rafter'd  temple  pealed 

The  potent  speech  of  some  great  orator, 
Urging  the  merits  of  his  chosen  chief, 
With  hands  outspread  to  grasp  the  laurel  leaf." 

Mr.  Allen  has  been  a  correspondent  of  the  Cleveland  "  Leader "  for  many 
years,  and  is  known  as  "  Pea  Green."  As  a  writer  he  is  fluent,  graceful  and  easy. 
He  is  a  well-read  lawyer  and  a  reliable  counselor.  Mr.  Allen  is  married  to  Julia 
(Ellis)  Allen,  of  Cincinnati,  who  is  descended  from  the  family  of  Sir  William 
Hamilton,  of  England.  Mrs.  Allen  is  a  lady  of  fine  talents,  education  and  refine- 
ment, and  was  a  conspicuous  member  of  the  Shakespeare  Club,  of  Cincinnati. 
They  have  one  son,  a  bright  boy  of  nine  years. 


CAPT.    PLAYER    MARTIN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  a  native  of  Nashville,  Tennessee,  was  born  in  1847, 
and  is  the  son  of  a  prominent  physician,  Dr.  R.  C.  K.  Martin,  of  that  city. 
He  was  educated  at  Nashville  University,  but  left  that  institution  before  com- 
pleting his  course,  in  1861,  and  entered  the  confederate  army  as  a  lieutenant  and 
aide-de-camp  to  Gen.  Gideon  J.  Pillow,  under  whom  he  served  until  Gen.  Pillow 
took  charge  of  the  conscript  bureau.  He  then  enlisted  as  a  private  in  the  pth 
Tenn.  Cavalry  serving  under  Gen.  Forrest,  and  soon  rose  to  the  rank  of  captain. 
He  was  made  adjutant  of  the  regiment,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  the  close 
of  the  war.  He  was  wounded  while  leading  his  men  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  at 
Resaca,  Georgia.  He  surrendered  with  Gen.  Forrest  at  Gainesville,  Alabama,  and 


35O  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

was  paroled  May  8,  1865.  He  then  returned  to  Nashville  and  commenced  the 
study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  D.  T.  Wilkin,  and  being  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1869,  immediately  entered  upon  a  successful  career  as  a  lawyer.  He  was  elected 
city  attorney  of  Nashville  in  1871,  which  position  he  filled  with  marked  ability 
for  three  years,  giving  universal  satisfaction. 

In  1874  Capt.  Martin  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  opened  an  office,  and  has 
since  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  his  profession.  He  has  secured  quite  a  large 
clientage,  considering  the  length  of  time  he  has  been  in  Chicago,  and  is  laying 
the  foundation  for  a  profitable  business. 


ABNER   SMITH. 

A5NER  SMITH  was  born  in  Orange,  Massachusetts,  August  4,  1843,  and  is  the 
fourth  son  of  Humphrey  and  Sophronia  A.  Smith.  He  was  educated  at 
Middlebury  College,  Vermont,  and  graduated  in  1866.  After  graduating  he  was 
engaged  as  teacher  in  the  Newton  Academy,  at  Shoreham,  Vermont,  until  1867, 
when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  entering  the  office  of  J.  L.  Stark,  commenced 
the  study  of  law.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1868.  He  was  married,  Octo- 
ber 5,  1869,  to  Miss  Ada  C.,  daughter  of  Sereno  Smith,  of  Shoreham,  Vermont. 
Mr.  Smith,  though  a  republican,  is  rather  inclined  to  be  independent  in  politics. 
He  has  taken  no  active  part  in  political  affairs,  having  devoted  himself  fully  to 
his  profession,  and  as  a  consequence  has  been  rewarded  by  a  most  satisfactory 
success. 


LORIN    GRANT   PRATT. 

AS  an  example  of  self-reliant,  independent  and  successful  manhood,  no  one 
1~\.  deserves  more  honorable  mention  among  the  self-made  men  of  Illinois  than 
the  subject  of  this  biography.  He  was  a  native  of  Chenango  county,  New  York, 
and  was  born  near  Binghamton,  December  5,  1828,  and  was  the  son  of  John  and 
Clarrisa  Pratt.  As  a  boy  he  possessed  undaunted  courage,  self-reliance  and  untir- 
ing energy,  and,  with  a  native  instinct  for  study,  early  developed  a  love  for  literary 
pursuits.  He  attended  the  public  schools  of  his  native  place,  and  although 
deprived  of  the  opportunity  of  pursuing  a  course  of  classical  study  in  college,  by 
a  faithful  employment  of  his  time  he  gained  a  practical  knowledge  of  men  and 
books,  which  was,  perhaps,  of  more  real  value  to  him  in  his  active  life.  When 
fifteen  years  of  age  he  was  thrown  upon  his  own  resources,  and  during  the  ensu- 
ing five  years  turned  his  hand  to  various  kinds  of  employment,  devoting  all  his 
spare  hours  to  reading  and  study.  His  mind  was  early  turned  toward  the  legal 
profession,  by  being  brought  into  contact  with  such  men  as  David  S.  Dickinson, 
and  other  eminent  lawyers  of  his  native  state,  and  he  determined  to  fit  himself 
for  its  duties.  With  this  purpose  in  view  he,  in  1848,  removed  to  the  West,  and 


Will, am.  iBi-NlT 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of   CHICAGO.  353 

settled  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  there,  in  the  office  of  J.  K.  Cooper,  began  studying 
for  the  profession  in  which  he  afterward  won  most  satisfactory  success.  Three 
years  later,  in  1851,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  forming  a  partnership  with 
William  F.  Bryant,  immediately  began  the  practice  of  his  profession.  This 
partnership  continued  about  one  year,  and  during  that  time  Mr.  Pratt  made  the 
acquaintance  of  Judge  Norman  H.  Purple,  an  able  lawyer  and  jurist  of  Peoria, 
who  was  associated  in  business  with  a  Mr.  Sanger.  Judge  Purple  being  attracted 
by  the  ability  and  lawyer-like  qualities  of  the  young  attorney,  proposed  that  he 
become  one  of  the  firm,  an  offer  which  was  accepted,  and  our  subject  became  the 
junior  member  of  the  firm  of  Purple,  Sanger  and  Pratt.  This  relation  continued 
until  1857,  and  during  that  time  the  business  of  the  firm  was  more  extensive  than 
that  of  any  law  firm  outside  of  Chicago  doing  business  in  the  state.  Mr.  Pratt 
was  not  possessed  of  a  robust  constitution,  and  close  application  to  study  and 
work  had  so  impaired  his  health  that  he  was  forced  to  abandon  his  profession  for 
a  time,  and  devote  himself  to  other  employment.  An  opportunity  soon  opened: 
Purchasing  an  interest  in  the  Peoria  Plow  Works,  he  gave  his  attention  to  the 
business  of  the  concern,  with  Tobey  and  Anderson,  until  the  opening  of  the 
rebellion  in  1861,  when  he  bought  out  his  partners,  and  became  sole  proprietor  of 
the  business,  and  continued  it  until  he  had  amassed  a  fortune  of  some  $200,000. 
It  had  been  well  if  he  had  stopped  there;  but  his  ambition  and  enterprise  prompt- 
ed him  to  extend  his  business  to  other  cities,  which  necessitated  the  association 
of  other  partners,  the  result  of  which  was  the  loss  of  a  large  part  of  his  accumu- 
lations. This  occurred  in  1871.  It  was  at  such  a  crisis  that  his  true  character 
asserted  itself.  Although  the  management  of  his  extensive  enterprise  had  fallen 
upon  him,  he  had  kept  himself  posted  in  matters  pertaining  to  the  law,  carefully 
watching  the  decisions  of  the  supreme  court,  and  being  almost  daily  in  the  office 
of  Alexander  McCoy,  drawing  bills  in  chancery  and  attending  to  matters  pending 
in  court,  so  that  he  was  thoroughly  qualified  to  resume  the  practice  of  the  pro- 
fession to  which  he  was  devoted.  Accordingly,  in  1872,  he  removed  to  Chicago, 
and  became  one  of  the  well  known  firm  of  Harding,  McCoy  and  Pratt.  Three 
years  later,  Geo.  F.  Harding  withdrew  from  the  business,  which  had  become  very 
extensive,  and  the  name  of  the  firm  changed  to  McCoy  and  Pratt,  and  so  con- 
tinued until  Mr.  Pratt's  death,  which  occurred  at  Chicago,  September  23,  1881. 

At  the  time  of  his  death  Mr.  Pratt  had  attained  an  enviable  reputation  as  a 
corporation  lawyer.  He  had  for  some  years  been  the  general  solicitor  of  the 
Chicago,  Pekin  and  Southwestern  Railroad  Company,  and  was  frequently  re- 
tained as  counsel  in  the  most  important  railroad  litigation  by  other  railroads. 

As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Pratt  was  careful  and  conscientious,  and  honored  his  profes- 
sion. Far-sighted  and  shrewd  in  the  management  of  business  matters,  he  pos- 
sessed a  high  degree  of  honor,  and  in  all  his  dealing  was  a  man  of  uncompromising 
integrity.  He  was  a  man  of  fixed  principles  and  decided  purpose,  and  as  a 
speaker  possessed  the  happy  faculty  of  saying  the  right  thing  at  the  right  time, 
and  that,  too,  in  a  manner  to  carry  conviction  to  those  whom  he  addressed. 
37 


354  rHE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Though  strong  in  his  likes  and  dislikes,  and  quick  to  resent  a  wrong,  he  was 
a  genial  and  social  companion,  and  a  true  friend. 

Mr.  Pratt  was  married  July  9,  1851,  to  Mary  E.  Ireson,  daughter  of  E.  A. 
Ireson,  a  Methodist  clergyman  of  Boston,  Massachusetts,  and  Mary  (Goodwin) 
Ireson.  In  his  home  life  and  domestic  relations  Mr.  Pratt  was  kind,  gentle  and 
true,  and  .here  were  displayed  many  noble  qualities  of  the  man  which  were  best 
known  by  his  nearest  friends.  Though  never  possessed  of  a  strong  and  robust 
constitution,  he  was  a  great  worker,  and  by  persistent  effort,  in  the  face  of  many 
discouragements,  pushed  his  way  upward  to  an  honorable  position  in  his  pro- 
fession, making  for  himself  a  name  that  cannot  but  be  respected  by  all  who 
knew  him. 


OWEN    F.   ALDIS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  St.  Albans,  Vermont,  June  6,  1852. 
He  was  a  son  of  Judge  A.  O.  Aldis,  of  the  supreme  court  of  Vermont,  and  a 
grandson  of  Chief-Justice  Asa  Aldis,  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  same  state.  His 
health  not  being  good,  he  was  unable  to  go  to  school  regularly,  and  at  the  age  of 
thirteen  went  to  Europe,  hoping  to  gain  strength  in  traveling.  After  remaining 
abroad  for  six  years  he  returned  home,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  much  improved  in 
health,  and  having  pursued  a  course  of  study  privately,  in  1871  entered  the  sopho- 
more class  at  Yale  College,  and  graduated  in  1874.  He  then  attended  the  Colum- 
bian Law  School  for  one  year,  and  settled  in  Chicago  in  1876.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  and  began  practice.  In  1880  Mr.  Aldis 
formed  a  partnership  with  A.  F.  Hatch,  under  the  style  of  Hatch  and  Aldis,  which 
dissolved  in  the  spring  of  1883.  He  is  a  republican,  but  is  not  tied  down  to  any 
party  lines. 

HON.  WILLIAM    W.  O'BRIEN. 

WILLIAM  W.  O'BRIEN  was  born  in  Leitrim  county,  Ireland,  May  22,  1834. 
He  received  a  national  school  education,  and  emigrated  to  the  United 
States  in  the  spring  of  1854.  After  traveling  over  many  of  the  states  of  the 
Union,  he  reached  Peoria,  Illinois,  in  the  month  of  May  of  that  year.  In  Sep- 
tember, 1856,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Hon.  C.  C.  Bonney,  who  was  then  in 
the  active  practice  of  his  profession  in  Peoria.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
the  winter  of  1859,  and  soon  thereafter  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
with  not  only  unusual  but  extraordinary  success.  He  was  elected  city  attorney 
of  Peoria  in  1861,  and  reelected  three  different  times.  In  the  fall  of  1862  he  was 
elected  to  the  legislature  of  Illinois.  He  was  twice  nominated  for  congress  by 
the  democracy  in  his  own  district.  In  1868  he  was  unanimously  nominated  by 
the  democratic  state  convention  for  congressman  from  the  state  at  large,  as  the 
opponent  of  Gen.  John  A.  Logan,  and  made  a  thorough  canvas  of  the  state;  but 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  355 

the  republican  majority  in  the  state  at  that  time  was  over  50,000,  and  while  Mr. 
O'Brien  ran  over  4,000  ahead  of  his  ticket,  yet  of  course  he  was  defeated. 

In  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Peoria,  Mr.  O'Brien's  success  was  very 
remarkable.  He  at  once  took  a  front  rank  as  a  lawyer  at  the  bar,  and  in  an 
incredibly  short  time  became  famous  as  one  of  the  most  successful  advocates  in 
the  state.  His  practice  extended  throughout  the  states  of  Illinois,  Iowa,  Wiscon- 
sin, Michigan  and  Indiana.  In  the  fall  of  1874,  Mr.  O'Brien  moved  from  Peoria 
to  Chicago,  where  he  has  since  resided,  and  continued  to  practice  his  profession. 
His  success  in  Chicago,  and  particularly  in  the  trial  of  criminal  cases,  has  been 
simply  remarkable.  It  is  needless  for  us  to  state,  where  Mr.  O'Brien  is  so  well 
known,  that  he  has  been  engaged  in  very  many,  if  not  most,  of  the  important 
cases  tried  in  Chicago  during  the  past  seven  years.  He  has  tried  more  capital 
cases  in  the  last  fifteen  years  than  any  lawyer  now  living  in  the  United  States. 

Blessed  by  nature  with  an  excellent  physical  constitution,  endowed  with  great 
intellectual  power,  now  in  the  prime  of  life,  in  robust  health,  with  great  expe- 
rience, an  indomitable  will,  and  exhaustless  mental  resources,  he  has  before  him 
a  splendid  career  for  future  usefulness  and  honor. 


JAMES  LANE  ALLEN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  near  Lexington,  Kentucky,  in  1848,  and 
is  the  son  of  Albert  Allen,  a  prominent  breeder  of  Durham  stock  there. 
He  is  a  nephew  of  Hon.  Mat.  C.  Johnson,  a  celebrated  Kentucky  lawyer,  and 
of  the  late  ex-Gov.  George  W.  Johnson.  He  received  his  primary  education 
in  the  schools  of  his  native  county,  and  was  prepared  for  college  by  a  private 
tutor,  and  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  Bethany  College,  Virginia,  when  only 
sixteen  years  of  age  and  graduated  in  1867,  at  the  early  age  of  nineteen,  taking 
class  honors  and  distinguishing  himself  in  his  examinations  in  a  very  marked 
manner.  Pres.  James  A.  Garfield  and  Judge  Jere.  S.  Black  advising  him  to  such  a 
course,  Mr.  Allen  taught  school  for  some  years  after  graduation.  His  parents  had 
intended  him  for  the  ministry,  but  his  own  heart  and  mind  were  bent  on  the  pro- 
fession of  the  law.  He  was  offered  and  accepted  the  position  of  principal  of  the 
Williamsville  Classical  Institute,  near  Buffalo,  New  York,  and  remained  there  one 
year.  Subsequently  he  was  called  to  Waukegan,  Illinois,  and  was  principal  of  the 
high  school  for  about  two  years.  In  the  meantime  Mr.  Allen  had  been  studying 
law,  principally  with  Judge  H.  W.  Blodgett,  of  the  United  States  court,  and  his 
partner,  Judge  Upton.  After  leaving  Waukegan,  Mr.  Allen  went  to  Omaha, 
Nebraska,  where  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  and  practiced  about  two  years,  dur- 
ing which  time  he  published  "Allen's  Hand  Book  of  the  Nebraska  Code,"  which 
was  in  general  use  at  the  time.  In  1872  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  has,  by  his 
brilliant  qualities  of  mind  and  superior  natural  endowments,  coupled  with  unre- 
mitting energy,  attention  to  business  and  unswerving  integrity,  raised  himself  to 


356  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO. 

a  prominent  position  at  the  bar.  He  has  been,  since  his  coming  here,  connected 
with  Hon.  Thomas  Hoyne,  and  also  in  partnership  with  Hon.  Theodore  H. 
Shintz,  ex-mayor  of  Chicago,  but  is  now  practicing  alone  and  has  achieved 
many  marked  successes  in  practice.  Mr.  Allen  is  a  member  of  the  board  of 
directors  of  the  public  library,  and  very  active  and  earnest  in  his  efforts  on  behalf 
of  that  growing  institution.  He  is  the  originator  of  the  grand  and  commend- 
able scheme  of  erecting  a  magnificent  memorial  building  as  a  monument  of  grati- 
tude to  the  world  for  its  generosity  to  Chicago  at  the  time  of  the  great  fire,  and 
as  a  home  for  the  public  library,  gallery  of  art,  etc.  The  success  of  this  scheme 
is  not  yet  assured,  but  will  be  in  all  probability  in  the  near  future.. 

Mr.  Allen  is  a  gentlemen  of  refinement  and  culture  and  bears  the  impress  of  a 
liberal  education.  He  is  courteous  and  kind  in  his  intercourse  with  all,  having  a 
fine  presence,  being  over  six  feet  high,  well  proportioned  and  graceful  in  his 
movements.  He  has  a  well-shaped,  intellectual  forehead,  with  keen  hazel  eyes 
and  classic  features.  He  sustains  a  character  for  strict  honesty  and  personal 
integrity,  which  he  has  inherited  from  his  ancestry.  He  is  known  as  an  able  and 
finished  orator,  and  those  who  have  heard  him  repeatedly  pronounce  him  a  most 
accomplished  and  fertile  speaker. 

He  was  married,  December  29,  1870,  to  Miss  Josephine  A.  Fenkell,  a  lady  of 
refinement  and  culture,  with  excellent  attainments  and  marked  beauty.  They 
have  one  child  living — Arabella  Lane. 


HENRY  W.  WOLSELEY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  November  3,  1849,  in  Liverpool,  England, 
and  is  of  a  distinguished  family.  His  father,  Rev.  R.  W.  Wolseley,  who 
is  now  rector  of  a  parish  in  London,  is  a  first  cousin  of  Gen.  Sir  Garnet  Wolse- 
ley, of  the  British  army,  and  a  grandson  of  Sir  Clement  Wolseley,  who  distin- 
guished himself  at  the  battle  of  the  Boyne,  in  Ireland,  and  was  created  a  baronet 
by  King  William  III  for  his  services  to  the  country. 

Mr.  Wolseley's  education  was  chiefly  received  at  St.  Peter's  College,  York, 
England,  but  when  only  fourteen  years  of  age  he  went  to  sea,  chiefly  with  a  view 
to  the  recovery  of  his  health.  Finding  a  seafaring  life  agreed  with  him,  and  also 
from  love  thereof,  he  determined  to  study  seamanship  and  the  science  of  navi- 
gation, sailing  for  years  in  vessels  engaged  in  the  China  tea  trade.  By  industry 
and  study  and  close  attention  to  his  work  he  secured  promotion,  and  at  the  early 
age  of  twenty  was  first  mate  on  board  a  vessel  plying  between  Boston  and  the 
Cape  of  Good  Hope.  In  1871,  being  then  twenty-one  years  of  age,  Mr.  Wolseley 
gave  up  sailing,  and,  removing  to  Chicago,  went  into  the  office  of  Perkins  and 
Truman,  and  began  the  study  of  law.  He  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the 
supreme  court  at  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois,  in  June  1874,  and  at  once  commenced  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  to  which  he  has  since  devoted  his  entire  attention.  By 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  357 

his  study,  industry  and  integrity  he  has  gained  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  his 
clients  and  the  members  of  the  bar,  and  his  success  in  business  committed  to  his 
charge  proves  that  such  confidence  and  esteem  are  well  deserved.  He  is  a  repub- 
lican, and  although  he  has  never  held  or  sought  a  political  office,  still  he  takes  an 
active  interest  in  the  success  of  his  party. 

Mr.  Wolseley  was  married  January  15,  1880,  to  Miss  Ella  Williams,  of  Lincoln, 
Nebraska,  and  has  one  child,  a  daughter. 


FREDERICK    WILKINSON. 

FREDERICK  WILKINSON  is  a  native  of  England,  and  was  born  at  Birming- 
ham, August  15,  1836.  He  is  the  son  of  William  and  Hannah  (Woodbridge) 
Wilkinson.  He  immigrated  at  an  early  age  to  this  country,  and  received  his  edu- 
cation in  the  common  schools,  Michigan  University,  and  in  Kalamazoo  College, 
Michigan,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1857.  With  a  view  of  entering  the 
ministry  he  studied  theology  in  the  Kalamazoo  Theological  Seminary,  and  com- 
pleted his  course  in  that  institution  in  1860.  In  the  spring  of  that  year  he  went  to 
the  Rocky  mountains,  and  was  elected  a  delegate-at-large  to  the  Nebraska  legisla- 
ture which  convened  at  Omaha,  and  in  the  councils  of  which  he  took  front  rank. 
In  the  fall  of  1861  he  was  appointed  on  a  committee  to  draw  the  boundary  lines  of 
what  is  now  the  state  of  Colorado,  and  on  the  report  of  this  committee  a  memo- 
rial and  petition  was  sent  to  congress  which  resulted  in  the  enactment  of  the  law 
under  which  a  territorial  government  for  Colorado  was  established.  In  the  spring 
of  1861  Mr.  Wilkinson  returned  to  Michigan  and  was  married  to  Miss  Amanda  M. 
Cahill,  intending  to  return  to  Colorado  immediately  after  his  marriage,  as  he  had 
accumulated  quite  a  handsome  property  in  that  territory.  His  plans,  however, 
were  changed  by  the  breaking  out  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  responding  to 
a  sense  of  duty  and  patriotism,  he  abandoned  cherished  plans,  bid  adieu  to  his 
young  bride,  and  enlisted  as  a  private  in  Co.  K,  zd  regiment  Mich.  Vol.  Inf.  His 
regiment  was  immediately  ordered  to  the  front,  and  he  took  part  in  the  battles  of 
Bull  Run,  Yorktown,  Williamsburgh,  Seven  Pines,  seven  days'  battle  before  Rich- 
mond under  Gen.  McClellan,  Malvern  Hill,  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run  and 
Fredericksburgh.  His  regiment  was  then  ordered  to  Newport  News,  whence, 
after  doing  guard  duty  several  weeks,  it  was  ordered  to  Kentucky  for  the  purpose 
of  checking  the  movements  of  Gen.  Morgan  and  his  band  of  marauders.  After 
driving  them  out  of  Kentucky  his  regiment  was  ordered  to  Vicksburg,  where  he 
participated  in  the  siege  of  that  stronghold  and  witnessed  its  surrender.  In  the 
meantime  he  had  been  promoted  through  the  different  grades  of  non-commis- 
sioned officers,  and  in  1862,  just  before  the  battle  of  Fredericksburgh,  he  was  com- 
missioned second  lieutenant.  At  Bailey's  Cross  Roads,  near  the  city  of  Washing- 
ton, while  on  picket,  he  was  severely  wounded  in  the  head,  the  shot  carrying 
away  his  hat  and  laying  open  his  scalp.  After  his  wound  was  dressed  he  refused 


358  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

to  remain  with  the  wounded,  as  advised  by  the  surgeon  in  charge,  but  heroically 
marched  to  the  front  and  participated  in  all  of  the  engagements  of  his  valiant 
regiment.  Upon  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg,  such  was  his  disability — hernia,  pro- 
duced by  excessive  marching — that  he  was  compelled,  greatly  against  his  wishes, 
to  resign  his  commission  and  return  to  civil  life.  After  regaining  his  health, 
he  commenced  studying  law  in  the  office  of  Stewart  and  Edwards,  of  Kalamazoo, 
Michigan,  and  after  completing  his  preparatory  legal  studies  removed  to  St.  John's, 
Clinton  county,  Michigan,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  immediately 
entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession. 

He  came  to  Chicago  during  the  great  fire  of  1871,  for  the  purpose  of  visiting 
his  brother-in-law,  Edward  Cahill,  who  had  been  burned  out.  Being  pleased 
with  the  city  and  the  superior  business  advantages  which  it  offered,  he  decided  to 
make  it  his  home,  and  accordingly  formed  a  partnership  with  his  brother-in-law 
and  C.  Worden  Dean,  under  the  style  of  Cahill,  Dean  and  Wilkinson.  Afterward 
Mr.  Dean  retired,  and  the  business  was  continued  under  the  firm  name  of  Cahill 
and  Wilkinson.  Finally  Mr.  Cahill  returned  to  Michigan,  and  Mr.  Wilkinson  has 
continued  the  business,  a  general  practice  of  the  law,  ever  since. 

Mr.  Wilkinson  is  an  ardent  republican,  and  being  a  ready  and  effective  speaker, 
while  a  resident  of  Michigan,  became  noted  as  a  stirring  stump  orator.  He  is  a 
member  of  the  F.A.A.M.  and  of  Burnside  Post,  No.  109,  G.A.R.,  South  Chicago, 
and  president  of  the  Citizens'  League  of  Hyde  Park  and  vice-president  of  the 
Citizens'  Association.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Baptist  church,  and  an  earnest 
Christian  and  Sunday  school  worker. 


JOHN   H.   HAMLINE. 

JOHN  HENRY  HAMLINE  is  a  grandson  of  Bishop  Hamline,  of  the  Methodist 
Episcopal  church,  who  was  prominently  identified  with  the  separation  of  the 
churches  north  and  south  in  1844.  Leo  P.  Hamline,  father  of  our  subject,  was  a 
physician,  but  his  son  chose  the  profession  of  law,  which  his  grandfather  had 
chosen  and  practiced  before  entering  the  church.  He  was  born  in  Schenectady, 
New  York,  March  23,  1856.  He  received  his  primary  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  Mt.  Pleasant,  Iowa,  to  which  place  his  parents  had  moved  shortly  after 
his  birth,  and  where  they  remained  until  1865,  when  they  removed  to  Evanston, 
Illinois.  There  he  prepared  for  college,  entering  the  preparatory  school  in  1868, 
and  seven  years  later,  in  1875,  graduated  from  the  Northwestern  University  with 
the  degree  of  A.B.  He  then  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  Columbia  College 
Law  School  of  New  York,  where  he  graduated  in  1877.  He  was  immediately 
admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  at  once  entered  on  the 
practice  of  his  profession.  In  the  spring  of  1880,  Mr.  Hamline  was  elected  attor- 
ney of  the  village  of  Evanston,  and  now  (1883)  holds  that  position,  having  been 
elected  annually  ever  since.  In  the  spring  of  1882  he  revised  and  compiled  the 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  359 

village  ordinances.  Besides  acting  as  counsel  for  said  village,  he  is  actively 
engaged  in  general  practice  in  this  city.  He  is  a  young  man  of  sterling  quali- 
ties, energetic,  ambitious  and  faithful,  and  as  a  lawyer,  is  thoroughly  devoted  to 
his  profession.  He  is  a  clear  thinker,  rich  in  scholarship  and  independent  in 
all  he  does,  and  gives  every  promise  of  a  most  successful  professional  career. 

He  was  married  May  19,  1880,  to  Miss  Josephine  Mead,  a  daughter  of  Henry 
Mead,  of  Norwich,  New  York.     They  have  one  child  —  a  daughter. 


LOUIS  SHISSLER. 

f  OUIS  SHISSLER  was  born  on  June  30,  A.D.  1834,  in  Wilmington,  Delaware. 

1 — j  With  his  parents  he  came  to  Galena,  Illinois,  in  the  spring  of  1841,  and 
attended  the  public  schools  of  that  city  until  1849.  In  November,  1849,  he 
entered  the  Western  Military  Institute,  then  located  at  Georgetown,  Kentucky, 
and  remained  with  it  on  its  change  to  Blue  Lick  Springs  and  to  Drennon  Springs, 
Kentucky.  He  graduated  in  June,  1853,  with  the  degrees  of  A.B.  and  L.L.B., 
having  studied  law  during  his  senior  year  in  college  in  the  law  department,  then 
presided  over  by  Hon.  Thomas  B.  Monroe,  judge  of  the  United  States  district 
court.  In  September,  1853,  he  entered  Harvard  University,  and  graduated  in  the 
law  department  in  June,  1854.  He  pursued  his  legal  studies  at  Harvard  University 
in  1855  and  also  in  the  office  of  Sohier  and  Welch,  in  Boston,  in  1856.  In  Janu- 
ary, 1857,  he  returned  to  Galena,  Illinois,  commenced  the  practice  of  law  and 
continued  in  active  practice  until  November,  1881,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago, 
and  is  now  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  this  city.  In  1866  he  was 
elected  mayor  of  the  city  of  Galena,  and  was  reelected  in  1867.  After  filling 
that  office  during  two  terms,  he  declined  a  reelection.  On  June  25,  1861,  he 
married  Rose  Porter,  of  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  daughter  of  the  late  Gov. 
George  B.  Porter,  of  Michigan. 


DAVID   K.   PRENTICE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Genesee  county,  New  York,  and  was 
born  August  i,  1854,  the  son  of  John  and  Sarah  (Randall)  Prentice.  David 
K. -faithfully  improved  the  advantages  afforded  by  the  common  schools  of  his 
native  town,  and  at  an  early  age  entered  Le  Roy  Academical  Institute,  where  he 
attended  eight  years,  making  great  proficiency  in  all  of  his  studies,  in  the  mean- 
time employing  his  vacations  in  teaching.  He  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Ran- 
dolph Ballard,  of  Le  Roy,  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  A  part  of 
the  following  year  he  spent  in  the  office  of  the  late  Hon.  Matt  H.  Carpenter,  at 
Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  and  there,  under  the  example  of  that  great  man,  became 
more  thoroughly  than  ever  impressed  with  the  idea  that  success  at  the  bar  depends 


360  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

greatly  upon  a  thorough  preparation  of  cases  for  trial.  Mr.  Prentice  is  a  close 
student,  a  careful  observer,  and  has  a  clear,  strong  mind,  capable  of  grasping  and 
retaining  a  subject,  and  gives  fair  promise  of  becoming  profoundly  learned  in  the 
law.  After  leaving  Milwaukee,  he  went  to  Washington,  Kansas,  and  was  elected 
city  attorney,  and  practiced  there  with  excellent  success  for  about  a  year,  after 
which  he  settled  in  Chicago  and  associated  himself  in  business  with  his  present 
partner,  Henry  L.  Rexford.  Mr.  Prentice  is  a  good  trial  lawyer,  is  careful  and 
conscientious  in  his  practice,  and  maintains  the  confidence  of  his  clients,  and  the 
respect  and  esteem  of  his  professional  brethren. 


GEORGE  W.   STANFORD. 

EORGE  WILSON  STANFORD  was  born  February  21,  1833,  at  Wheeler, 
Steuben  county,  state  of  New  York,  the  son  of  Charles  and  Jerusha  (Chad- 
wick)  Stanford.  His  father  was  a  farmer  of  good  standing  and  reputation  in  his 
county.  George  W.,  at  an  early  age,  had  to  do  what  many  other  leading  mem- 
bers of  the  profession  did,  work  hard  on  the  farm  and  secure  what  education  was 
attainable  in  the  interims  of  a  busy  farming  life,  by  attending  the  best  schools  in 
the  neighborhood.  This  he  availed  himself  of  to  its  fullest  extent,  and  laid  the 
groundwork  of  a  thorough  and  sound  education,  which  shows  the  results  now 
while  in  the  prime  of  his  manhood  and  professional  career.  At  the  age  of  twenty- 
one  he  quitted  farm  life,  and  went  into  a  more  systematical  and  thorough  train- 
ing for  the  profession  he  had  chosen  for  his  life  work.  In  1854  he  went  to  St. 
Paul  and  commenced  the  study  of  law  with  a  noted  practitioner  at  that  time, 
and  now  one  of  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court,  remaining  one  year.  Re- 
moving thence  to  Kenosha,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Orson  S.  Head,  contin- 
uing with  him  till  June,  1856,  at  which  time  he  was  admitted,  and  then  came  to 
Chicago  and  commenced  practice  on  his  own  account.  At  the  end  of  two  years 
he  formed  a  partnership  with  Jasper  D.  Ward,  since  member  of  congress  from 
Chicago.  This  continued  till  1876,  when  Mr.  Ward  removed  to  Colorado.  This 
period  of  Mr.  Stanford's  life  was  a  remarkably  busy  one,  the  practice  of  the  firm 
assuming  large  proportions.  Since  that  time  he  has  continued  his  practice  alone, 
and  is  now  reaping  the  reward  of  his  early  active  work. 

In  1869  Mr.  Stanford  was  elected  president  of  West  Chicago  Park  Commis- 
sioners Board  at  its  organization,  and  continued  as  such  till  his  resignation  in  1877, 
and  conducted  all  the  litigation  of  the  park  commissioners  during  that  time,  with 
marked  success.  Mr.  Stanford  has  stuck  very  close  to  his  work,  never  having 
been  far  from  it,  twice  to  California  on  professional  business  being  about  his 
most  extended  travel. 

He  is  a  republican  in  politics,  but  is  not  a  strong  partisan,  and  does  not  take 
any  active  position  beyond  voting  for  his  party.  Mr.  Stanford  has  been  twice 
married,  first  in  1857,  to  Martha  P.  Allen,  of  Herkimer  county,  New  York,  and 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  361 

again  in  1870  to  Lydia  C.  Avery.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  presence,  looking  some- 
what older  than  he  really  is,  standing  six  feet  high,  and  is  of  a  most  amiable  and 
pleasing  disposition,  greatly  esteemed  for  his  social  qualities,  conversational  pow- 
ers and  all  that  goes  to  make  up  the  true  gentleman.  In  his  professional  life,  he 
is  no  less  thought  of.  His  abilities  and  strict  conscientious  principles  have  won 
for  him  the  respect  and  admiration  of  all  classes  with  whom  he  is  brought  into 
contact  in  his  profession. 


WILLIAM    MILLS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Detroit,  Michigan,  November  7,  1840, 
the  son  of  William  Mills.  He  was  educated  at  Goderich,  Canada,  and 
removing  to  Chicago  in  1871,  was  that  year  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois.  He 
soon  acquired  a  flourishing  business,  which,  however,  was  suddenly  terminated 
by  his  death,  of  small-pox,  which  occurred  May  23,  1882.  Mr.  Mills  was  a  person 
of  cheerful  disposition,  fond  of  company,  companionship  and  good  cheer,  and 
always  contributed  his  share  to  the  enjoyment  of  every  occasion.  He  was  a 
warm-hearted,  true  friend  and  a  kind  husband,  and  made  many  friends  in  his 
social  intercourse.  His  wife  is  a  daughter  of  the  late  Daid  Swaney,  of  Pres- 
ton, Iowa,  a  gentleman  who,  during  his  lifetime,  was  honored  and  respected  by 
all  who  knew  him.  He  was  one  of  the  pioneers  of  Iowa,  and  the  whole  commu- 
nity mourn  his  loss. 

HON.  W.   B.  CUNNINGHAM. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  western  Pennsylvania,  June  n,  1838. 
His  father.  Hon.  Joseph  Cunningham,  was  one  of  the  judges  of  the  court  of 
common  pleas  of  that  state.  He  was  educated  by  funds  earned  by  himself  by  teach- 
ing school.  When  commencing  the  practice  of  law  in  his  native  town,  Newcastle, 
Pennsylvania,  in  1861,  the  war  broke  out,  and  he  enlisted  in  the  service  and 
served  in  the  Army  of  the  Cumberland  until  1864.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he 
settled  in  Tennessee,  but  remained  there  only  one  year,  when  he  removed  to  the 
state  of  Mississippi.  On  November  3,  1865,  he  engaged  in  cotton  planting,  in  • 
which  business  he  is  still  to  some  extent  engaged. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  constitutional  convention  of  1868,  that  formed  the 
present  constitution  of  Mississippi,  and  was  presidential  elector  for  the  state  at 
large  twice,  during  the  last  Grant  and  Hayes  campaigns.  He  has  been  an  active 
republican  since  his  boyhood.  He  was  twice  elected  to  the  legislature  of  Missis- 
sippi, and  while  serving  his  second  term  was  elected  judge  of  the  probate  court 
of  Madison  county.  Having  served  one  term  in  that  capacity,  he  was  elected 
judge  of  the  circuit  court,  in  which  position  he  served  six  years,  presiding  with 
great  ability  and  fairness,  giving  universal  satisfaction,  and  justly  gaining  the 
'38 


362  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

reputation  'of  being  a  judge  who  could  hold  the  scales  of  justice  with  an  even 
hand. 

He  is  well  posted  in-  statute  law,  and  is  familiar  with  all  of  the  leading  cases 
heretofore  decided  in  the  state  and' federal  courts,  and  is  familiar  with  all  of  the 
rules  of  practice  in  the  several  courts.  Judge  Cunningham  is  a  gentleman  of 
culture  and  refinement.  He  is  courteous -and  obliging,  and  wins  many  friends  by 
his  urbane. manners.  As  a  lawyer  he  stands  high,  and  has  established  an.  exten- 
sive practice.  He  is  an  eloquent  advocate,  having  fine  descriptive  powers,  a  cool 
judgment  and  an  analytic  mind.  As  a  citizen,  all  respect  and  honor  him  for  his. 
manly,  honorable  and  upright  dealing.  He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Presbyte- 
rian church  in  good  standing,  and  an  active  Sabbath-school  worker. 


W.   H.   RICHARDSON. 

WILLIAM  H.  RICHARDSON  was  born  near  Buffalo,  New  York,  about  the 
year  1840,  and  was  educated  at  Andover  and  Harvard,  Massachusetts.  At 
the  breaking  out  of  the  war  in  1861  he  entered  the  army,  but  was  subsequently 
compelled  to  retire  on  account  of  illness.  Having  partially  recovered  his  health, 
he  removed  to  Chicago  in  December  1861,  and  commenced  reading  law  in  the 
office  of  Knox,  Eustace  and  Reed,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1863.  Judge 
.  Eustace  in  the  meantime,  having  removed  to  Dixon,  Illinois,  and  Gen.  Knox  hav- 
ing been  appointed  state's  attorney  by  Gov.  Yates,  Mr.  Richardson,  who  remained 
with  Knox  and  Reed,  necessarily  had  to  look  after  most  of  their  civil  business. 
About  the  year  1865  Gen.  Knox's  term  of  office  expired,  and  on  account  of  his 
advanced  years  he  determined  to  retire  from  the  further  practice  of  his  profession, 
and'ehjoy  the  rest  he  had  so  richly  earned.  Mr.  Reed'was  elected  his  successor, 
and  at  once  formed  a  partnership  with  Mr.  Richardson,  which  continued  for  sev- 
eral years,  and  as  all  of  Mr.  Reed's  attention  was  engrossed  in  criminal  busfness, 
Mr.  Richardson  naturally  found  himself  at  once  in  the  midst  of  a  very  extensive 
civil  law  practice,  which  has  ever  since  remained  with  him,  and  to  which  immense 
additions  have  constantly  been  made,  so  that  it  is  entirely  within  bounds  to  say, 
that  to-day  he  has  as  large  and  lucrative  a  clientage  as  any  lawyer  in  Chicago. 
Mr.  Richardson  is  a  most  indefatigable  worker,  and  while  his  ability  is  far  above 
the  average,  his  success  is  largely  due  to  the  fact  that  he  never  gets  discouraged, 
or  seems  to  have  learned  the  meaning  of  the  word  failure;  in  fact  it  sometimes 
seems  as  if  he  works  harder  and  to  better  advantage  in  the  face  of  what,  to  others, 
would  seem  sure  defeat.  He  is  a  man  of  wonderful  resources,  and  preeminently 
practical,  and  has  the  happy  faculty  of  utilizing  all  of  his  forces,  and  at  a 
moment's  notice.  HeiS'*  close  observer  of  men  and  reads  them,  like  an  open 
book;  this  faculty  coupled  with  an  extensive  acquaintance,  and  knowledge  of  the 
peculiarities  of.  so  large  a  number  of  Chicagoans,  often  gives  him  a  great  advan- 
tage, his  friends  seem  to  be  just  as  numerous  as  his  acquaintances,  and  the  last 


•  • 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO.  363 

time  he  ran  for  a  municipal  office,  even  his  political  opponents  were  only  nomi- 
nally so,  for  they  took  as  active  a  part  in  his  reelection  as  did  those  of  his  own 
political  faith,  and  his  election  was  almost  unanimous.  .Several  years  ago  Mr. 
Richardson  found  himself  drawn  into  a  most  extensive  criminal  practice,  in 
which  line  he  was  wonderfully  successful,  and  his  reputation  as  a  criminal  lawyer 
was  second  to  none,  but  finding  this  bra/ich  of  the  law  was  requiring  so  much  of 
•  his  time  that  he  must  either  drop  it  or  his  civil  practice,  he  decided  to^  retain  the 
latter,  and  for  several  years  has  had  little  to  do  in  defending  criminals.  Mr. 
Richardson's  success  is  indeed  well  deserved,  for  his  reliability  and  fidelity  to  his 
clients  can  never  be  questioned,  his  ability,  industry  and  generous  disposition 
could  not  help  but  make  him  popular,  and  the  cherished  and  appreciated  friend 
of  all  who  are  so  fortunate  as  to  know  him.  He  seems  to  prefer  office  work,  and 
his  cautious  conscientiousness  .and  thorough  investigation  -•ever  get  his  clients 
into  useless  litigation,  and  they  seem  to  have  learned  this,  for  th,ey  never  hesitate 
to  follow  his  advice  implicitly,  and  experience  has  taught  them  they  may  well  do 
so,  but  when  occasion  requires,  and  the  courts  must  be  resorted  to,  no  honorable 
expedient  is  overlooked  which  .may  in  any  way  tend  to  success.  His  clients  well 
know  that  nothing  will  be  left  undone,  and  that  their  matters  are  in  the  hands  of 
one  who  requires  no  prompting  or  instructions,  that  their  case  will  be  thoroughly 
understood,  prepared  and  tried. 

Mr.  Richardson  was  married  in  1872,  to  Miss  Barnard,  daughter  of  R.  H.  Bar- 
nard, of  Genesee  county,  New  York.  They  have  one  child,  a  daughter. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church,  and  in  politics  is  a  staunch  republi- 
can, and  at  one  time  took  considerable  active  interest  therein,  but  latterly  has 
preferred  attending  more  closely  to  his  profession.  Mr.  Richardson  is  a  member 
of  the  ^asonic  order,  and  also  of  the  Knights  .of  Pythias,  in  both  of  which  socie- 
ties he  has  attained  to  the -highest  eminence  possible,  and  is  universally  esteemed 
by  the  brotherhood. 

J.    B:  THOMAS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  preeminently  a  self-made  man.  He  is  a  native 
of  Ohio,  and  was  born  in  Drake  county,  June  29,  1848,  and  is  the  son  of 
John  Thomas  and  Abigail  (Carter)  Thomas.  His  opportunities  for  an  education 
were  limited.  He  commenced  his  education  "in  an  old  log  school-house,  and 
spent  many  a  night  in  clearing,  studying  his  books  by  the  light  of  the  blazing 
fires.  His  father  settled  near  Union  City,  Ohio,  near  the  western  boundary  of 
the -state,  when  the  country  was  a  howling  wilderness;  when  the  scream  of  the 
panther  and  the  crack  of  hunters'  rifles  were  familiar  to  the  ears  of  the  dwellers 
in  these  forests.  But  J.  T5.  Thomas  was  a  youth  who  overcame  difficulties.  Per- 
severing, he  sought  and  found  private  teachers  who  instructed  him  in  a  classic 
and  scientific  course,  and  being  quick  of  apprehension,  he  soon  became  efficient 
in  the  branches  which  at  first  seemed  bevond  his  reach.  As  soon  as  he  was  able 


364  THR   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

to  do  so,  he  followed  school  teaching  for  a  short  time,  and  soon  gained  the  dis- 
tinction of  being  one  of  the  best  educators  in  that  part  of  the  country.  He 
commenced  the  study  of  law  at  eighteen  years  of  age,  with  Judges  Allen  and 
Meeker,  of  Ohio,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Ohio  and  Indiana  in  1869,  enter- 
ing at  once  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Union  City,  Ohio.  He  prac- 
ticed in  the  courts  of  Indiana  and  Ohio  with  good  success  until  January,  1873, 
when  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  resumed  his  profession.  He  was  appointed  to 
the  office  of  police  magistrate  at  the  Union  Stock  Yards,  April  10,  1879,  for  one 
year,  and  gave  good  satisfaction,  and  was  afterward  elected  to  the  same  office  for 
a  term  of  four  years.  The  office,  though  one  of  responsibility,  is  one  to  which 
Mr.  Thomas  is  peculiarly  adapted.  A  lawyer  with -quick  perception  and  steady 
understanding,  he  is  at  the  same  time  a  man,  generous,  sympathetic  and  open- 
hearted,  and  while  maintaining  the  dignity  of  his  office,  "tempers  justice  with 
mercy,"  and  holds  the  scales  of  justice  with  an  even  hand.  He  was  married  Feb- 
ruary 16,  1870,  to  Miss  Mattie  Hall,  of  Springfield,  Ohio. 


HON.  HENRY   S.  AUSTIN. 

HENRY  SEYMOUR  AUSTIN,  a  native  of  Otego,  Otsego  county,  New  York, 
was  born  August  29,  181 1,  the  son  of  Thaddeus  R.  Austin,  and  Bethiah  (Fair- 
man)  Austin.  He  traces  his  paternal  ancestry  back  to  Anthony  Austin,  one  of 
the  earliest  settlers  of  Suffield,  Connecticut.  In  "  Rees'  Cyclopaedia,"  an  old  Eng- 
lish work,  the  genealogy  of  the  family  is  traced  back  to  the  sixth  century,  when 
the  name  was  changed  from  Augustin  to  Austin.  The  coat  of  arms,  brought  from 
England  by  Anthony  Austin,  and  bearing  the  motto  "  Dens  regnat"  is  now  in  pos- 
session of  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  His  mother  had  three  brothers,  engravers; 
one  of  whom,  Col.  Gideon  Fairman,  of  the  well  known  firm  of  Fairman,  Draper, 
Underwood  and  Company,  was  considered  in  his  day,  fifty  years  ago,  the  best 
engraver  in  the  United  States,  and  for  many  years  engraved  for  the  Bank  of 
England. 

In  the  year  1810  the  parents  of  our  subject  settled  in  Otsego  county,  New 
York,  and  there,  during  a  period  of  over  forty  years,  the  father  was  engaged  in  a 
successful  and  extensive  mercantile  business,  and  in  his  long  business  career  never 
allowed  a  note  to  go  to  protest.  He  was  universally  esteemed  as  an  upright,  hon- 
orable, intelligent  man.  Kind,  indulgent  and  charitable,  he  was  never  known  to 
take  advantage  of  another's  necessity,  and  the  poor,  the  unfortunate,  the  dis- 
tressed, always  found  in  him  a  true  friend.  He  died  in  1852,  at  the  age  of  seventy- 
five  years.  After  his  death  the  mother  of  our  subject  removed  to  Milwaukee, 
Wisconsin,  where  she  resided  with  her  daughter,  Mrs.  H.  A.  Nichols,  and  died  in 
1865,  in  her  eighty-fourth  year. 

Henry  received  his  preparatory  education  at  Hamilton' Academy,  in  Madison 
county,  New  York,  and  in  1831  graduated  from  Union  College,  Schenectady,  then 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  367 

under  the  charge  of  Dr.  Nott.  After  graduating,  he  began  the  study  of  law  with 
James  Clapp,  of  Oxford;  he  afterward  studied  with  Charles  P.  Kirkland  and 
Judge  Bacon,  of  Utica,  and  in  July,  1834,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New  York, 
and  began  practice  in  Otsego  county.  Desiring  a  wider  field  of  operation,  and 
drawn  by  the  inducements  which  it  offered  to  young  men,  he  removed  to  the  West 
in  1835,  and  settled  at  Farmington,  Fulton  county,  Illinois. 

Two  years  later  he  was  appointed  agent  of  the  Des  Moines  Land  Company, 
which  owned  most  of  the  half-breed  land  in  southern  Iowa,  upon  which  the  old 
Fort  Des  Moines  was  located,  when  the  troops  left  in  June  1837.  Here,  in  addi- 
tion to  his  other  duties,  Mr.  Austin  was  appointed  postmaster,  and  also  held  the 
fort  and  supplies  for  the  Sac  and  Fox  Indians  until  they  were  removed  up  the 
Des  Moines  river.  As  agent  of  the  Des  Moines  Land  Company,  composed  of 
Hon.  Edward  C.  Delavan,  of  Albany,  George  P.  Shipman,  William  E.  Lee,  Sam- 
uel P.  Marsh  and  others,  of  New  York,  he  laid  out  the  town  of  Montrose,  upon 
the  site  of  Fort  Des  Moines,  at  the  head  of  the  rapids,  and  Keokuk,  at  the  foot  of 
the  rapids,  on  the  Mississippi. 

In  May,  1837,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Aiken,  of  Peoria,  Illinois,  and  in 
1839,  in  consequence  of  her  declining  health,  was  induced  to  leave  Iowa;  and 
returning  to  Farmington,  Illinois,  again  engaged  in  his  profession,  and  also  for 
many  years  acted  as  civil  magistrate. 

His  legal  practice  was  general  in  its  character,  and  he  became  widely  known 
as  a  skillful  and  successful  attorney,  and  in  1847  was  elected  by  the  citizens  of 
Fulton  county  to  the  general  assembly  of  the  state.  Removing  to  Peoria  in  1852, 
he  there  continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  until  1866,  when  he  removed  to 
Chicago,  his  present  home,  having  in  the  meantime  represented  Peoria  county  in 
the  state  legislature. 

Politically,  Mr.  Austin  was  formerly  a  democrat;  but  at  the  opening  of  the 
civil  war  in  1861,  believing  that  party  was  giving  aid  and  comfort  to  the  enemy, 
he  abandoned  it,  and  has  since  been  a  hearty  supporter  of  the  republican  party. 

During  the  years  1861  and  1862  he  was  grand  master  of  the  Independent  Order 
of  Odd-Fellows  of  this  state  (Illinois),  and  previous  to  that  time  was  grand  repre- 
sentative in  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  United  States.  While  performing  his  duties 
as  grand  master  he  was  often  called  upon  to  exercise  the  iron  hand  of  power,  but 
was  always  fortunate  in  having  his  acts  and  decisions  sustained  by  the  Grand 
Lodge  of  the  state,  and  the  Grand  Lodge  of  the  United  States.  He  has  also 
taken  a  prominent  stand  in  the  Masonic  order,  having  for  several  years,  in  Chi- 
cago, held  the  office  of  grand  master  of  the  Lodge  of  Perfection,  in  the  A.  and  A. 
S.  rite.  He  has  made  the  subjects  of  Odd-Fellowship  and  Masonry  a  careful 
study,  and  many  of  his  addresses  and  lectures  on  these  and  other  subjects  have 
been  published. 

In  his  religious  communion  Mr.  Austin  is  identified  with  the  Episcopal  church, 
and  was  for  twenty  years  a  representative  in  the  Episcopal  conventions  of  Illinois. 

As  a  business    man  he  is  methodical,  careful,  prudent,  and    conscientiously 


368  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

prompt  in  keeping  his  engagements  and  business  contracts.  He  has  aspired  to 
the  name  of  an  honest,  honorable,  upright  man,  and  the  best  evidence  of  his  suc- 
cess is  the  universal  esteem  in  which  he  is  held. 

Generous  and  liberal,  he  has  lost  thousands  of  dollars  in  assisting  those  who 
won  his  confidence  only  to  betray  him,  and  yet  by  industry,  economy  and  fair 
dealing  has  accumulated  an  ample  fortune,  and  lives  now  in  the  enjoyment  of  a 
happy  home. 

His  first  wife  having  died,  he  in  1840  married  Miss  Catherine  J.  Barnard,  for- 
merly of  Troy,  New  York,  a  graduate  of  Madam  Willard's  Seminary.  They  had 
three  sons  and  one  daughter,  of  whom  two  sons  graduated  from  Union  College 
in  the  class  of  1863.  The  second  son  died  in  1878. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  one  of  the  first  appointees  under  the  constitu- 
tion of  1870,  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  to  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace,  of  the  city 
of  Chicago,  and  served  for  four  years  in  said  office,  and  then  declined  to  petition 
for  reappointment.  He  was  universally  considered  a  just,  upright  and  compe- 
tent judge,  doing  exact  justice  in  every  case,  without  prejudice,  fear  or  favor. 


WILLIAM  W.  STEWART. 

WrILLIAM  WALLACE  STEWART  was  among  the  earlier  members  of  the 
Chicago  bar.  He  is  the  son  of  Capt.  Alanson  C.  Stewart  and  Sabrina 
(Wallace)  Stewart,  and  was  born  in  Allegheny,  Pennsylvania,  December  14,  1827. 
Capt.  Stewart  was  one  of  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the  West,  and  was  identified  with 
nearly  all  of  the  early  internal  improvement  works  of  New  York,  Pennsylvania, 
Michigan  and  Illinois.  He  was  with  his  elder  brother,  Gen.  Hart  L.  Stewart, 
building  the  tunnel  of  the  canal,  which  leads  into  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  and 
known  as  the  Allegheny  Tunnel,  and  was  living  on  the  banks  of  that  canal  when 
his  son  William  Wallace  was  born.  In  the  fall  of  1829  our  subject  with  his  father's 
family,  settled  on  a  large  farm  at  White  Pigeon  Prairie,  St.  Joseph's  county,  Mich- 
igan, which  his  father  and  Gen.  Stewart  had  entered  with  other  lands  in  that 
county.  Owing  to  the  continued  absence  of  Capt.  Stewart  from  home  while  con- 
structing the  Illinois  and  Michigan  canal,  young  Stewart  was  left  at  the  early  age 
of  twelve  years  to  look  after  the  affairs  at  home.  He  assumed  the  care  of  the 
farm  and  family  of  his  parents,  and  managed  all  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the 
family,  and  to  the  universal  approbation  of  his  farming  neighbors  and  friends. 
Thus  he  continued  on  the  old  farm,  attending  the  winter  terms  of  the  district 
school,  held  in  the  red  school  house,  located  on  the  west  end  of  his  father's  farm, 
until  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age.  When  the  state  university  of  Michigan  had 
established  a  branch  of  its  school  in  White  Pigeon  village,  under  the  direction  of 
Rev.  Charles  Newberry  and  Prof.  Gray,  he  attended  two  terms  of  that  school,  and 
one  term  under  the  direction  and  tuition  of  Rev.  Jonathan  Chaplin,  who  succeeded 
Profs.  Newberry  and  Gray. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  369 

In  1844  and  1845  young  Stewart,  with  the  assistance  of  his  father,  who  was  a 
prominent  and  official  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church,  procured  a 
scholarship  in  the  Methodist  Episcopal  school,  located  at  Albion,  Michigan,  and 
attended  there  six  months,  defraying  his  own  expenses  with  money  realized  from 
the  sale  of  produce  which  he  himself  worked  to  raise.  He  commenced  a  thorough 
classical  course  of  study,  and  at  the  end  of  the  term  was  fully  prepared  to  enter 
the  University  of  Michigan.  Among  his  classmates  at  Albion,  were  Prof.  L.  R. 
Fisk,  Gen.  C.  B.  Fisk,  Seymour  Egleston,  Col.  Babcock,  James  Crippen,  Theo- 
dore Doty  and  Prof.  Crane,  all  celebrated  men.  Mr.  Stewart  was  very  desirous 
of  taking  a  complete  collegiate  course  at  Ann  Arbor,  including  a  course  in  the  law 
department.  But  accepting  an  advantageous  offer  from  his  uncle,  Gen.  Hart  L. 
Stewart,  who  was  at  that  time  postmaster  at  Chicago,  he  removed  thither,  and 
attended  to  the  duties  of  assistant  to  the  postmaster  for  about  three  years.  In  the 
meantime  his  father  had  removed  his  family  to  New  Buffalo,  near  the  head  of  Lake 
Michigan,  where  he  was  engaged  in  building  the  Michigan  Central  railroad  to 
Michigan  City,  on  its  destined  way  to  Chicago.  The  occasion  of  his  first  visit  to 
the  new  home  of  the  family  was  rendered  extremely  painful  and  sad  by  reason  of 
the  death  of  a  dearly  beloved  sister,  Sarah  Sabrina,  and  the  severe  illness  of  his 
brother,  Hart  L.  and  mother,  who  were  suffering  from  the  malarial  diseases 
which  were  incident  to  that  new  place.  Several  weeks  were  passed  at  home,  and 
Mr.  Stewart  informed  his  father  that  he  had  decided  to  adopt  the  profession 
of  the  law.  Having  saved  about  $400  while  in  the  postoffice,  he  deposited  the 
same  with  his  uncle,  Gen.  Stewart,  to  be  used  as  he  should  need  from  time  to 
time  in  the  prosecution  of  his  studies. 

From  1849  to  1852  Mr.  Stewart  was  the  clerk  and  law  student  of  Chancelor 
J.  H.  Collins,  and  of  the  later  firm  of  Collins  and  Williams  (the  last  named  was 
Judge  E.  S.  Williams),  and  from  these  distinguished  and  profound  lawyers 
he  received  his  instruction  in  the  science  and  practice  of  the  law.  Having  been 
examined  in  1852  by  Col.  R.  J.  Hamilton  and  Judges  Buckner  S.  Morris  and 
Grant  Goodrich,  he  was  by  them  recommended  as  a  worthy,  competent  can- 
didate for  legal  honors.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  Hon.  J.  D. 
Caton,  chief-justice  of  Illinois,  affixing  his  name  to  the  young  attorney's  commis- 
sion. He  also  received  a  commission  about  that  time  as  one  of  the  five  notaries 
of  Cook  county.  He  at  once  opened  an  office  in  Chicago,  and,  although  clients 
came  slowly,  had  an  abundance  of  business  as  a  notary,  for  the  banks,  bankers, 
and  land  speculators  of  the  growing  city  increased  rapidly,  which  occupied  nearly 
all  of  his  time  and  attention  for  the  succeeding  ten  years,  to  the  exclusion  of 
active  practice  in  his  profession. 

In  1853  Mr.  Stewart  was  married  to  Miss  Angeline  Stewart,  of  Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania,  only  daughter  of  Francis  L.  Stewart  and  Sarah  Ann  (Davis)  Stew- 
art, one  of  the  oldest  families  of  that  city.  The  fruit  of  this  union  has  been  five 
children,  two  of  whom,  Clarence  and  Isabel!,  died  in  early  youth  in  Chicago 
William  Francis,  Charles  Watson  and  Grace  still  survive. 


370  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  1863,  upon  the  death  of  Henry  A.  Clark,  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Stewart  was  des- 
ignated as  trustee  for  Sanger,  Camp  and  Company,  contractors  for  and  the  owners 
of  the  early  Ohio  and  Mississippi  railroad,  running  from  St.  Louis  to  Vincennes, 
and  was  put  in  charge  of  the  lands  and  town  property  often  or  twelve  towns  along 
the  line  of  that  road  which  had  become  the  property  of  the  contractors  during  its 
construction. 

In  politics  Mr.  Stewart  was  a  Douglas  democrat,  and  upon  the  breaking  out  of 
the  civil  war  he  adhered  to  the  principles  of  his  friend,  Senator  Douglas,  as  pro- 
claimed from  the  platform,  when  he  had  made  his  name  and  fame  perpetual  by 
the  declaration  of  ardent  and  enduring  love  for  the  democratic  republican  gov- 
ernment and  union  of  states,  and  his  startling  announcement  "  that  the  quickest 
road  to  peace  was  by  the  most  stupendous  preparations  for  war."  Mr.  Stewart 
was  found  an  active  supporter  of  the  war,  and  was  known  and  recognized  as  a 
war  democrat  through  all  that  trying  period. 

About  this  time  he  became  somewhat  actively  interested  in  real  estate  matters, 
and  during  the  years  from  1863  to  1868,  was  of  great  assistance  to  his  friends  and 
clients,  in  negotiating  sales  and  exchanges  of  large  landed  interests,  in  Illinois, 
West  Virginia,  and  other  states.  Having  become  personally  interested  in 
realty  in  southern  Illinois,  and  having  in  some  measure  impaired  his  health  by 
too  close  and  long  continued  office  labors,  he,  in  June,  1867,  moved  his  family  to 
Flora,  a  pretty  town  on  the  Ohio  and  Mississippi  railroad,  and  was  associated  in 
the  practice  of  the  law  with  Hon.  Aaron  Shaw,  of  Olney,  Illinois,  each  residing 
in  different  counties,  and  attending  courts  in  the  counties  of  Clay,  Richland,  Law- 
rence and  Wayne,  where  he  was  greatly  benefited  by  his  experience  in  varied 
methods  of  professional  business,  and  also  in  his  health,  by  change  of  climate. 

Immediately  after  the  great  fire  of  1871,  by  reason  of  his  parents'  death,  Mr. 
Stewart  returned  to  Chicago,  and  as  executor,  assisted  in  settling  their  estates. 
He  also  determined  to  remove  his  family  back  to  the  city  so  that  he  could  the 
better  educate  his  children.  From  1873  to  1876  he  resided  near  the  schools  of 
Evanston  and  the  city,  in  the  beautiful  suburb  of  Wilmette,  on  the  shore  of  Lake 
Michigan. 

In  1876  he  changed  his  place  of  residence  to  Oakland,  just  south  of  the  city 
limits,  in  the  village  of  Hyde  Park,  and  continued  the  practice  of  the  law.  By 
reason  of  the  varied  and  imperative  demands  which  the  changes  of  residence, 
locations  and  trusts  have  imposed  upon  Mr.  Stewart,  he  was  not  allowed  to 
devote  his  time  and  talents  to  any  particular  branch  of  the  profession.  He  was 
always  regarded  by  his  friends  and  clients  as  well  versed  in  the  elements  and 
principles  of  the  science,  a  ready  and  impressive  speaker,  a  cautious  and  careful 
adviser  and  counselor,  and  prompt  in  the  disposition  of  business  in  hand,  and  as 
a  man  cordial,  genial  and  affable.  He  has  commended  himself  to  a  large  circle 
of  friends  and  acquaintances  in  Chicago  and  its  suburbs,  who  recognize  in  him  a 
worthy  citizen,  and  an  honest,  upright  lawyer,  a  cultured,  genial  gentleman,  and 
Christian  man. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  371 

Since  his  residence  in  Hyde  Park  he  has  taken  an  active  part  in  the  public- 
affairs  of  the  village,  and  in  all  matters  of  public  interest  and  progress.  In  the 
spring  of  1882  and  for  several  years  prior  thereto,  Mr.  Stewart  was  actively- 
identified  with  the  citizens'  association  of  the  village,  in  all  of  its  efforts  for  the 
establishment  of  reform  and  economy  in  the  public  methods  and  service,  and  for 
the  development  and  improvement  of  Hyde  Park  and  its  surroundings.  In  recog- 
nition of  his  services  and  his  fitness  for  the  position,  Mr.  Stewart  was  elected  pros- 
ecuting attorney  for  Hyde  Park  in  April,  1882,  which  position  he  now  holds;  his 
residence  being  in  Pullman. 


CHARLES    E.    POPE. 

S  E.  POPE  was  born  in  Saline,  Michigan,  August  u,  1847.  His 
great-grandfather,  Edward  Pope,  was  judge  of  the  court  of  common  pleas 
of  Massachusetts,  and  was  collector  of  the  port  of  New  Bedford,  Massachusetts, 
during  Washington's  administration.  His  grandfather,  Thomas  Pope,  settled  in 
Washington  county,  Michigan,  about  the  year  1837,  removing  there  from  New 
Bedford,  to  which  latter  place  he  returned  at  the  close  of  his  life.  His  father, 
George  G.  Pope,  settled  in  Chicago  about  1858.  The  family  is  descended  from 
an  old  Plymouth  Rock  family,  who  came  to  that  place  about  the  year  1631,  and 
a  member  of  which  afterward  moved  to  New  Bedford,  from  whom  the  New 
Bedford  branch  of  the  family  sprung.  Mr.  Pope  received  his  primary  education 
at  Newport,  Rhode  Island,  and  in  1865  entered  Harvard  University,  where  he 
graduated  in  1869.  He  then  returned  to  Chicago,  and  studied  law  with  W.  E. 
Furness,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  June  1871,  and  began  practice  at  once. 
He  was  elected  village  clerk  and  comptroller  of  the  village  of  Hyde  Park  in  1873, 
and  held  that  office  two  years.  In  politics  Mr.  Pope  is  independent  in  his  views 
and  actions.  He  is  a  member  of  the  firm  of  McCoy,  Pope  and  McCoy,  consisting 
of  Alexander  McCoy,  Charles  E.  Pope  and  Charles  B.  McCoy. 


AUSTIN  A.  CANAVAN. 

AUSTIN  A.  CANAVAN  was  born  November  5,  1850,  in  Philadelphia,  and  is 
the  son  of  Anthony  Canavan,  formerly  a  wholesale  grocer  in  that  city,  but 
who  removed  in  1859  to  Illinois,  where  he  has  been  engaged  principally  in  stock 
raising.     Mr.  Canavan  was  educated  at  St.  Viator's  College,  in  Kankakee  county, 
Illinois,  being  four  years  a  pupil,  and  afterward  a  "  pupil  teacher"  in  that  institu- 
tion until  he  graduated  in  June,  1874.     He  then  entered  the  Yale  College  Law 
School,  and  graduated  with  honors  of  the  class  of  1876,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Connecticut.     Returning  to  Chicago,  he  began  practice  in  September  of 
that  year,  and  has  continued  the  same  uninterruptedly  since.     By  strict  attention 
39 


372  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  devotion  to  his  profession,  he  has  succeeded  in  building  up  a  large  and  lucra- 
tive practice,  and  is  one  of  the  few  prominent  Irish  Catholic  lawyers  in  Chicago, 
He  is  attorney  for  Kankakee  county  in  the  suit  concerning  their  liability  on  rail- 
road bonds  in  a  case  where  the  road  was  not  constructed  as  per  charter.  In  De- 
cember, 1881,  he  married  Miss  Emma  Valliguette,  of  Chicago.  Although  a  young 
man,  his  professional  career  has  been  eminently  successful,  and  with  his  fine 
native  abilities,  learning  and  devotion  to  his  chosen  profession,  is  destined  to 
take  a  high  stand  among  its  leading  and  honored  members. 


GEN.  ROBERT  W.  SMITH. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  was  born  in  Hanoverton,  Ohio,  September  4, 
1824,  the  son  of  P.  W.  Smith,  a  farmer  who  entered  the  land  on  which  this 
subject  was  born,  and  lived  on  the  same  fifty-four  years,  and  paid  for  the  land  by 
teaching  winters  and  making  brick  summers,  and  received  a  patent  therefor 
signed  by  James  Madison,  President  of  the  United  States.  The  subject  of  this 
sketch  entered  Williams  College  in  1846,  supported  himself  by  teaching  during 
vacation,  and  graduated  therefrom  with  high  honors  in  1850.  He  afterward 
entered  the  office  of  Luther  Day,  at  Ravenna,  Ohio,  as  a  law  student,  and 
made  rapid  progress  in  the  rudiments  of  his  profession.  He  was  a  friend  of  the 
late  lamented  President  James  A.  Garfield,  who  was  a  youth  at  that  time  pre- 
paring to  enter  college.  He  remarked  to  Mr.  Smith  at  one  time,  in  the  office  of 
Mr.  Day,  that  he  wished  to  go  to  Bethany,  a  college  under  the  control  of  his  relig- 
ious sect  (the  Disciples).  Mr.  Smith  replied  that  Bethany  was  a  young  college, 
and  it  might  die  at  any  time,  and  that  he  had  better  attend  an  established  insti- 
tution with  a  reputation,  and  at  the  same  time  furnished  him  with  a  catalogue  of 
Williams  College.  Young  Garfield  acted  upon  his  suggestion,  and  wrote  to  Dr. 
Hopkins,  the  president  of  that  institution,  who  responded  in  happy  terms,  and 
the  embryo  president  became  a  student  there.  Who  can  say  that  the  advice  of  Mr. 
Smith  given  at  the  right  time  was  not  effectual  in  giving  a  turn  to  the  life  of  James 
A.  Garfield  that  materially  influenced  his  future  career?  After  completing  his 
legal  course,  Mr.  Smith  was  admitted  to  the  Ohio  bar  by  the  supreme  court  in 
bane  at  Columbus,  in  January  1853.  He  then  removed  to  Rock  Island,  Illinois, 
and  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  with  excellent  success.  He  was  soon 
elected  to  numerous  municipal  offices,  and  in  the  fall  of  1860  was  nominated  on 
the  republican  ticket  to  represent  Henry,  Rock  Island  and  Mercer  counties  in  the 
legislature,  and  ran  four  hundred  votes  ahead  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  was 
elected.  He  was  a  very  influential  member,  whose  judgment  was  considered  sound 
in  all  matters  of  importance,  and  whose  advice  was  often  asked  by  his  associates 
when  intricate  subjects  were  up  for  consideration.  He  gave  his  time  and  atten- 
tion to  the  interests  of  his  constituents,  and  was  of  great  value  to  the  state,  and 
particularly  to  the  district  which  he  represented. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of-'  CHICAGO.  373 

Immediately  after  the  adjournment  of  the  legislature  he  removed  to  Chicago 
and  entered  at  once  upon  the  practice  of  the  law,  doing  a  large  business.  In 
the  spring  of  1862,  Mr.  Smith  entered  the  United  States  service,  in  the  i6th  regi- 
ment 111.  Vol.  Cavalry,  as  lieutenant-colonel.  In  the  fall  of  1864,  for  meritorious 
conduct,  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel,  and  March  n,  1865,  was  breveted 
brigadier-general.  He  was  at  the  siege  of  Knoxville,  East  Tennessee,  and  par- 
ticipated in  the  battles  that  followed  up  the  Virginia  valley  and  was  in  all  of  the 
engagements  in  Gen.  Sherman's  Atlanta  campaign,  and  also  was  in  all  of  the 
engagements  in  Gen.  George  H.  Thomas'  Nashville  campaign.  He  was  mustered 
out  of  service  in  August,  1865.  Gen.  Smith  was  an  efficient  officer,  always  lead- 
ing his  men  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight.  No  braver  man  ever  faced  a  foe  than 
Gen.  R.  W.  Smith.  His  orders,  though  mildly  given,  were  always  obeyed,  and 
he  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  the  men  of  his  command. 

Since  leaving  the  army,  Gen.  Smith  has  been  in  the  general  practice  of  the 
law  in  Chicago,  in  which  he  has  been  eminently  successful.  He  has  a  first-class 
common  law  and  chancery  practice  and  an  excellent  clientage.  As  a  counselor, 
he  is  learned,  able,  safe  and  reliable.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement  and  taste; 
is  courteous  and  obliging,  and  sustains  a  high  reputation  for  honor,  uprightness 
and  true  manhood.  He  is  of  fine  presence  —  six  feet  high,  with  an  erect  carriage; 
weighs  two  hundred  and  ten  pounds  and  is  well  proportioned;  has  a  well  shaped 
head,  covered  with  a  luxuriant  growth  of  hair,  which  was  once  dark  brown,  but 
is  now  somewhat  silvered.  His  eyes  are  blue  and  his  features  of  a  classic  mould. 
He  is  the  Worshipful  Master  of  the  Oriental  Lodge  of  Masons  and  a  member  of 
La  Fayette  Chapter. 

He  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  B.  Wilson,  of  Salem,  Ohio,  a  noble  lady,  of  fine 
education,  very  charitable,  and  beloved  by  all  who  knew  her.  They  had  three 
children,  two  of  whom  survive  her. 


EDWIN   K.  SMITH. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  self-made,  prosperous  member  of  the 
Chicago  bar,  who,  by  diligence,  perseverance  and  close  attention  to  busi- 
ness, has  been  both  rewarded  in  a  pecuniary  sense  and  gained  the  reputation  of 
being  a  man  of  strict  integrity,  who  loves  to  be  upright,  that  he  may  reap  the 
rewards  of  an  approving  conscience,  for,  notwithstanding  he  has  accumulated  a 
handsome  property  for  a  man  of  his  age  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  yet  he  can 
truthfully  say  that  he  has  never  wrongfully  taken  from  any  person  a  dollar. 

Edwin  K.  Smith  was  born  June  22,  1852,  at  Somerville,  Somerset  county,  New 
Jersey,  and  is  the  son  of  Hulet  and  Margaret  (Cramer)  Smith.  The  paternal 
ancestors  of  our  subject  immigrated  to  this  country  in  the  Colidonia.  Both  of 
his  grandfathers  were  soldiers  in  the  revolutionary  war.  Edwin  was  educated  in 
Marengo,  Illinois,  and  graduated  from  the  high  school  in  that  place.  He  studied 


374 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 


law  with  Hon.  Ira  R.  Curtis,  of  Marengo,  Illinois,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
in  January  1877.  He  served  in  the  capacity  of  first  assistant  circuit  clerk  in 
McHenry  county,  Illinois,  about  one  year. 

He  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Chicago  in  1878  by  himself,  and 
thus  continued  about  eighteen  months,  when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Col. 
Robert  Rae,  a  prominent  admiralty  lawyer,  well  known  in  Chicago  and  other 
commercial  cities.  Mr.  Smith  is  a  well  read  lawyer,  especially  in  real  estate  law. 
He  is  an  eloquent  and  very  successful  advocate,  and  must  some  day  occupy  a 
high  position  at  the  bar. 

He  married  Miss  Lillian  E.  Pratt,  a  lady  of  fine  attainments,  with  great  skill 
as  a  musician  and  artist.  He  has  one  child,  Helen  E.  Smith. 


EDWARD  R.  WOODLE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Janesville,  Wisconsin,  March  8,  1853, 
and  is  the  son  of  the  late  Isaac  Woodle,  a  well  known  lawyer  of  that  city. 
After  completing  his  preliminary  education,  he  pursued  a  course  of  study  at  Racine 
College,  graduating  from  that  institution  in  1873,  and  in  the  year  following  com- 
menced the  study  of  the  law,  entering  Madison  University.  He  graduated  there- 
from in  1875.  He  then  went  to  New  York  city  and  engaged  in  business,  but 
returned  to  Chicago  at  the  end  of  six  months,  and  entering  the  office  of  Isham 
and  Lincoln,  remained  there  two  years.  He  then  entered  into  the  employment 
of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  in  the  law  department,  in  the  office  of 
B.  F.  Ayer,  general  solicitor.  In  political  sentiments,  Mr.  Woodle  is  a  liberal 
republican,  and  in  religion  a  liberal  Episcopalian.  He  is  a  thorough  lawyer,  per- 
severing in  research  of  authorities,  and  for  a  young  man  succeeds  well  in  the 
trial  of  cases.  He  is  honorable,  upright  and  trustworthy,  and  has  justly  earned  the 
reputation  of  being  a  man  of  much  promise. 


PHILIP  BARNARD. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Chicago,  December  12,  1852,  and  is 
the  son  of  Martin  and  Elizabeth  M.  (Wernrick)  Bernhardt.  He  was  educated 
in  private  schools  in  Chicago,  and  afterward  entered  Cornell  University,  at  Ithaca, 
New  York,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1878.  He  then  studied  law  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  March  16,  1881,  and  at  once  commenced  the  practice 
of  his  profession.  Mr.  Barnard  is  a  thoroughly  self-made  man.  When  a  boy  he 
learned  the  art  of  wood  engraving,  and  being  compelled  to  rely  upon  his  own 
efforts  to  support  himself  in  college,  turned  his  knowledge  and  skill  in  that  art  to 
good  account,  and  found  it  a  source  of  considerable  profit  and  a  great  help  in 
pursuing  his  studies.  He  was  married  September  4,  1879,  to  Miss  Hattie  E. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  375 

Chapin,  by  whom  he  has  two  children.  Mrs.  Barnard  is  an  estimable  lady,  of 
refinement  and  culture,  and  traces  her  paternal  genealogy  back  to  the  Pilgrim 
fathers,  who  came  to  this  country  in  the  Mayflower  in  1620.  In  political  senti- 
ments, Mr.  Barnard  is  an  independent  republican.  As  a  lawyer,  he  is  energetic 
and  persevering,  and  has  met  with  good  success  in  whatever  he  has  undertaken  in 
his  profession.  He  is  careful  and  reflective,  a  constant  student,  and  is  known  as 
an  honorable,  courteous  and  dignified  gentleman.  While  in  college  Mr.  Barnard 
was  honored  with  an  election  to  the  Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity. 


CHARLES  B.   HOSMER. 

/~*HARLES  B.  HOSMER  was  born  in  Columbia,  Connecticut,  in  1812,  and 
>^>  was  the  son  of  Stephen  Hosmer,  a  very  active  merchant  of  that  place.  He 
entered  Yale  College,  and  was  graduated  in  1838;  having  begun  the  study  of  law 
concurrently  with  his  literary  course,  under  the  direction  of  Silas  Mix,  of  New 
Haven.  He  soon  after  graduating  from  college  went  to  Syracuse,  New  York,  and 
studied  under  Gen.  Jas.  R.  Lawrence,  and  in  the  fall  of  1839  removed  to  Chicago, 
where  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Removing  to  Naperville,  Du  Page  county,  in 
the  fall  of  1839,  he  practiced  his  profession  there  until  the  fall  of  1848.  He  then 
returned  to  Chicago,  and  began  practice  there,  and  the  following  year  entered  into 
partnership  with  Ebenezer  Peck,  which  continued  until  1861,  when  Mr.  Peck  was 
appointed  judge  of  the  court  of  claims  in  Washington.  Mr.  Hosmer  then  prac- 
ticed alone  about  ten  years,  but  is  now,  and  has  been  since  1871,  in  partnership 
with  his  son,  E.  D.  Hosmer.  Their  business  is  largely  confined  to  real  estate  and 
loans. 


MICHAEL  J.  DUNNE. 

MICHAEL  J.  DUNNE  was  born  in  Tully,  Kildare  county,  Ireland,  October 
2,  1839.  His  father,  William  Dunne,  a  native  of  Queen's  county,  was  a 
person  of  considerable  property,  and  was  held  in  high  esteem  for  his  honorable 
and  upright  conduct  through  life,  and  filled  many  local  positions  of  trust  and 
honor.  In  consequence  of  disastrous  losses  in  business,  and  from  a  desire  to 
escape  the  oppressions  under  which  his  native  land  was  groaning,  in  the  year 
1850  he  immigrated  to  the  New  World,  with  a  view  of  retrieving  his  fortunes 
and  of  opening  a  wider  and  freer  field  in  life  for  his  children.  Undeterred  by 
the  difficulties  to  be  encountered  in  a  new  state,  he  settled  in  the  same  year  in 
Chicago,  then  in  its  infancy,  and  engaged  in  the  brewing  business.  He  and  his 
surviving  children  sustained  an  irreparable  loss  in  the  death  of  his  wife,  a  most 
estimable  lady,  and  a  loving  wife  and  mother,  and  also  four  children  who  were 
stricken  by  the  hand  of  death  in  the  summer  of  1850.  He  survived  her  many 


3/6  THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

years,  and  died  in  Elgin,  Illinois,  in  1879,  at  the  ripe  and  honored  age  of  eighty- 
six  years. 

Michael  received  the  rudiments  of  a  good  education,  at  the  University  of  St. 
Mary  of  the  Lake,  in  Chicago,  and  in  1854  removed  to  Elgin,  where  he  commenced 
the  study  of  the  law,  and  completed  his  studies  in  the  office  of  Irvin  and  Snow- 
hook,  in  Chicago. 

On  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  1861,  he  engaged  in  practice  in  Elgin,  and  was 
soon  afterward  elected  city  attorney  of  that  city,  but  animated  by  the  martial 
ardor  that  filled  the  hearts  of  the  patriotic  people  of  the  North,  he  abandoned  his 
books  and  briefs,  and  enlisted  in  the  6pth  regiment  111.  Vols.,  then  aided  in  raising  a 
company  for  the  1415!  regiment,  III.  Vols.,  and  subsequently  another  for  the  i53d 
regiment;  in  the  two  latter  of  which  regiments  he  held  the  rank  of  first  lieutenant, 
and  remained  in  the  military  service  until  the  close  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion. 
During  the  last  year  of  his  service  he  acted  as  assistant  inspector-general  on  the 
staff  of  Maj.-Gen.  R.  W.  Johnson,  who  commanded  the  district  of  middle  Tennes- 
see. At  the  termination  of  the  war  he  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in 
Chicago,  and  has  acquired  a  reputation  as  a  well  read  and  successful  lawyer,  and 
a  fair  and  honorable  practitioner,  and  enjoys  a  lucrative  and  growing  practice. 

In  youth  Mr.  Dunne  was  very  fond  of  reading,  and  eager  to  learn  what  the 
books,  in  every  branch  of  literature,  contained,  and  his  studious  habits  did  not 
cease  with  youth.  Besides,  he  was  a  close  observer  of  men  and  things,  and  as  a 
consequence  gained  a  large  fund  of  practical  knowledge,  that  he  employs  for  the 
benefit  of  himself  and  his  clients. 

M.  J.  Dunne  was,  in  his  youth,  a  warm  admirer  of  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  and 
following  his  teaching  on  the  question  of  the  supremacy  of  the  constitution,  was 
a  war  democrat,  and  has  since  been  a  consistent  and  staunch  democrat,  but,  not 
prejudiced  in  his  partizanship,  is  always  willing  to  acknowledge  the  good  quali- 
ties and  principles  of  his  political  opponents. 

In  1874  he  was  elected  representative  of  the  fifth  senatorial  district,  in  the 
Illinois  legislature,  and  was  chairman  of  the  committee  on  rivers  and  canals,  and 
was  an  earnest  advocate  of  the  improvement  of  the  canal  and  Illinois  river,  so  as 
to  enlarge  their  capacity  as  a  water  way  for  the  transportation  of  our  grain  pro- 
ducts to  eastern  markets. 

The  democrats  of  his  district  renominated  and  elected  him  as  their  represen- 
tative in  1876,  and  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  famous  senatorial  contest  which 
culminated  in  the  defeat  of  Gen.  J.  A.  Logan,  and  the  election  of  Judge  David 
Davis  to  the  United  States  senate.  In  1878  he  was  nominated  for  the  state  sen- 
ate, but  in  the  general  defeat  that  overwhelmed  the  democracy  in  his  county  in 
that  year,  he  was  defeated. 

Mayor  Harrison  appointed  Mr.  Dunne  in  the  spring  of  1880,  a  member  of  the 
board  of  education,  in  which  body  he  until  lately  held  the  position  of  vice  president; 
and  during  his  membership  he  has  manifested  a  warm  and  zealous  interest  in  the 
progress  and  success  of  our  common-school  system,  and  in  all  educational  matters. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO.  377 

The  great  fire  of  1871,  which  desolated  so  many  homes,  and  destroyed  so 
many  hopes,  prevented  Mr.  Dunne  from  fulfilling  a  matrimonial  engagement, 
which  he  had  contracted,  and  designed  to  consummate  the  following  month.  But 
undaunted  by  that  casualty,  in  which  he  suffered  a  considerable  loss  for  a  young 
man,  he  only  allowed  his  happiness  to  be  delayed  a  few  months,  and  on  June  3, 
1872,  he  was  married  at  Montreal,  to  a  refined  and  accomplished  lady  of  that  city, 
Ellen,  daughter  of  James  McShane,  an  old  and  respected  resident.  They  have 
three  children. 


AZEL  F.    HATCH. 

AZEL  F.  HATCH  was  born  September  6,  1848,  in  Lisle,  Du  Page  county, 
Illinois,  the  son  of  James  C.  Hatch.  He  received  his  primary  education  at 
the  public  schools  in  Lisle,  and  in  1867  entered  Oberlin  College,  Ohio,  where  he 
studied  until  the  year  1870,  when  he  entered  the  senior  class  of  Yale  University, 
and  graduated  in  1871.  He  was  then  appointed  principal  of  the  high  school  at 
Sheboygan,  Wisconsin,  where  he  remained  one  year.  Settling  in  Chicago  in  1872, 
he  entered  the  office  of  Shorey  and  Norton,  and  began  the  study  of  law.  Two 
years  later,  in  September,  1874,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  in  December  fol- 
lowing began  the  practice  of  his  profession.  During  the  first  years  of  his  practice 
he  was  associated  with  Norton  and  Hulburd,  under  the  style  of  Norton,  Hulburd 
and  Hatch,  but  in  1880  formed,  in  connection  with  O.  F.  Aldis,  the  firm  of 
Hatch  and  Aldis  recently  dissolved.  He  is  now  practicing  alone. 

Mr.  Hatch,  though  not  a  partisan,  is  a  republican  in  political  sentiment;  he 
however  takes  no  active  interest  in  politics,  more  than  to  perform  his  duties  as  a 
citizen,  being  devoted  to  his  profession. 

He  was  married  in  1880,  to  Grace  H.  Greene  of  Lisle,  Illinois. 


RUDOLPH   D.   HUSZAGH. 

RUDOLPH  D.  HUSZAGH  was  born  in  New  York  city,  August  30,  1854,  the 
oldest  son  of  Julius  G.  and  Elizabeth  Huszagh,  the  former  of  Hungarian  and 
the  latter  of  German  descent.  His  father  always  placed  a  high  value  upon  educa- 
tion, and  early  sent  Rudolph  to  school.  Until  his  thirteenth  year,  he  attended  the 
public  schools  of  Brooklyn  and  New  York,  and  then  was  sent  to  a  military  academy 
at  Nazareth,  Pennsylvania.  He  afterward  attended  the  Bryant  and  Stratton  Busi- 
ness College  at  Brooklyn.  At  the  age  of  seventeen,  he  entered  the  employ  of  a 
treasurer  and  secretary  of  several  Michigan  copper  mining  companies  as  book- 
keeper, where  he  remained  until  the  spring  of  1873,  when  he  removed  with  his 
father's  family  to  Chicago,  where  he  shortly  after  entered  the  employ  of  a  whole- 
sale grocery  house.  A  mercantile  life  not  suiting  his  tastes,  he  went  into  the  real 
estate  business,  and  thereby  necessarily  being  drawn  into  the  company  of  lawyers, 


378  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  obtaining  occasional  glimpses  of  litigation,  he  imbibed  a  strong  love  for  the 
legal  profession,  and  finally,  in  1875,  decided  to  become  a  lawyer,  and  in  the  fall 
of  1877  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law  of  Chicago,  and  graduated  from 
that  institution  in  1879,  receiving  a  prize  for  an  essay  on  a  legal  topic  delivered 
before  the  graduating  class.  June  14,  1879,  he  became  a  member  of  the  bar, 
and  at  once  entered  into  active  practice.  Having  made  many  friends  while  in  the 
real  estate  business,  and  being  conversant  with  the  German  as  well  as  his  native 
tongue,  he  met  with  immediate  and  unusual  success. 

His  religious  views  are  very  liberal.  During  the  Garfield  campaign  he  was 
president  of  a  young  men's  republican  club  in  Chicago.  As  a  speaker,  Mr.  Hus- 
zagh  has  a  ready  command  of  language,  and  seldom  fails  to  impress  his  listeners 
by  his  earnest  and  dignified  address,  and  with  his  scholarly  attainments,  and  clear 
perception  of  legal  questions,  and  keen  appreciation  of  professional  honor, 
together  with  his  native  energy  and  business  tact,  cannot  but  take  a  high  stand- 
ing at  the  bar. 

JOSIAH    H.    BISSELL.  • 

JOSIAH  H.  BISSELL  was  born  June  i,  1845,  in  the  city  of  Rochester,  New 
York,  his  family  being  for  many  generations  of  well  known  New  England 
lineage.  His  father,  Col.  Josiah  W.  Bissell,  served  with  distinction  in  the  rebellion 
as  colonel  of  engineers  in  the  West,  and  was  prominent  in  the  capture  of  Island 
No.  10,  in  the  Mississippi  river,  April  7,  1862.  His  mother  was  a  daughter  of 
Horace  Hooker,  of  Rochester,  New  York.  Josiah  was  prepared  for  college  at 
Rochester,  entering  the  University  in  September  1861.  In  the  following  year  he 
left  college,  and  accepted  a  position  as  lieutenant  in  the  engineer  regiment  of  the 
West,  and  was  engaged  in  most  of  the  engineering  operations  of  the  army  until 
after  the  fall  of  Vicksburg.  He  had  the  satisfaction  of  being  engaged  in  plant- 
ing the  first  battery  ever  erected  against  that  stronghold,  and  afterward  of 
engineering  a  fortification  which  withstood  the  attacks  of  Forrest's  division  when 
they  reentered  Tennessee.  He  then  resigned  and  entered  the  same  class  at  Yale 
College,  graduating  in  1865,  and  delivering  the  second  oration  at  commencement. 
Having  selected  the  law  as  his  future  profession,  he  became  a  student  in  the  office 
of  Hon.  H.  R.  Selden,  of  Rochester,  ex-judge  of  the  court  of  appeals,  and  who 
has  ever  since  been  his  personal  friend.  In  December,  1867,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar,  and  immediately  entered  upon  a  successful  career  as  a  lawyer  in  that 
city.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  January,  1869,  where  he  still  continues  his  pro- 
fessional duties. 

He  is  a  lawyer  of  great  promise,  being  very  adroit  in  the  management  of 
cases,  and  has  a  power  and  quickness  of  repartee,  and  an  ability  to  avail  himself 
of  emergencies,  that  are  singularly  effective  in  his  clients'  interests.  Whenever 
he  presents  a  case  to  the  court  he  is  always  prepared  with  the  authorities  which 
support  the  legal  propositions  involved.  He  has  a  sincerity  of  manner  that  wields 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  381 

a  most  effective  power.  He  is  fluent,  lucid,  luminous  and  logical,  while  for  true 
manhood  and  exemplary  conduct  no  man  stands  higher.  In  July,  1870,  he  was 
appointed  by  Hon.  David  Davis  and  Hon.  Thomas  Drummond  the  official  reporter 
for  the  United  States  circuit  and  district  courts  for  the  seventh  judicial  circuit, 
embracing  the  states  of  Indiana,  Illinois  and  Wisconsin.  He  has  published  ten 
volumes  of  these  reports,  many  of  the  cases  being  accompanied  with  foot-notes 
and  references,  which  give  them  an  additional  value.  His  acquaintance  with 
chancery  and  real  estate  law  led  to  his  engagement  by  leading  law  publishers  to 
write  a  work  on  partition,  a  subject  with  which  he  is  specially  conversant.  Aside 
from  his  legal  attainments,  Mr.  Bissell  has  traveled  extensively,  both  in  this  coun- 
try and  in  Europe,  and  has  an  extensive  knowledge  of  scientific  and  literary  sub- 
jects, and  for  many  years  he  has  contributed  largely  to  that  class  of  publications. 
His  articles,  and  also  his  papers  before  literary  and  philosophical  societies,  have 
received  high  encomiums,  and  he  is  rapidly  gaining  celebrity  as  a  writer  of  great 
merit. 

WILLIAM  J.   DONLIN. 

WILLIAM  J.  DONLIN  is  the  son  of  John  H.  Donlin,  of  Chicago,  and  was 
born  here,  March  n,  1859.  He  was  educated  at  St.  Ignatius  College, 
Chicago,  and  after  being  graduated  in  1877,  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the 
office  of  Monroe,  Bisbee  and  Ball.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  June,  1880, 
but  continued  his  studies  in  the  office  of  Rae  and  Smith  until  December,  1881, 
when  he  went  to  New  Mexico.  Mr.  Donlin  opened  an  office  in  Raton,  New  Mex- 
ico, but  practiced  there  only  about  six  months,  when  he  returned  to  Chicago. 
He  has  formed  a  partnership  with  Frederick  S.  Baker  under  the  name  of  Baker 
&  Donlin,  and  is  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  chosen  profession. 


WILLIAM   A.  MONTGOMERY. 

WILLIAM  A.  MONTGOMERY  inherits  his  tastes  for  the  legal  profession, 
his  father,  John  R.  Montgomery,  having  been  an  old  and  leading  lawyer 
in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  and  his  grandfather,  also,  a  lawyer  of  considerable 
eminence.  He  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Pennsylvania,  June  21,  1838,  and  his  early 
education  was  received  at  Washington  College  in  his  native  state.  In  1856,  Mr. 
Montgomery  left  Washington  College,  and  entering  the  senior  class  of  Beloit 
College  graduated  in  1857.  He  at  once  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  law 
school  of  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  remained  there  one  year,  when  he  returned 
to  Wisconsin  and  completed  his  studies  in  the  office  of  the  late  Judge  Hopkins, 
of  Madison,  who  was  afterward  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court.  Hav- 
ing been  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Madison,  in  the  spring  of  1860,  Mr.  Montgomery 
removed  to  Chicago,  but  had  been  practicing  his  profession  but  a  short  time  when 
40 


382  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  war  broke  out,  and  he  entered  the  i5th  Wis.  infantry,  in  which  he  rose  to  the 
rank  of  captain,  and  participated  in  all  the  principal  engagements  of  the  Army  of 
of  the  Cumberland,  to  which  his  regiment  belonged,  until  he  was  mustered  out  in 
1865.  He  then  returned  to  Chicago  and  resumed  the  practice  of  law,  and  was  for 
some  time  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Wilson,  Martin  and  Montgomery,  and  later  of 
Montgomery  and  Waterman,  but  is  now  and  for  a  number  of  years  has  been 
alone.  In  politics  Mr.  Montgomery  is  a  republican,  but  has  devoted  his  life  prin- 
cipally to  his  profession,  and  has  had  his  share  of  success. 


HENRY   T.   HELM. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  very  able  lawyer.  A  native  of  Tennessee,  he 
was  born  in  Carter  county,  May  4,  1830.  He  is  a  son  of  John  C.  Helm,  an 
eminent  physician,  who  was  widely  known  and  highly  respected  during  his  life- 
time, in  east  Tennessee  and  in  the  state  of  Indiana.  He  was  a  native  of  Virginia, 
and  a  relative  of  Hon.  John  L.  Helm,  ex-governor  of  Kentucky.  The  mother  of 
our  subject  was  Amy  Hampton,  a  daughter  of  Capt.  John  Hampton,  who  served 
in  the  regiment  of  east  Tennessee,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  the  battle  of 
Horse-Shoe  Neck,  under  Gen.  Andrew  Jackson.  The  paternal  grandfather  of 
our  subject  was  a  teacher  of  considerable  renown,  while  his  uncles  and  cousins 
are  all  physicians. 

Henry  T.  lived  in  Tennessee  until  five  years  of  age,  and  then  removed  with 
his  parents  to  Ohio,  where  he  lived  until  he  was  fourteen.  He  then  removed  to 
Miami  Reserve,  and  lived  among  the  Indians  until  twenty  years  of  age.  He 
entered  Miami  University,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  with  the  highest 
honors  in  the  class  of  1853.  He  studied  law  with  Hon.  John  U.  Pettit,  ex-judge 
and  member  of  congress,  and  removed  to  Chicago  in  1854,  and  was  there  admit- 
ted to  the  Illinois  bar,  and  entered  at  once  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
forming  a  partnership  with  George  K.  Clark,  under  the  firm  name  of  Helm  and 
Clark.  The  business  of  the  firm  increased  to  large  proportions  in  a  very  short 
time,  exceeding  that  of  any  other  firm  of  lawyers  then  doing  business  in  Chicago, 
in  the  number  of  cases.  Mr.  Helm  was  successively  associated  with  E.  S.  Taylor, 
A.  M.  Pence,  Hon.  Kirk  Hawes,  Walter  Howland  and  John  L.  Manning,  under 
the  following  firm  names:  Helm,  Taylor  and  Pence;  Helm  and  Hawes;  Helm 
and  Howland  ;  Helm  and  Manning. 

Mr.  Helm  is  a  man  of  great  energy,  activity  and  industry,  who  never  shrinks 
from  any  duty,  however  arduous,  His  name  often  appears  in  the  Illinois  Reports, 
his  briefs  being  always  elaborate  and  carefully  prepared.  He  is  especially  able 
as  an  advocate,  either  before  the  court  or  jury,  being  quick  of  apprehension,  and 
having  a  rare  power  of  analysis  and  a  ready  flow  of  words.  Mr.  Helm  has  a  fine 
presence,  being  tall  and  commanding,  but  kind  and  courteous,  and  a  gentleman 
of  culture  and  refinement.  He  has  a  large  circle  of  friends,  who  admire  him  for 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  383 

his  manly  honor,  truthfulness  and  intellectual  endowments.  Of  late  he  has  given 
almost  his  entire  attention  to  mining  matters,  but  at  the  same  time  is  connected 
with  important  chancery  cases  in  different  states  of  the  Union.  In  political  sen- 
timents Mr.  Helm  is  a  democrat,  and  was  one  of  the  presidential  electors  on  the 
McClellan  ticket  in  1864. 

He  is  an  elder  in  the  Eighth  Presbyterian  Church,  of  Chicago,  and  was  a 
member  of  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Presbyterian  Church,  held  in  Buffalo, 
New  York,  in  1881,  and  was  placed  on  the  committee  of  foreign  missions,  being 
an  active  worker  in  all  matters  tending  to  advance  the  interests  of  the  church 
and  its  members.  Mr.  Helm  was  married,  in  1856,  to  Miss  Julia  F.  Lathrop,  of 
Oxford,  Ohio,  a  lady  of  fine  accomplishments,  highly  educated,  being  a  graduate 
of  Oxford,  Ohio,  Female  Seminary.  She  is  a  member  of  the  Woman's  Presbyte- 
rian Board  of  Missions  for  the  Northwest,  and  President  of  the  Illinois  Synod. 
They  have  two  sons  and  three  daughters.  One  son,  Lynn  Helm,  is  an  able  and 
prominent  lawyer,  of  Chicago;  the  other,  Scott  Helm,  is  a  graduate  of  Rush 
Medical  College  of  great  promise,  only  twenty-one  years  of  age,  who  by  peculiar 
native  gifts  and  education,  seems  destined  to  maintain  the  medical  reputation, 
which  is  already  very  high  in  the  Helm  family. 


JOHN  J.  McCLELLAN. 

ONE  of  the  most  successful  commercial  lawyers  in  Chicago  is  John  J.  Mc- 
Clellan, of  the  law  firm  of  McClellan  and  Cummins.  He  was  born  in  Living- 
ston, Columbia  county,  New  York,  September  5,  1833.  His  father,  a  physician,  is 
of  Scotch  extraction;  his  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Catharine  Garner,  was 
of  Dutch  descent,  and  her  ancestors  settled  in  Columbia  county  in  1793,  an  ances- 
try combining  the  qualities  of  two  sturdy  and  vigorous  peoples,  both  character- 
ized by  intelligence,  good  common  sense,  energy  and  sagacity.  John  J.  spent  his 
youth  in  school  in  Columbia  county  until  1845,  when  the  family  removed  to 
Kenosha  county,  Wisconsin,  where  his  father  practiced  his  profession  and 
improved  a  large  farm.  He  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  political  and  material 
interests  of  the  then  new  commonwealth;  was  member  of  the  first  constitutional 
convention  of  Wisconsin,  and  prominently  identified  with  the  framing  of  the  con- 
stitution; was  subsequently  elected  to  the  state  senate.  John  J.  worked  on  the 
farm,  attending  school  during  the  intervals  of  labor,  until  seventeen  years  of  age, 
when  he  entered  a  higher  school  in  Kenosha,  where  he  remained  two  years,  prior 
to  commencing  the  study  of  law,  in  the  office  of  E.  W.  Evans,  then  a  prominent 
lawyer  in  Kenosha,  and  late  of  the  Chicago  bar.  In  1855  he  entered  the  law 
department  of  the  Albany  University,  graduating  in  1856,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  and  commenced  practice  in  the  fall  of  the  same  year,  in  Oconto,  in  north- 
ern Wisconsin,  and  did  a  successful  business  in  that  then  newly  settled  country. 
In  the  spring  of  1857  he  was  elected  district  attorney,  under  a  new  county  organ- 


384  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ization,  and  by  successive  reelections,  continued  to  hold  that  office  until  January 
1862,  when  he  was  appointed  assistant  attorney  general  of  Wisconsin,  under  Hon. 
James  H.  Howe,  attorney  general,  and  afterward,  under  Mr.  Howe's  successor, 
Winfield  Smith,  and  was  acknowledged  by  all  parties  to  be  an  efficient  and  able 
officer  in  that  capacity.  In  March  1863,  he  resigned  this  office  and  moved  to 
Racine  and  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  May  1864,  he  was 
appointed,  by  President  Lincoln,  assistant  quartermaster  of  volunteers,  with  rank 
of  captain,  and  placed  in  charge  of  Johnson's  Island,  Tallahassee,  Florida,  and 
other  posts;  remained  in  this  service  until  1866,  when  he  left  it  with  a  clean  balance 
sheet  and  a  record  which  evidenced  faithful  and  honorable  service.  He  then 
settled  in  Chicago,  and  resumed  the  practice  of  the  law;  first  taking  charge  of 
the  legal  affairs  of  the  great  dry  goods  house  of  J.  V.  Farwell  and  Company;  sub- 
sequently he  engaged  in  general  practice  (though  largely  in  the  department  of 
commercial  law)  with  different  associates,  with  a  success  almost  unexampled  in 
Chicago.  He  has  so  continued  in  practice  until  a  few  months  ago  when  he  organ- 
ized the  firm  of  McClellan  and  Cummins,  which  is  engaged  in  general  practice,  and 
is  strong,  reliable  and  responsible.  It  was  said  of  him  by  a  well  known  judge  who 
had  known  him  intimately,  and  before  whom  he  had  had  many  important  cases: 
"  He  has  an  active,  vigorous  mind,  an  accurate  and  extensive  knowledge  of  law; 
patient  and  persistent  industry,  and  is  the  soul  of  honor."  This  is  a  brief  but 
truthful  summary  of  his  character  and  qualities,  which  all  who  know  him  can 
verify.  He  has  been  successful,  won  success  by  force  of  his  native  and  acquired 
abilities,  his  energy,  integrity  and  faithfulness  to  those  who  entrust  their  interests 
to  his  care. 

In  1 86 1  he  married  Julia  G.  Wheldon,  of  Racine,  Wisconsin.     They  have  two 
children,  a  daughter  about  nineteen  and  a  son  about  fifteen  years  of  age. 


CHARLES   K.   OFFIELD. 

/"^HARLES  K.  OFFIELD  is  a  native  of  Lewiston,  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  and 
> — ;  was  born  in  1845.  His  father,  Franklin  Pike  Offield,  built  the  county  build- 
ings of  Fulton  county,  and  was  connected  with  that  county  in  an  official  capacity 
for  many  years,  and  was  also  one  of  the  incorporators  of  the  town  of  Canton,  Illi- 
nois. While  a  mere  child  the  subject  of  this  sketch  lost  his  father,  and  was  left 
to  the  care  of  his  mother,  who  is  now  Mrs.  E.  O.  Thompson,  of  New  Haven, 
Connecticut.  He  attended  the  seminary  at  Aurora,  Illinois,  and  also  the  North- 
western University,  and  in  1864,  in  his  freshman  year,  served  for  nine  months  in 
Kentucky  and  Missouri  with  a  company  from  this  latter  institution  as  sergeant, 
in  the  i34th  regiment,  111.  Vols.  In  1867  he  entered  the  law  department 
of  the  University  of  Michigan  at  Ann  Arbor,  graduating  in  1869.  He  then 
settled  in  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1870,  and  continued  his 
studies  in  the  office  of  Goodwin,  Larned  and  Towle.  When,  in  1874,  E.  C. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  385 

Larned  dissolved  his  connection  with  the  above  firm,  Mr.  Offield  took  his  place, 
and  the  firm  was  Goodwin,  Offield  and  Towle  until  the  death  of  Mr.  Goodwin,  in 
1879,  when  the  firm  became  Offield  and  Towle.  Patent  litigation  and  soliciting 
is  a  specialty  with  this  firm,  and  has  been  for  many  years,  and  they  have  a  large 
and  excellent  as  well  as  lucrative  practice.  Among  their  clients  are  embraced 
some  of  the  largest  and  wealthiest  corporations  in  the  country.  Mr.  Offield  is 
looked  upon  by  the  legal  profession  generally,  and  those  who  know  him,  as,  for 
his  years,  one  of  the  strongest  and  best  men  in  his  branch  of  the  profession  in  the 
United  States.  He  is  a  man  of  great  force  of  character  and  mental  strength, 
untiringly  and  unceasingly  industrious  and  energetic.  He  discourages  needless 
litigation,  and  is  a  man  of  unquestionable  integrity  and  probity  of  life  and 
character. 

In  politics  Mr.  Offield  is  a  republican,  but  he  does  not  give  more  attention  to 
politics  than  is  the  duty  of  every  good  citizen.  He  married,  in  1875,  Miss  May 
R.  Munson,  of  New  Haven,  Connecticut,  and  has  two  children. 


BENNETT    H.  VARY. 

BENNETT  H.  VARY  was  born  in  Onondaga  county,  New  York,  August  18, 
1842.  His  parents  were  Richard  H.  and  Deborah  (Foster)  Vary.  His  father 
was  born  July  4,  1776,  and  spent  the  greater  portion  of  his  life  in  agricultural 
pursuits,  and  when  Bennett,  his  youngest  son,  was  three  years  of  age,  he  moved 
to  Gouverneur,  St.  Lawrence  county,  New  York,  and  there  remained  until  his 
death.  Bennett,  being  at  that  time  but  twelve  years  old,  was  left  to  care  for  his 
mother,  and  her  three  other  children.  Shortly  afterward,  when  fourteen  years  of 
age,  he  began  teaching,  and  continued  in  that  occupation  during  the  winter 
months,  studying  during  the  summer,  until  the  age  of  twenty-one.  By  carefully 
economizing  and  improving  his  time,  he  acquired  a  good  education,  and  a  valua- 
ble fund  of  practical  information,  and  having  decided  to  enter  the  legal  profes- 
sion, now  began  the  study  of  law  under  C.  G.  Myers,  of  Ogdensburg,  New  York, 
subsequently  attorney  general  of  the  state.  He  remained  there  for  six  years, 
until  the  fall  of  1853,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  Settling  down  at  once 
to  the  practice  of  law,  he  made  for  himself  an  enviable  reputation  as  a  successful 
lawyer,  and  established  at  Ogdensburg  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  which  he 
left  in  the  spring  of  1882,  when  he  moved  to  Chicago,  being  engaged  as  attorney 
for  several  large  corporations,  and  Chicago  being  more  of  a  center  of  his 
business. 

In  1860  Mr.  Vary  was  elected  district  attorney  for  St.  Lawrence  county,  and 
continued  in  that  position  for  nine  years,  giving  universal  satisfaction  throughout 
the  county,  and  conducting  over  five  hundred  cases,  some  of  which  were  very 
desperate.  Mr.  Vary,  having  always  been  somewhat  engaged  in  mining  litiga- 
tion, has  traveled  throughout  the  states  and  spent  considerable  time  in  the 


386  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO. 

Rocky  mountains,  in  the  interests  of  that  branch  of  his  business.  He  married 
Miss  Emma  A.  Wetherll,  of  New  York  state,  in  1853.  In  politics  he  has  always 
taken  a  very  active  part  with  the  republican  party,  and  in  every  presidential  cam- 
paign since  1860,  has  been  on  the  stump  with  the  leading  New  York  politicians. 
Throughout  his  professional  career,  Mr.  Vary  has  been  an  active  and  leading 
man  wherever  he  has  been,  and  in  all  his  relations  with  his  fellow-men  has 
exhibited  an  independence  of  character,  a  manly  frankness,  and  an  unqualified 
integrity  that  have  secured  for  him  the  esteem  and  respect  of  all  with  whom  he 
has  been  associated  or  had  to  do.  Being  early  thrown  upon  his  own  resources, 
he  has  made  his  way,  unaided,  in  the  face  of  many  difficulties,  and  richly  merits 
the  honorable  and  honored  position  which  he  maintains  at  the  bar. 


HENRY  L.   REXFORD. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  October  6,  1854,  in  Blue  Island,  Cook 
county,  Illinois,  and  is  a  son  of  the  late  Stephen  Rexford,  who  settled 
in  Cook  county,  Illinois,  as  early  as  1833.  The  mother  of  Henry  L.  was  formerly 
Elvira  R.  Barber,  who  belonged  to  a  highly  respectable  and  intelligent  family. 
Henry  L.  was  educated  in  the  Blue  Island  high  school.  As  a  boy  he  was  fond  of 
study,  and  early  acquired  a  taste  for  literature  and  literary  pursuits,  and  deter- 
mined to  fit  himself  for  the  legal  profession;  accordingly  he  entered  the  law  office 
of  Geo.  H.  Leonard,  of  Chicago,  where  he  spent  three  years  in  careful  prepara- 
tion, and  also  pursued  a  course  of  study  at  the  Union  College  of  Law,  graduat- 
ing in  1879;  and  during  the  same  year  received  his  license  to  practice  at  the 
Illinois  bar. 

In  religious  sentiments  Mr.  Rexford  is  somewhat  liberal,  and  in  politics  a 
republican.  He  is  a  young  man  of  clear,  vigorous  mind,  a  good  student,  a  con- 
scientious worker,  and  as  a  lawyer,  has  before  him  a  bright  future. 


CHARLES  DRANDORFF. 

CHARLES  DRANDORFF  was  born  in  Plau,  Grand  Dukedom,  Mecklenburg- 
Schwerin,  Germany,  August  19,  1825.     By  the  death   of  his  father  Charles 
was  left  at  an  early  age  to  meet  the  struggle  of  life.     Starting  out  with  youthful 
vigor,  he  devoted  himself  earnestly  to  study,  intending  to  become  a  clergyman, 
but  after  a  full  course  of  public  school  and  collegiate  study,  preparatory  to  enter- 
ing the  University,  he  abandoned  the  project,  and,  securing  a  position  in  the  pos- 
tal service   in  the  old    country,    continued   in  it   about   seven    years,    and    then 
sailed  for  America,  arriving  in  New  Orleans  October,   1851.     After  a  few  days 
rest,  he  came  directly  to  Chicago,  and  for  a  brief  period  was  employed  on  a  farm. 
In  March,  1852,  Mr.  Drandorff  removed  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  employ  of 


TRE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  387 

Hon.  Francis  A.  Hoffman,  of  the  law  firm  of  J.  Breck,  Jr.,  and  Hoffman,  and  there 
devoted  himself  to  the  study  of  law  until  1854,  when  the  firm  dissolved,  Mr.  Hoff- 
man going  into  the  banking  business,  and  he,  Mr.  Drandorff,  going  with  him  as 
clerk  and  cashier.  He  held  that  position  for  several  years.  At  the  close  of  the 
civil  war  he  accepted  a  clerkship  in  the  postoffice  at  Chicago,  which  he  filled  for 
one  year,  at  the  expiration  of  which  time  he  became  associated  with  William 
Church,  clerk  of  the  circuit  court.  Resigning  this  position,  after  filling  it  credit- 
ably for  a  considerable  length  of  time,  he  was  elected  by  the  republican  party, 
supervisor  of  the  North  Town,  an  office  which  he  held  for  three  years.  In  1867 
Mr.  Drandorff  was  elected  justice  of  the  peace,  and  held  that  office  for  about  six 
years,  and  during  that  time,  in  August,  1870,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois, 
and  when  his  term  of  office  expired  he  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession, 
and  has  since  been  an  active  attorney  of  the  Chicago  bar,  conducting  a  general 
and  somewhat  extensive  practice. 

Mr.  Drandorff  has  always  been  a  staunch  republican,  and  an  earnest  worker 
for  his  party. 

He  was  married  about  1853  to  Miss  Caroline  Mohr,  and  has  a  family  of  chil- 
dren, all  of  whom  are  grown  up,  and  one  son  is  a  member  of  the  bar. 


JAMES  SAGER  NORTON. 

THE  late  Henry  F.  Durant,  who  was  at  one  time  the  leading  criminal  lawyer 
of  Boston,  once  said  to  Col.  T.  W.  Higginson,  "  law  is  the  most  narrowing 
of  all  the  professions."  The  tendency  of  all  professions  is  doubtless  to  narrow 
the  mind.  The  physician  is  prone  to  be  nothing  but  a  physician,  and  the  success- 
ful lawyer  is  apt  to  be  nothing  but  a  lawyer.  But  whether  a  profession  narrows 
a  man  or  no,  depends  a  good  deal  upon  the  man.  If  he  has  breadth  of  mind  no 
profession  can  limit  him,  no  range  of  thought  can  confine  his  mind.  His  profes- 
sion certainly  has  not  narrowed  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  Although  one  of  the 
most  eminent  and  successful  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago  bar,  he  is 
much  more  than  a  lawyer.  He  is  a  man  of  affairs,  a  thinker,  a  student  withal. 

He  was  born  in  Lockport,  Illinois,  December  6,  1844.  He  attended  the  com- 
mon and  select  schools  until  1860,  when  he  entered  the  preparatory  department  of 
Kenyon  College,  at  Gambier,  Ohio,  and  in  1861  entered  the  college  itself.  In 
1863,  at  the  end  of  the  sophomore  year,  he  left  Kenyon  and  went  to  Yale  as  a 
junior.  He  graduated  from  Yale  with  the  class  of  1865.  He  then  went  to  Europe 
for  a  year,  and  returned  in  1866,  and  entered  Columbia  Law  School,  where  he 
remained  for  a  year.  In  1867  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  continued  his  law 
studies  in  the  office  of  Scammon,  McCagg  and  Fuller,  and  in  1868  was  admitted 
to  practice  by  the  supreme  court.  After  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  opened  an 
office  for  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  thereafter  for  three  years  was  in 
partnership  with  R.  B.  Bacon.  In  1872  he  formed  a  copartnership  with  D.  L. 


388  THE  BENCH  AND  BAK   OF  CHICAGO. 

Shorey,  which  lasted  until  1874.  He  then  entered  the  firm  of  Norton  and  Hatch, 
in  which  he  continued  till  1877,  when  he  formed  the  partnership  with  John  N. 
Jewett,  which  still  exists. 

Mr.  Norton  has  been  engaged  in  many  cases  of  public  interest,  but  his  settle- 
ment of  the  Mahlon  D.  Ogden  estate,  encumbered  as  it  was  by  mortgages,  and 
including,  as  it  did,  so  much  real  estate  property,  has  perhaps  furnished  the  best 
evidence  of  his  ability. 

CORNELIUS   R.  ADAMS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  son  of  Cornelius  B.  Adams,  of  Fairfield,  Con- 
necticut, who  was  of  English  parentage,  and  a  lineal  descendant  of  John 
Quincy  Adams.  The  father,  when  but  fifteen  years  of  age,  established  the  New 
Haven  "Daily  Palladium,"  serving  in  the  dual  capacity  of  editor  and  publisher, 
and  was  also  the  New  Haven  correspondent  of  the  New  York  "  Tribune."  Upon 
severing  his  connection  with  the  above  papers,  he  went  to  Washington  to  practice 
law,  and  while  there,  in  1855,  married  Miss  Martha  B.  Loonis,  daughter  of  Gen. 
Lewis  Loonis,  of  Colebrook,  New  Hampshire,  while  she  was  acting  as  preceptress 
in  a  seminary.  At  the  time  of  their  marriage,  Miss  Loonis  was  at  Georgetown, 
engaged  as  preceptress  in  a  young  ladies'  seminary,  while  he  held  the  position  of 
librarian  to  the  house  of  representatives. 

In  September,  1856,  Cornelius  R.,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  born.  He 
graduated  from  Dr.  Hanson's  Classical  Institute,  in  Waterville,  Maine,  in  1877, 
and  afterward  studied  a  year  at  the  university  at  Lewistown.  On  leaving  school 
in  1879,  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  the  office  of  H.  S.  and  F.  S.  Osborn,  with 
whom  he  remained  one  year.  He  then  removed  to  Oshkosh,  Wisconsin,  in  1880, 
and  was  there  admitted  to  the  bar  of  that  state.  He  returned  to  Chicago  in  1881, 
and  in  the  following  year,  1882,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  and  entered 
upon  his  profession.  In  politics  Mr.  Adams  is  an  earnest  republican. 


HUGH    L.   MASON. 

ONE  of  the  younger  and  more  promising  of  the  attorneys  who  practice  at  the 
Chicago  bar  is  Hugh  L.  Mason.  He  was  born  in  Lancaster,  Garrard  county, 
Kentucky,  in  1853;  his  father,  James  B.  Mason,  was  a  merchant  there,  and  served 
several  terms  in  the  legislature  of  that  state.  Hugh  obtained  his  early  education 
in  Kentucky,  and  his  legal  education  in  the  University  of  Georgetown,  District  of 
Columbia,  where  he  graduated  in  1873,  and  was  admitted  to  practice.  He  removed 
to  Chicago  in  1875,  to  make  his  fortune  and  a  permanent  home,  and  is  in  a  fair 
way  of  realizing  his  expectations;  doing  a  first  class,  paying  law  business,  and 
being  senior  member  of  the  firm  of  Mason  and  Mitchell.  Mr.  Mason  is  a  successful 
lawyer,  and  ranks  high  at  the  bar,  as  an  honorable  attorney  and  a  true  gentleman. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  389 

The  Masons  tire  lineal  descendants  of  the  Virginia  stock,  the  original  ancestor  in 
this  country  being  Col.  George  Mason,  the  contemporary  friend  and  adviser  of 
George  Washington;  his  seat  was  at  Gunstan  Hall,  near  Mount  Vernon.  He 
was  a  man  of  the  first  order  of  wisdom  among  those  who  acted  on  the  theater  of 
the  revolution;  a  profound  man,  and  especially  learned  in  the  lore  of  constitu- 
tional law  and  conventions.  He  was  the  framer  of  the  constitution  of  Virginia, 
and  was  a  member  of  the  convention  which  formed  the  federal  constitution,  but 
did  not  sign  it,  but  in  conjunction  with  Patrick  Henry,  opposed  its  adoption  in 
the  Virginia  convention.  He  was  a  decided  opponent  of  the  slave  trade.  He 
died  in  1792.  His  descendants  are  scattered  over  various  parts  of  the  central 
states. 

BENJAMIN   HASKELL. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Southbridge,  Massachusetts,  and  was 
born  September  23,  1825,  and  is  the  son  of  William  Haskell  and  Sylvanie 
(Williams)  Haskell.  Benjamin  was  a  student  at  Brown  University,  of  Providence, 
Rhode  Island,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1842;  he  then  attended  the 
Harvard  Law  School,  under  the  instruction  of  that  learned  and  celebrated  jurist, 
Judge  Story,  and  after  graduating  therefrom,  and  being  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1846,  he  formed  a  copartnership  with  Robert  Rantoul,  Jr.,  a  celebrated  lawyer  of 
Boston,  Massachusetts.  He  continued  in  business  in  Boston  until  1856,  when  he 
removed  to  Lacon,  Illinois,  and  forming  a  partnership  with  Samuel  Flemming, 
and  Hon.  Silas  Ramsey,  conducted  a  very  extensive  practice  for  two  years.  Mr. 
Haskell  removed  to  Chicago  in  1858,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  Daniel 
McElroy,  with  whom  he  was  associated  in  business  for  several  years.  He  then 
opened  an  office  by  himself,  and  has  since  remained  in  general  practice  of  the  law. 


JAMES  PATRICK  McELROY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  New  Brunswick,  and  was  born  at 
St.  John,  August  30,  1835,  tne  son  of  Edward  and  Rose  (McKenna)  McElroy, 
both  of  Irish  descent.  His  father  was  a  blacksmith  by  trade,  and  also  engaged 
in  farming  up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1881.  James  received 
his  early  education  at  Elmore,  LaMoille  county,  Vermont,  whither  his  family  had 
moved  when  he  was  a  child,  and  in  1853  entered  the  Morrisville  (Vermont)  Acade- 
my, where  he  studied  two  years. 

In  1855  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Thomas  Gleede,  of  the  same  place,  with 
whom  he  remained  until  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  1858.  He  then  commenced 
the  practice  of  the  law  in  Waterville,  Vermont,  which  he  continued  until  1862, 
when  he  enlisted  in  the  gth  regiment  Vt.  Vol.  Inf.  He  spent  three  years  in  the 
Union  army,  mostly  on  detached  duty,  but  taking  part  in  the  engagements  of 
41 


39O  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Harper's  Ferry,  Fort  Harrison  and  several  others.  His  term  of  service  expired 
with  the  close  of  the  war  in  1865,  when  he  commenced  anew  the  practice  of  the 
law  in  Bakersfield,  Franklin  county,  Vermont,  where  he  remained  until  1872. 

During  this  time  Mr.  McElroy  had  gradually  become  dissatisfied  with  the  East, 
and  believing  that  in  the  West  he  should  find  a  broader  field  for  the  exercise  of 
his  talent,  removed  thither  and  settled  in  Chicago.  He  then  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Col.  S.  Park  Coon,  which  continued  until  1876,  when  he  connected  him- 
self with  C.  Stewart  Beattie,  with  whom  he  practiced  until  1879.  Since  that  time 
he  has  been  in  practice  by  himself,  doing  a  general  business  and  meeting  with 
good  success.  Mr.  McElroy  was  married  in  1861  to  Miss  Amy  Carpenter,  of 
Waterville,  Vermont,  by  which  union  he  has  had  two  children, —  Charles  and 
Edward, —  both  of  whom  are  connected  with  the  Chicago  postoffice.  In  religion, 
Mr.  McElroy  was  brought  up  a  Catholic,  and  still  adheres  to  that  faith. 


ADOLPHUS  W.  GREEN. 

FROM  its  earliest  settlement  Boston  has  enjoyed  a  widespread  celebrity  for 
scientific  and  literary  advantages.  Abounding  in  extensive  libraries,  both 
public  and  private;  with  conservatories  of  art;  the  center  of  science,  art  and 
literature  in  America;  ever  the  home  of  eminent  scholars,  poets,  statesmen,  ora- 
tors, learned  lawyers  and  philosophers;  abounding  in  universities  of  learning  that 
have  graduated  for  a  century  ripe  scholars  and  philosophers;  with  its  historic 
associations,  its  statuary,  granite  and  marble  columns,  gilded  domes  and  lofty 
spires;  with  a  salubrity  of  climate  and  a  moral  atmosphere  second  to  none  —  "the 
modern  Athens."  Such  is  Boston,  Massachusetts,  the  birthplace  of  our  subject, 
who  is  a  worthy  son  of  that  honored  and  renowned  city.  Adolphus  W.  Green 
was  born  in  1843,  and  is  the  son  of  a  worthy  gentleman  —  John  H.  Green. 
Educated  in  Harvard  University,  he  graduated  from  that  institution  with  the 
highest  honors  in  1863,  after  which  he  was  engaged  in  the  occupation  of  a  school 
teacher  at  Groton,  Massachusetts.  From  1868  to  1870,  he  was  librarian  of  the 
Mercantile  Library  Association  of  New  York  city,  which  position  he  filled  with 
unqualified  satisfaction  to  all. 

He  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Evarts,  Southmayd  and  Choate,  of  New  York 
city,  where  he  made  rapid  progress  in  the  rudiments  of  his  profession,  both  gaining 
an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  theories  of  practice  under  the  tuition  of  his  able 
preceptors,  and  also  enjoying  the  benefit  which  a  student  always  receives  in  an 
office  where  an  extensive  business  is  carried  on.  He  was  admitted  to  the  New 
York  bar  in  1873,  and  'in  1874  removed  to  Chicago  and  opened  an  office  for  the 
practice  of  his  profession.  Success  attended  his  efforts  from  the  first,  and  in  1879 
he  formed  a  partnership  with  M.  W.  Robinson,  an  eminent  lawyer,  since  which 
time  their  business  has  constantly  increased,  and  they  now  enjoy  a  very  extensive 
patronage  and  have  a  first-class  clientage. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  39! 

Mr.  Green  is  a  well  read  lawyer;  is  an  eloquent  advocate  and  enjoys  the  repu- 
tation of  being  an  excellent  trial  lawyer.  He  is  discriminating  in  his  practice, 
and  in  all  office  business,  including  special  pleading  and  the  examination  of 
abstracts  of  title,  is  an  expert.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement  and  culture,  and 
bears  the  impress  of  a  liberal  education.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  presence;  is  cour- 
teous toward  all,  and  sustains  the  highest  reputation  for  uprightness  of  character, 
truthfulness  and  honor.  He  is  deliberate  and  cautious,  but  yet  quick  of  discern- 
ment, and  enters  at  once  upon  what  he  considers  his  path  of  duty,  and  pursues 
it  with  a  zeal  and  firmness  commendable  alike  to  himself  and  his  profession.  In 
political  sentiments,  Mr.  Green  is  a  democrat. 


ELBRIDGE  HANECY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Trenton,  Dodge  county,  Wisconsin, 
and  a  son  of  William  Hanecy.  After  receiving  his  preliminary  education  he 
pursued  a  course  of  study  at  the  Milwaukee  Academic  Institute.  Closing  his 
studies  in  school  in  1868  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  for  a  time  was  employed  by 
Field,  Leiter  and  Company,  and  afterward  in  the  dry  goods  house  of  J.  V.  Farwell 
and  Company.  Having  decided  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he,  in  1872,  began 
his  law  studies  in  the  office  of  Hervey,  Anthony  and  Gait.  Two  years  later,  in 
1874,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  at  once  opening  an  office  began  the  practice 
of  his  profession,  to  which  he  has  achieved  good  success.  He  is  a  careful,  pains- 
taking lawyer,  a  clear  reasoner,  and  a  safe,  reliable  counselor. 

Mr.  Hanecy  is  a  republican  in  political  belief,  and  has  taken  a  somewhat  active 
interest  in  the  politics  of  his  ward. 

He  was  married  March  i,  1876,  and  has  three  children. 


HENRY  DECKER. 

HENRY  DECKER  was  born  in  Livonia,  Livingston  county,  New  York,  De- 
cember 4,  1832.  His  ancestors  on  the  father's  side  were  among  the  earliest 
settlers  on  the  Livingston  Manor,  on  Hudson  river.  Henry  Decker  (the  father) 
settled  in  Livingston  county  in  1795,  and  was  a  farmer  of  means  and  influence. 
He  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1812.  His  mother's  (Martha  Mather)  ancestors  were 
among  the  first  settlers  of  Connecticut,  and  her  father  was  a  pioneer  in  Ontario 
county,  New  York.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  received  his  early  education  at 
the  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary,  in  Lima,  New  York.  Afterward  he  went  to 
Genesee  College,  now  known  as  the  Syracuse  University,  Syracuse,  New  York, 
where  he  spent  three  years.  Afterward  he  entered  Williams  College,  where  he 
graduated  in  1854.  Immediately  thereafter  he  entered  the  law  school  of  the 
Albany  University,  at  Albany,  New  York.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1856. 


392 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 


The  same  year,  in  company  with  his  brother-in-law  and  partner,  Col.  George  B. 
Goodwin,  now  a  distinguished  lawyer  in  Milwaukee,  he  removed  to  Menasha,  Wis- 
consin, and  entered  upon  the  practice  in  that  village.  Here  he  was  quite  success- 
ful, but  failing  health  caused  him  in  1859  to  return  to  his  old  home  in  New  York. 

Having  finally  recovered  his  health,  Mr.  Decker  began  again  the  practice  in 
his  native  county.  Here  he  was  immediately  successful,  and  became  widely 
known  as  one  of  the  best  lawyers  in  that  section.  He  was  engaged  in  most  of 
the  large  cases  in  that  locality,  notably  the  Genesee  College  case,  in  which  it  was 
sought  to  remove  that  college.  He  was  retained  by  the  citizens  of  Lima  and 
vicinity  to  prevent  the  removal,  in  which  he  was  triumphant.  He  also  became 
widely  known  as  a  criminal  lawyer,  in  which  capacity  he  was  called  to  Towanda, 
Pennsylvania,  to  prosecute  Henry  Ward  for  the  murder  of  Wesley  E.  Shader,  the 
murderer  being  a  man  of  large  means  and  his  victim  of  high  social  and  business 
standing.  This  case  is  one  of  the  'causes  celebres  in  the  criminal  annals  of  Penn- 
sylvania. In  1873,  Mr.  Decker  removed  to  Chicago.  Here  again  he  became 
almost  immediately  successful,  but  in  a  year  or  two  his  health  again  failed,  and 
for  two  years  he  was  almost  entirely  unfitted  for  work  in  his  profession.  Regain- 
ing health,  he  again  started  out  to  build  up  a  practice  in  that  stirring  city,  in  which 
he  was  practically  a  stranger.  In  1880,  he  formed  a  partnership,  under  the  name 
of  Decker  and  Douglas,  with  Stephen  A.  Douglas,  Jr.,  the  youngest  son  of  the 
great  Illinois  senator,  who  had  then  just  moved  to  Chicago  from  North  Carolina. 
This  partnership  still  continues,  and  in  it  Mr.  Decker  is  rapidly  winning  his  way 
to  a  deserved  position  at  the  head  of  his  profession. 

In  politics,  Mr.  Decker  is  a  republican.  In  his  religious  faith,  he  is  a  Presby- 
terian, in  which  church  he  is  a  communicant  and  in  whose  Sunday  schools  he 
teaches  a  bible  class.  He  is  a  student  and  a  worker,  a  man  of  brains  and  charac- 
ter, who  is  most  highly  estimated  by  those  who  know  him  best. 


HARRY  HARRISON. 

HARRY  HARRISON  was  born  March  24,  1849,  in  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  is 
descended  from  the  same  Virginia  family  as  Gen.  Wm.  Henry  Harrison, 
being  the  son  of  C.  S.  Harrison,  who  for  twenty  years  was  a  contractor  in  Cin- 
cninati.  He  is  now  a  resident  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Harrison  was  educated  in  the 
schools  of  Cincinnati,  and  leaving  the  high  school  in  1867,  began  the  study  of  law 
in  the  office  of  L.  D.  Champlin,  and  also  entered  the  iaw  school  of  Cincinnati  Col- 
lege, where  he  graduated  in  1870,  but  continued  his  legal  studies  unt'il  he  became 
of  age,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  began  the  practice  of  his  profession. 
In  the  fall  of  1870  he  moved  to  Nashville,  Tennessee,  where  he  formed  a  partner- 
ship with  Judge  Horace  H.  Harrison,  ex-member  of  Congress,  and  ex-supreme 
judge  of  Tennessee.  Mr.  Harrison  was  appointed  assistant  United  States  district 
attorney  for  the  middle  district  of  Tennessee,  in  the  fall  of  1871,  and  served  in 


HCCn.p.r  J,  t   C, 


i  IBrNV 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO. 


395 


that  capacity  until  1875,  when  he  resumed  his  practice  in  Nashville.  In  1879  he 
removed  to  Chicago  with  a  view  of  devoting  himself  exclusively  to  patent  litiga- 
tion. In  the  fall  of  1880  he  organized  the  National  Scientific  Association,  which 
is  represented  by  some  1500  attorneys  in  the  United  States,  and  has  offices  in 
nearly  all  the  principal  cities  of  the  Union,  and  is  devoted  to  patent  soliciting  and 
litigation.  Mr.  Harrison  is  president  and  general  solicitor  of  this  association,  and 
directs  its  general  management  and  development,  and  its  success  is  chiefly  due  to 
his  efforts.  In  politics  he  is  a  democrat,  but  takes  no  active  part  therein. 


SIMEON  STRAUS. 

SIMEON  STRAUS,  a  native  of  Wisconsin,  was  born  in  Milwaukee,  November 
21,  1855,  and  is  a  son  of  Samuel  Straus,  one  of  Chicago's  early  settlers,  and 
well  known  lawyers.  He  received  his  preliminary  and  preparatory  education  in 
the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  and  when  but  sixteen  years  of  age,  entered  Yale 
College,  and  graduated  therefrom  with  an  honorable  record  as  a  bright  and 
promising  student.  In  1874  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  New  Haven,  Connect- 
icut, at  nineteen  years  of  age.  After  leaving  college  he  was  associated  with  his 
father  in  Chicago  until  May,  1875,  when  he  was  retained  as  attorney  for  the  Greene- 
baum  banks,  exclusively,  the  same  being  the  German  National  Bank,  the  Ger- 
man Savings  Bank,  and  the  banking  house  of  Henry  Greenebaum  and  Company, 
and  was  so  retained  up  to  the  time  of  their  failure  in  December  1877. 

Although  a  young  man,  he  has  shown  marked  ability  in  the  conduct  of  impor- 
tant cases,  and  proved  himself  worthy  of  that  implicit  confidence  which  has  been 
imposed  in  him  by  his  intelligent  and  constantly  growing  clientage. 

Mr.  Straus  was  married  February  24,  1880,  to  Miss  Adelaide  Eisendrath,  of 
Chicago,  and  has  had  by  her  two  children. 


JOHN  W.  WAUGHOP. 

JOHN  W.  WAUGHOP,  of  this  state,  was  born  April  28,  1823,  in  Portsmouth, 
Virginia,  and  was  the  son  of  James  F.  Waughop,  who  served  in  the  war  of  1812, 
and  held  the  contract  to  build  the  first  railroad  in  Virginia,  from  Portsmouth  to 
Roanoke,  which  was  the  second  charter  for  a  railroad  issued  in  the  United  States. 
The  family  moved  to  Illinois  in  1835  and  settled  in  Tazewell  county.  Mr.  Waughop 
settled  in  Chicago  in  1843  without  means,  and  attended  school,  working  nights 
and  Saturdays,  thereby  supporting  himself  and  paying  for  his  education.  In 
1846  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Spring  and  Goodrich,  and  remained  there  two 
years,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  the  fall  of  1848  he  married  a  daugh- 
ter of  A.  Bigelow,  of  Chicago,  and  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  at 
once,  and  has  continued  actively  in  practice  ever  since.  He  was  twice  (in  1854 


396  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  again  in  1856)  elected  county  superintendent  of  schools  of  Cook  county. 
He  has  always  taken  an  active  part  in  the  affairs  of  the  Methodist  church,  and 
has  been,  since  1856,  a  trustee  of  the  First  Methodist  Church.  He  is  an  active 
republican,  having  been  president  of  the  third  ward  republican  club  during 
the  Garfield  campaign.  He  has  been  successful  in  his  profession  and  has  been 
prominently  connected  with  public  improvements.  He  was  appointed  by  Gov. 
Yates  bank  commissioner.  He  was  in  the  state  convention  which  nominated 
Mr.  Bissell  for  governor,  and  has  been  very  prominent  in  the  republican  party  in 
Chicago. 

JOHN    E.    DALTON. 

JOHN  E.  DALTON  was  born  in  the  city  of  Detroit,  in  1847;  the  son  of  Michael 
Dalton,  an  early  pioneer  in  the  state  of  Michigan,  who  at  one  time  owned  a 
large  amount  of  land  in  Detroit  and  vicinity,  and  who  died  in  1849.  John's 
mother  dying  a  few  years  after  his  father's  death,  left  him  at  an  early  age  with- 
out the  care  of  his  parents,  and  almost  entirely  dependent  on  his  own  resources. 
He  lived  with  and  worked  for  his  uncle,  Francis  A.  Goodbody,  on  his  farm  in 
Lake  county,  Illinois,  for  six  or  seven  years,  during  part  of  which  time  he  at- 
tended school  at  Lake  Forest,  Illinois.  Later  he  returned  to  Detroit,  and 
attended  the  Detroit  College  and  the  Christian  Brothers'  Academy,  in  that  city. 
In  1868  he  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Runyan,  Avery,  Loomis  and 
Comstock,  in  Chicago,  graduated  at  the  Law  University  of  Chicago,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  June,  1871.  He  began  practice  immediately  after 
the  great  fire,  and  has  continued  in  practice  constantly  since,  meeting  with  good 
success,  having  built  up  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  chiefly  in  real  property 
and  chancery  law,  of  which  he  makes  a  specialty.  Mr.  Dalton  is  a  prominent 
democrat,  being  now  a  member  of  the  city  council  from  the  thirteenth  ward.  He 
is  almost  entirely  a  self-made  man,  much  respected  by  all  who  know  him,  as  a 
man  of  unswerving  integrity,  and  in  his  profession,  diligent,  conscientious  and 
able.  

CHARLES  WESLEY   MONROE. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  was  born  June  7,  1850,  at  Alden,  Erie  county, 
New  York.  He  is  of  Scotch  descent,  and  the  son  of  John  Monroe  and  Cla- 
rinda  (Dunning)  Monroe.  His  father  was  a  prominent  citizen,  and  served  for 
many  years  in  the  several  positions  of  justice  of  the  peace,  supervisor  of  schools, 
and  town  treasurer.  His  paternal  grandfather  was  a  captain  in  the  war  of  1812, 
and  was  killed  in  battle.  Charles  Wesley  attended  the  district  school  until  four- 
teen years  of  age.  He  then  entered  Clarence  Academy,  and  pursued  a  scientific 
and  classical  course  until  1864,  and  then  attended  Genesee  Wesleyan  Seminary  at 
Lima,  New  York,  one  year.  During  the  following  two  years  he  taught  school, 
and  returning  to  Lima,  attended  the  seminary  another  year. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  397 

He  entered  Oberlin  College  in  the  fall  of  1870,  and  graduated  from  that  insti- 
tution in  1873.  September  of  the  same  year  he  entered  the  law  school  at  Mad- 
ison, Wisconsin,  where  he  made  rapid  progress  in  the  study  of  law,  and  graduated 
June  17,  1874,  with  the  degree  of  LL.B.  Establishing  himself  at  Fort  Howard, 
in  Brown  county,  Wisconsin,  he  entered  at  once  into  a  large  and  profitable  prac- 
tice, in  which  he  continued  until  June  i,  1881.  While  at  Fort  Howard  he  helped 
to  organize  the  Fort  Howard  Zouaves,  and  was  connected  with  that  organization 
two  years.  He  also  belongs  to  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  and  for  two  terms  was 
Worthy  Chief  Templar  of  Temple  of  Honor.  Mr.  Monroe  is  a  very  thorough 
lawyer,  well  posted  in  the  statutes  and  decisions  of  the  courts,  both  state  and 
federal.  He  is  an  excellent  trial  lawyer,  being  an  eloquent  advocate,  and  possess- 
ing a  well  balanced  mind,  clear,  accurate  and  discriminating.  He  has  a  fine 
presence,  being  of  medium  height,  rather  stout,  with  a  high,  broad  forehead  and 
keen  black  eyes.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement  and  culture,  and  his  deport- 
ment is  always  courteous  and  kind.  He  has  many  elements  of  popularity,  and 
must  some  day  occupy  a  high  position  at  the  bar.  He  is  a  man  of  strict  integrity 
and  has  the  universal  respect  of  all  who  know  him,  for  his  true  manhood  and 
intellectual  attainments. 

In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Monroe  is  a  republican. 

He  was  married  August  4,  1881,  to  Miss  Clara  Blesch,  a  lady  of  fine  accom- 
plishments, a  highly  educated  lady  of  refinement  and  taste,  and  a  daughter  of 
Francis  Blesch,  a  capitalist  and  well  known  business  man  of  Fort  Howard,  who  is 
now  deceased. 

HENRY  F.  VALLETTE. 

HENRY  FRANKLIN  VALLETTE  was  born  at  Stockbridge,  Berkshire 
county,  Massachusetts,  in  the  old  farm  house  which,  for  more  than  two 
generations,  has  been  the  home  of  the  Vallettes,  on  November  i,  1821.  He  is  a 
son  of  Jeremiah  and  Abiah  (Mott)  Vallette.  Jeremiah  Vallette  was  one  of  the 
most  highly  respected  farmers  in  Berkshire  county,  whose  opinions  on  both  agri- 
culture and  politics  were  considered  the  best  authority,  and  so  clear  and  compre- 
hensive were  they  that  Theodore  Sedgwick,  author  of  a  valued  work  on  political 
economy,  frequently  sought  his  opinions  while  preparing  that  work;  but  at  length 
wearying  of  the  toil  of  cultivating  the  rocky  eastern  soil,  he,  with  his  family, 
came  west  to  the  fertile  prairies  of  Illinois,  and  settled  near  the  site  of  the  pres- 
ent town  of  Wheaton,  in  Du  Page  county.  Henry  was  at  this  time  seventeen 
years  of  age,  had  previously  attended  the  public  school  of  Stockbridge,  and 
afterward  the  Stockbridge  Academy.  There  being  at  that  time  comparatively 
few  schools  in  the  West,  he  was  compelled  to  take  charge  of  his  own  education, 
but  by  persistent  effort  at  different  intervals,  managed  to  get  a  good  general 
knowledge  of  the  common  branches,  together  with  a  thorough  insight  into  the 
science  of  surveying.  In  1846,  he  attended  the  Mount  Morris  Academy,  and  in 


398  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

1848  commenced  the  study  of  law.  He  was  also  during  the  year  last  named  mar- 
ried to  Miss  Abbie  A.  Dinsmore,  a  daughter  of  Rev.  Alvin  Dinsmore,  a  learned 
divine  of  De  Witt,  Iowa.  She  has  been  a  noble  and  devoted  wife  and  mother. 
They  have  four  children.  In  1849,  Mr.  Vallette  was  elected  treasurer  of  Du  Page 
county,  an  office  which  he  held  eight  years,  being  reflected  four  times.  In  1851, 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  with  the  exception  of  the  time  spent  in  the  army, 
has  been  practicing  ever  since.  In  1862,  he  entered  military  service  as  lieutenant- 
colonel  of  the  io5th  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.  He  was  a  faithful  and  conscientious 
officer,  but  resigned  in  1864,  and  in  1867  resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago 
with  Gen.  B.  J.  Sweet  and  Judge  Isaac  Wilson.  He  is  now  in  practice  in  Chicago. 

Col.  Vallette  has  always  been  very  successful  in  his  professional  labors.  He 
is  a  man  of  great  firmness  and  decision,  energy  and  tenacity,  an  instance  of  which 
was  exhibited  in  the  manner  in  which  he  fought  for  the  removal  of  the  county 
seat  of  Dn  Page  county,  the  legal  contest  lasting  over  six  years,  and  finally  termi- 
nating successfully  for  his'  clients.  He  is  a  fluent  speaker,  self-collected,  deliber- 
ate and  dignified.  His  style  of  arrangement  is  direct,  clear  and  forcible.  He  is 
careful  in  taking  his  positions,  and  seldom  fails  to  carry  conviction  of  their  cor- 
rectness. 

Col.  Vallette  is  a  republican  as  regards  his  politics,  but  has  never  sought 
political  distinction,  which,  in  these  days  of  political  corruption,  is  really  refresh- 
ing. Through  all  his  life  his  motto  has  been,  "  An  honest  man's  the  noblest  work 
of  God."  Liberal  in  his  views,  he  has  always  shown  his  faith  by  his  works.  The 
Universalist  denomination  has  always  received  his  support  and  hearty  cooperation. 
His  four  children  are  all  settled  in  life.  With  the  wife  of  his  youth  he  lives  in 
the  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of  his  labor — the  results  of  industry,  perseverance 
and  integrity.  Du  Page  county  may  well  be  pardoned  a  little  commendable 
pride  in  this,  one  of  her  representative  men. 


MARVIN  BLANCHARD. 

MARVIN  BLANCHARD  is  a  native  of  New  York,  and  was  born  in  Center- 
ville,  Allegany  county,  December  3,  1827.  He  received  his  education  in 
the  common  schools  and  in  Genesee  College,  at  Lima,  New  York,  and  left  that 
institution  in  1850,  having  sustained  himself  through  his  course  of  studies  by 
teaching  school.  He  read  law  in  Le  Roy,  New  York,  with  Skinner  and  Bissell,  and 
also  in  Buffalo,  New  York,  with  Wadsworth  and  Cameron,  and  was  a  fellow  stu- 
dent of  Hon.  Angus  Cameron,  now  United  States  senator  from  Wisconsin,  who  was 
then  reading  law  with  his  brother.  In  1852,  Mr.  Blanchard  went  to  Cincinnati, 
Ohio,  and  engaged  in  the  insurance  business,  but  after  a  year  thus  spent,  resumed 
the  study  of  the  law  with  Tilden  and  Rariden,  of  that  city.  In  1854,  he  removed 
to  La  Salle,  Illinois,  and  during  that  year  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Ottawa,  and 
immediately  entered  upon  the  practice  of  the  law  in  La  Salle  county,  where  he 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  399 

continued  until  the  spring  of  1859,  when  he  settled  in  Chicago,  where  he  has 
established  a  lasting  reputation  as  an  able  and  successful  lawyer  and  reliable 
counselor,  and  has  established  a  large  and  lucrative  practice. 

He  has  been  engaged  in  chancery  practice  to  a  very  considerable  extent,  and 
is  especially  expert  in  drawing  chancery  pleadings.  He  is  persevering  and  pains- 
taking in  research  for  authorities,  and  has  prepared,  on  a  new  and  improved  plan, 
a  digest  of  the  Illinois  reports,  which  is  designed  as  a  ready  and  exhaustive  ref- 
erence book. 


GEORGE    C.  CHRISTIAN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Todd  county,  Kentucky.  He  was 
educated  at  the  Jefferson  Male  Academy  of  Elkton,  Kentucky,  and  after- 
ward pursued  a  course  of  law  studies  under  the  tuition  and  guidance  of  Hon. 
F.  M.  Bristow,  father  of  Benj.  H.  Bristow,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Ken- 
tucky in  1860.  Three  years  later  he  removed  to  Bloomington,  Illinois,  and  until 
the  spring  of  1865  was  engaged  in  editing  the  Illinois  "Central  Democrat,"  of 
that  place.  Removing  thence  to  Metamora,  he  took  up  his  profession  and  soon 
established  a  reputation  as  an  able  and  successful  lawyer.  Owing,  however,  to 
financial  reverses,  a  change  of  location  seemed  desirable,  and  accordingly  in 
1868  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  there  resumed  his  professional  labors,  in  which 
he  is  still  (1883)  actively  and  successfully  engaged.  He  has  established  a  good 
practice,  and  a  fine  professional  reputation,  and  is  known  as  a  generous,  public- 
spirited  man.  Mr.  Christian  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  well  known  Bennett 
Medical  College,  of  Chicago,  and  to  his  executive  and  financial  ability,  his  earnest 
devotion  and  wise  counsels,  is  largely  due  the  success  and  high  standing  of  that 
institution.  Having  been  called  to  its  chair  of  medical  jurisprudence,  he  still  fills 
it  with  ability  and  credit.  He  is  a  man  of  excellent  qualities,  a  genial  companion, 
warm  in  his  sympathies  and  a  true  friend.  He  was  married  in  1866. 


CHARLES  F.   WHITE. 

CHARLES  F.  WHITE  was  born  March  19,  1845,  at  Shullsburg,  Wisconsin, 
>^  and  is  the  son  of  Hon.  Joshua  White,  who  was  a  member  of  the  constitu- 
tional convention  which  formed  the  first  constitution  of  that  state,  and  who 
moved  to  Chicago  about  the  year  1847  and  afterward  to  Ogle  county,  Illinois, 
where  he  has  been  prominent  in  business  and  political  circles,  having  repre- 
sented that  county  several  times  in  the  state  legislature.  Mr.  White  prepared  for 
college  at  the  high  school  at  Rockford,  Illinois,  and  entered  Beloit  College,  Wis- 
consin, and  graduated  there  in  1870.  He  then  entered  the  Albany  Law  Uni- 
versity, and  graduated  there  in  1872,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York. 
Thence  he  went  to  Lincoln,  Nebraska,  where  he  began  practice,  and  remained 
42 


4OO  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

there  until  November,  1873,  when,  seeking  a  larger  field,  he  removed  to  Chicago. 
On  coming  to  Chicago,  Mr.  White  entered  into  partnership  with  D.  H.  Fletcher, 
under  the  name  and  style  of  White  and  Fletcher,  and  shortly  thereafter  became 
associated  with  Hon.  J.  Y.  Scammon.  This  latter  connection  still  continues.  In 
1878  Mr.  Fletcher  withdrew  from  the  firm,  and  Mr.  White  organized  The  Western 
Law  and  Collection  Association,  associating  with  himself  in  that  branch  of  his 
business  Mr.  William  A.  Coleman,  under  the  style  of  White  and  Coleman. 

In  practice  he  makes  a  specialty  of  chancery  and  patent  law,  and  has  been 
very  successful,  having  a  large  and  lucrative  business.  For  several  years  he  has 
been  retained  as  attorney,  in  connection  with  Mr.  Scammon,  in  some  of  the  most 
important  real  property  and  insurance  cases  that  have  occupied  the  attention  of 
the  courts  of  this  state.  He  is  also  attorney  in  a  number  of  important  cases 
which  involve  the  question  of  the  stock  liability  of  the  stockholders  in  The 
Marine  Company  of  Chicago  and  other  similar  corporations.  In  politics,  Mr. 
White  is  a  republican,  but  takes  no  very  active  part  therein. 


JOHN   LING. 

JOHN  LING,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  is  a  native  of  England,  and  was  born 
in  Lincolnshire,  April  10,  1842,  the  son  of  John  and  Rebecca  (Lee)  Ling.  His 
pajernal  ancestors  followed  the  honorable  business  of  farming,  and  those  on 
his  mother's  side  were  millers.  His  parents  came  to  America  in  1851,  and  settled 
in  Rome,  New  York.  They  removed  thence  to  Batavia,  New  York;  thence  to 
Clinton  county,  Iowa,  where  they  now  reside.  He  commenced  his  education  in 
the  parish  school  in  England,  which  was  continued  in  the  public  schools  in 
America.  He  worked  on  a  farm  summers  until  he  was  eighteen  years  of  age, 
devoting  his  spare  moments  in  the  meantime  to  study.  He  taught  school  about 
six  years,  and  in  1861  entered  Wheaton  College,  Du  Page  county,  Illinois.  In 
1863,  he  entered  Bryant  and  Stratton's  commercial  college,  studying  Latin  and 
German  under  a  private  teacher.  After  graduating  from  that  institution,  he  com- 
menced reading  law  with  A.  B.  Tyrrell,  of  Clinton,  Iowa.  In  the  winters  of  1866 
and  1867  he  was  principal  of  the  graded  school  at  Camanche,  Iowa.  He  studied 
law  at  that  place  until  the  spring  of  1869,  and  then  came  to  Chicago  and  entered 
the  law  office  of  Scoville,  Bailey  and  Brawley,  Mr.  Bailey  having  since  that  time 
been  elevated  to  the  bench  of  the  appellate  court,  and  Mr.  Scoville  having  gained 
great  notoriety  in  connection  with  the  trial  of  the  assassin  of  the  late  President 
Garfield,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Chicago  bar  in  March  1870.  He  immediately 
commenced  a  successful  career  as  a  lawyer,  but  in  the  great  conflagration  of 
1871  he  lost  all  of  his  books  and  papers  and  office  furniture;  but  being  a  man  of 
great  energy  of  character,  he  immediately  thereafter  commenced  to  repair  his 
lost  fortunes,  and  soon  succeeded  in  establishing  himself  again  in  business,  and 
by  true  fidelity  to  his  clients'  interests  and  strict  attention  to  business,  has  sue- 


THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF  CHICAGO.  40! 

ceeded  remarkably  well  for  a  man  of  his  age  in  the  practice  of  the  law.  Mr.  Ling 
is  a  careful,  painstaking  lawyer,  discriminating  in  his  practice,  and  thoroughly 
posted  in  the  law.  He  tries  his  cases  well,  is  a  good  reasoner,  and  sustains  an 
unsullied  reputation  as  a  man  of  integrity  and  uprightness.  He  is  a  careful,  con- 
scientious counselor,  and  never  advises  his  clients  to  commence  suit  unless  he  is 
confident  their  causes  are  just,  and  that  the  law  will  support  them  in  their 
demands.  Mr.  Ling  is  a  refined  gentleman,  friendly  and  social.  He  has  a  fine 
presence,  is  of  medium  height,  well  proportioned,  and  active  in  both  mind  and 
body.  He  has  a  well-shaped  head,  high  forehead,  and  auburn  hair.  Mr.  Ling's 
antecedents  are  democratic,  and  he  has  acted  with  the  democratic  party,  and  was 
what  was  known  as  a  "war  democrat  "  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  and  was 
zealously  in  favor  of  maintaining  the  union  at  all  hazards.  In  religious  matters, 
he  is  decidedly  liberal.  He  was  married  in  1877  to  Miss  Anna  B.  Hall,  of  Chi- 
cago. They  have  two  children. 


GEORGE    S.   WILLITS. 

~  EORGE  S.  WILLITS,  one  of  the  most  successful  of  the  younger  attorneys 
at  the  Chicago  bar,  was  born  in  Monroe,  Monroe  county,  Michigan,  in  1857. 
He  is  a  son  of  Hon.  Edwin  Willits,  a  prominent  lawyer  there  and  late  member  of 
congress  from  that  district.  He  received  his  preliminary  education  in  the  high 
school  in  Monroe,  and  fitted  for  college  in  Ypsilanti,  where  he  graduated  from  the 
Normal  School,  also;  subsequently  entered  Michigan  University,  at  Ann  Arbor,  and 
after  taking  a  four  years'  classical  course,  incidentally  attending  lectures  in  the  law 
department,  graduated  in  1877,  after  which  he  read  law  for  a  time  in  his  father's 
office,  when  he  took  a  course  in  the  Georgetown  (District  of  Columbia)  Law  Col- 
lege, when  he  returned  to  Monroe  and  continued  his  reading  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar,  and  practiced  in  Michigan  until  September,  1879,  when  he  came  to  Chi- 
cago, and  has  been  engaged  in  practice  here  since,  alone  in  business  most  of  the 
time.  He  has  done  a  successful  and  lucrative  practice,  second  in  point  of  income 
to  that  of  none  of  the  younger  members  of  this  bar.  He  has  done  a  first-class 
business,  having  been  the  attorney  and  counselor  of  a  prominent  railroad  official, 
now  deceased,  having  a  large  estate,  and  whose  business  he  has  managed  skill- 
fully, successfully  and  to  the  satisfaction  of  those  interested:  has  also  done  a 
good  deal  of  law  business  for  railroads  and  other  corporations,  and  has  conducted 
other  important  litigation  in  the  higher  courts  and  has  been  complimented  by 
judges  and  clients  on  his  success.  He  has  had  a  large  chancery  and  probate 
court  practice,  in  which  he  has  succeeded  against  older  and  more  experienced 
lawyers.  As  a  counselor  he  is  safe  and  reliable,  as  a  lawyer  painstaking  and 
assiduous  in  guarding  and  defending  the  interests  of  his  clients.  He  is  accurate, 
industrious  and  studious,  which,  with  his  training  in  youth  and  his  natural  abili- 
ties, give  a  guarantee  of  a  continued,  permanent  and  solid  success  for  the  future. 


4O2  THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

He  is  a  young  man  of  exemplary  habits,  with  the  bearing  and  address  of  a 
gentleman,  independent  in  thought  and  action,  is  self-reliant,  and  possesses  the 
elements  of  manhood.  It  is  seldom  that  a  young  lawyer  comes  to  Chicago  a 
stranger  and  attains  to  such  success  by  his  own  efforts,  unaided  by  influential 
friends  or  wealth,  but  attained  by  his  own  energy,  perseverance,  industry  and 
faithfulness  to  his  clients. 


JOHN   H.  BATTEN,  JR. 

JOHN  H.  BATTEN,  JR.,  is  a  native  of  London,  England,  and  was  born  July 
16,  1850,  and  is  the  son  of  John  H.  Batten,  formerly  clerk  of  the  superior  court 
of  Cook  county,  a  gentleman  widely  known  and  highly  respected  for  his  intelli- 
gence and  integrity.  He  emigrated  from  England  in  1854,  and  came  directly  to 
Chicago.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  commenced  his  education  in  the  public 
schools  of  Chicago,  and  finished  his  scientific  and  classical  course  in  Racine  Col- 
lege, Wisconsin.  He  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  Dent  and 
Black  in  1869,  and  after  examination  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme 
court  in  1872.  He  remained  with  Dent  and  Black  as  an  assistant  until  1877,  and 
on  September  i  of  that  year  went  into  business  by  himself,  and  has  continued  in 
the  successful  practice  of  the  law  up  to  the  present  time. 

Mr.  Batten  is  prepossessing  in  his  personal  appearance,  and  is  a  social  and 
congenial  companion.  He  is  a  good  advocate,  and  gives  every  promise  of  attain- 
ing to  a  high  position  at  the  bar.  He  is  a  good  trial  lawyer,  a  gentleman  of 
integrity,  and  a  member  of  the  Episcopal  church.  In  political  sentiments  he  is  a 
republican.  He  was  married  August  26,  1874,  at  Naperville,  Illinois,  to  Miss  Ida 
Haight,  an  accomplished  lady,  highly  educated  and  refined.  They  have  three 
children,  Marion,  Percy  Haight  and  Ralph  Ellsworth. 


CHARLES  T.   BROWN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Vermont,  born  at  Sharon,  May  3, 
1849,  and  is  the  eldest  son  of  Jonathan  M.  and  Susan  S.  (Turner)  Brown.  His 
grandfather,  on  the  mother's  side,  was  a  farmer,  living  in  Orange  county.  Jona- 
than M.  was  born  in  Centre  Harbor,  New  Hampshire,  his  father  a  farmer  also. 
On  both  sides  of  the  family  the  old  Puritan  stock  is  represented.  In  1853  the 
family  removed  to  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  and  with  two  brothers  and  two 
sisters  Mr.  Brown  received  a  thorough  education  in  the  graded  schools  of  that 
place.  After  graduating  at  the  high  school,  Manchester,  he  went  to  Philadelphia 
and  attended  the  Polytechnic  Institute,  and  then  followed  the  profession  of  rail- 
road and  civil  engineer  for  six  years.  Since  1873  he  has  practiced  shorthand  law 
reporting,  and  also  studied  law,  and  been  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Chicago 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  403 

bar,  after  the  usual  thorough  examination  before  the  appellate  court.  Mr.  Brown 
gives  particular  attention  to  patent  law,  for  which  his  scientific  training  and  abil- 
ity to  make  copious  notes,  together  with  a  natural  taste  for  mechanics,  specially 
fit  him. 

His  wife,  Flora  L.,  the  younger  daughter  of  the  late  John  O.  Haynes,  M.D., 
an  eminent  practicing  physician  of  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  and  Hannah  M. 
(Eaton)  Haynes,  is  also  a  successful  shorthand  law  reporter,  and  is  associated  with 
Mr.  Brown  in  his  business  of  law  reporting. 


MOSES   D.  BROWN. 

MOSES  DAKEN  BROWN,  a  native  of  Appleton,  Waldo  county,  Maine, 
was  born  May  22,  1829,  the  son  of  Benjamin  Brown,  and  Deborah  (Jame- 
son) Brown.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  and  by  trade,  a  shoemaker.  The  boy 
found  little  in  the  narrow  routine  of  farm  life  to  gratify  his  ambition  or  even  suit 
his  tastes,  but  by  force  of  circumstances  was  compelled  either  to  settle  down  on 
the  farm,  or  begin  the  battle  of  life  on  his  own  responsibility,  unaided  except  by 
his  own  native  energy,  perseverance  and  determined  purpose.  He  chose  the  lat- 
ter. His  desire  was  to  prepare  himself  for  professional  life,  and  with  this  pur- 
pose in  view,  he  by  dint  of  hard  work  completed  a  course  of  preparatory  studies, 
and  in  1849  entered  Waterville  College.  The  undertaking  was  an  arduous  one, 
and  accomplished  under  trying  difficulties  and  at  great  sacrifice,  for  he  was  com- 
pelled to  earn  the  means  wherewith  to  support  himself,  and  at  the  same  time 
defray  his  expenses  in  college,  a  task  which  would  have  disheartened  one  less 
determined. 

Having  taken  the  best  advantage  of  the  three  years'  course  at  Waterville,  he 
left  there,  and  by  one  year  of  close  application  graduated  at  Dartmouth  College. 
Still  wishing  to  continue  in  the  path  of  science,  he  taught  two  years  in  the  acad- 
emy at  Randolph,  Vermont,  and  afterward,  in  1855,  with  a  view  to  finding  a 
larger  field  of  action,  removed  to  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the 
fall  of  that  year,  and  at  once  began  the  practice  of  the  law.  As  he  had  been 
taught  to  depend  on  his  own  resources  from  his  youth  up,  he  continued  alone. 
In  the  fall  of  1857  Mr.  Brown  married  Miss  Henrietta  White,  a  woman  of  exem- 
plary Christian  piety,  and  daughter  of  D.  N.  White,  the  well  known  editor  and 
proprietor  of  the  Pittsburgh  "Gazette."  Mrs.  Brown  died  July  9,  1878,  leaving 
of  the  five  children  that  had  been  born  of  this  union,  two,  Ella  M.  and  Arthur 
Lincoln.  In  January,  1880,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Alice  Wilcox,  a  handsome 
and  accomplished  lady  much  younger  than  himself,  and  a  loving  and  devoted 
wife,  and  by  whom  he  has  one  son,  Milton  Dudley. 

Mr.  Brown  has  a  large  practice  at  the  Chicago  bar.  He  is  a  thorough  lawyer, 
well  versed  in  all  of  the  branches  of  his  profession,  and  has  been  engaged  in  a 
great  variety  of  cases.  At  the  first  he  engaged  largely  in  the  conduct  of  criminal 


404  THE    BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

cases,  but  now  devotes  his  attention  more  particularly  to  civil  business,  and  has 
built  up  a  large  chancery  practice.  He  is  a  gentleman  who  bears  the  impress  of 
the  culture  and  refinement  bestowed  by  a  liberal  education  ;  is  courteous  and 
kind  in  his  intercourse  with  mankind,  and  sustains  a  firm  character  for  integrity 
and  sobriety.  He  has  a  fine  presence,  being  above  the  average  height,  a  broad, 
intellectual  forehead,  with  large,  expressive  blue  eyes,  and  classic  features.  He 
is  a  man  of  social  habits,  and  enjoys  the  society  of  his  friends,  of  whom  he  has  a 
large  circle,  who  esteem  him  for  his  intellectual  attainments  as  well  as  moral 
worth.  As  an  advocate,  he  is  fluent  in  the  use  of  choice  language,  and  presents 
his  cases  to  the  jury  with  excellent  effect.  He  is  an  excellent  trial  lawyer,  and 
makes  a  strong  logical  argument,  and  his  efforts  before  juries  have  been  crowned 
with  great  success. 


CAPT.   JOHN    L.   TAYLOR. 

I^HE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  at  Car- 
bondale,  Luzerne  county,  August  24,  1844.  He  is  of  Irish  parentage,  and  a 
lineal  descendant  of  George  Taylor,  the  old  Irish  patriot  of  independence  fame. 
He  lived  in  and  about  the  coal  mines  of  Luzerne  county  until  about  twelve  years 
of  age,  when  he  went  with  Dr.  H.  M.  Treat  to  Milledgeville,  Carroll  county,  Illi- 
nois. His  early  opportunities  for  obtaining  an  education  were  few,  being  con- 
fined to  the  public  schools  during  the  winter  months.  In  the  summer  of  1860  he 
went  to  Jones  county.  Iowa,  and  there  enlisted  as  a  private  in  Co.  L,  2d  Iowa 
Vol.  Cav.,  August  24,  1861,  and  served  three  years  and  three  months,  participat- 
ing in  nearly  all  of  the  important  battles  and  engagements  in  which  the  regiment 
was  engaged  during  the  war  of  the  rebellion.  He  was  taken  prisoner  at  Rienzi, 
Mississippi,  August  26,  1862,  but  made  his  escape  from  the  enemy  the  same  day. 
He  was  afterward  severely  wounded  in  a  cavalry  charge  near  West  Point,  Missis- 
sippi. February  22,  1864,  he  was  detached  from  his  regiment  to  the  headquar- 
ters of  the  i6th  army  corps,  Gen.  S.  A.  Hurlbut,  commanding,  at  Memphis, 
Tennessee,  and  afterward  with  Gen.  C.  C.  Washburn,  commanding  district  of 
West  Tennessee.  He  was  mustered  out  of  service  October  i,  1864,  at  Daven- 
port, Iowa.  August  10,  1865,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Bell  C.  Searle,  a  lady  of 
culture  and  refinement,  and  daughter  of  George  C.  Searle,  a  prominent  business 
man  of  Chillicothe,  Ohio.  From  1866  to  1873  he  devoted  a  large  portion  of  his 
time  to  the  study  of  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  February,  1874,  at 
Vermillion,  Dacotah  Territory,  before  Hon.  J.  P.  Kidder,  associate  justice  of  the 
supreme  court  of  Dacotah  Territory.  In  1869  he  moved  with  his  family  to  Ver- 
million, Dacotah  Territory,  and  was  engaged  in  the  practice  of  law  until  1881. 
He  went  thence  to  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  and  remained  until  Sep- 
tember, 1881,  when  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  entered  upon  the  general  practice 
of  his  profession.  Capt.  Taylor  has  held  various  offices  of  trust  and  honor,  among 
which  were  the  offices  of  prosecuting  attorney  of  Clay  county,  Dacotah,  and  dep- 


THE   BENCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  405 

uty  United  States  marshal  of  Dacotah.  He  was  the  leader  in  the  first  organiza- 
tion of  the  republican  party  in  the  southern  Black  Hills  of  Dacotah,  in  1880, 
serving  as  chairman  of  the  central  committee. 

As  a  lawyer,  the  chief-justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Dacotah  has  been 
pleased  to  speak  of  him  as  one  of  the  brightest  of  the  Dacotah  bar.  He  is  pre- 
eminently a  self-made  man.  He  set  his  mark  high,  and  has  worked  perseveringly, 
assiduously  and  conscientiously  to  attain  it.  He  is  a  thorough  lawyer,  an  upright, 
loyal  citizen,  and  an  honest  man. 


HOWARD  HENDERSON. 

HOWARD  HENDERSON  was  born  in  Chicago  in  1847.  He  is  the  son  of 
Rev.  Abner  W.  Henderson,  a  well  known  divine  of  the  Presbyterian  church, 
who  came  to  Chicago  in  1843  and  established  the  Chicago  Female  Seminary,  the 
first  young  ladies'  school  of  a  high  grade  in  the  city.  Rev.  Mr.  Henderson  was  an 
eminent  classical  scholar  and  linguist,  and  was  prominently  identified  with  the 
cause  of  education.  His  son,  Howard  Henderson,  prepared  for  college  at  Profs. 
Dwight  and  Holbrook's  preparatory  school,  at  Clinton,  New  York,  and  went  from 
there  to  the  University  of  Heidelberg,  Germany,  where  he  gave  particular  attention 
to  the  study  of  civil  law  concurrently  with  his  other  university  studies.  After 
a  course  at  Heidelberg,  he  attended  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  and  upon 
his  return  to  America  immediately  entered  the  Albany  Law  School,  from  which 
he  graduated  in  1870.  The  same  year,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York, 
and  returning  to  Chicago  began  practice.  He  first  formed  an  office  connection 
with  Miller,  VanArman  and  Lewis,  and  after  remaining  with  them  a  short 
time,  opened  an  office  for  himself.  Mr.  Henderson  is  a  republican  in  politics, 
but  is  chiefly  devoted  to  his  profession.  He  is  a  close  student,  and  has  a  large 
and  successful  general  practice. 


OREN    W.   TURNER. 

OREN  W.  TURNER  is  a  native  of  Fredonia,  New  York,  and  was  born  May 
10,  1830,  the  son  of  Marcus  Turner,  and  Sarah  (Stevens)  Turner.  He  is 
preeminently  a  self-made  man.  Enjoying  only  the  privileges  of  a  common- 
school  education,  he  has  worked  his  way  up  to  his  present  position  unaided  and 
alone.  After  determining  to  fit  himself  for  the  legal  profession,  he  read  law  two 
years  with  John  Galbraith  and  Casson  Graham,  and  afterward  continued  his  legal 
studies  about  two  years  longer,  being  for  a  considerable  portion  of  that  time  in 
the  office  of  N.  W.  Griswold,  of  Erie,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  1856.  Soon  after  receiving  his  license  to  practice,  he  removed  to  Illi- 
nois, where  on  beginning  his  practice,  he  was  for  a  short  time  a  member  of  the  law 


406  THE   BENCH  AffD  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

firm  of  Miller,  Taylor  and  Miller.  In  1860  he  went  to  Clinton,  Rock  county,  Wis- 
consin, where  he  held  several  offices  of  trust,  and  was  of  the  firm  of  Hamilton 
and  Turner,  who  published  the  newspaper  called  the  Clinton  "  Enterprise,'-'  prac- 
ticing law  in  the  meanwhile  until  1873,  and  then  he  removed  to  Chicago,  which 
has  since  that  time  been  his  home  and  place  of  business.  When  Mr.  Turner  first 
settled  in  Chicago,  he  was  favored  with  quite  an  extensive  practice,  and  he  has 
done  a  reasonable  amount  of  business,  and  met  with  good  success.  He  is  well 
versed  in  legal  lore,  has  a  clear,  comprehensive  mind,  and  is  at  once  a  safe,  relia- 
ble counselor  and  good  advocate.  As  a  man  and  citizen,  he  has  the  esteem  and 
respect  of  all  who  know  him. 


CHARLES  HITCHCOCK. 

/CHARLES  HITCHCOCK  was  born  at  Hanson,  Plymouth  county,  Massachu- 
V_^  setts,  April  4,  1827,  and  was  descended  from  Luke  Hitchcock,  who  emigrated 
from  England  and  settled  in  New  Haven  about  1644.  Among  his  ancestors  were 
several  distinguished  and  highly  educated  persons.  He  was  the  son  of  Charles 
and  Abigail  (Hall)  Hitchcock.  His  early  life  was  spent  on  his  father's  farm,  at 
Hanson  and  Pembroke,  and  in  attending  the  public  schools,  where  he  excelled  in 
English  studies.  He  entered  Phillips  Academy  in  the  spring  of  1846,  where  he 
devoted  himself  almost  exclusively  to  classical  studies.  Here,  as  elsewhere,  what- 
ever he  studied  he  learned  accurately  and  with  the  greatest  facility. 

In  the  fall  of  1847  he  entered  Dartmouth  College.  On  leaving  college  he 
remained  at  Hanover  one  year,  studying  law  in  the  office  of  David  Blaisdell.  In 
the  fall  of  1852  he  went  to  Washington,  and  was  engaged  for  a  year  in  teaching 
Latin  and  Greek  in  one  of  the  academies  and  in  giving  lectures  upon  scientific 
subjects,  and  gained  ra  high  reputation  in  literary  circles.  In  the  fall  of  1853  he 
entered  the  senior  class  of  the  Dane  Law  School,  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts, 
where  he  finished  his  preparatory  legal  studies.  In  the  fall  of  1854  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  and  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago.  In  a  few 
years  he  established  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  but  always  retained  his  habits 
of  study.  At  the  office  his  leisure  time  was  given  to  the  study  of  the  law;  at 
home,  to  literature.  Mr.  Hitchcock  held  but  two  public  offices.  For  a  brief 
period  after  the  memorable  fire  of  October,  1871,  he  held  the  office  of  county  com- 
missioner. He  was  president  of  the  convention  of  1870  which  framed  the  present 
constitution  of  the  state,  and  where  he  displayed  great  knowledge  of  parliamentary 
practice. 

Mr.  Hitchcock  was  married  to  Miss  Annie  McClure,  of  Chicago,  July  10,  1860, 
and  most  of  his  married  life  was  spent  in  the  beautiful  home  at  Kenwood,  where 
he  died  May  6,  1881.  The  union  was  made  happy  by  mutual  respect  and  affec- 
tion. With  him  all  friendships  and  affections  were  held  subordinate  to  his  devo- 
tion to  the  wife,  who  in  equal  degree  made  their  home  a  place  for  the  domestic 
affections  and  a  center  of  refined  and  generous  hospitality. 


'•f 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  409 

At  a  bar  meeting  held  in  the  United  States  circuit  court  room  high  encomi- 
ums were  pronounced,  and  resolutions  of  condolence  to  his  bereaved  family  were 
spread  upon  the  records  of  the  several  state  and  federal  courts  in  the  city  of 
Chicago. 

He  had  a  judgment  of  the1  highest  order,  and  his  mind  was  what  is  styled  a 
judicial  mind,  capable  of  an  impartial  survey  of  both  sides  of  a  question.  He 
was  faithful  to  his  clients,  to  his  professional  brethren  and  the  courts.  The  courts 
justly  relied  upon  the  accuracy  of  his  statements.  He  had  the  faculty  of  grasp- 
ing the  pivotal  points  of  legal  questions  with  great  ease;  was  discriminating  and 
profound,  with  a  retentive  memory.  He  could  enforce  his  views  by  luminous, 
logical,  cogent  argument.  His  ambition  in  life  was  purely  professional,  and  was 
formed  upon  the  highest  conception  of  what  a  great  lawyer  ought  to  be,  and  his 
ambition  was  achieved.  He  had  large  sympathy  with  the  younger  members  of 
the  bar,  and  had  a  high  sense  of  personal  honor,  and  was  remarkable  for  equa- 
nimity of  temper,  being  always  calm  and  unruffled.  His  kindness  of  heart 
endeared  him  to  his  sadly  bereaved  family,  his  professional  brethren  and  a  large 
circle  of  admiring  friends.  His  is  the  true  fame;  not  lying  in  broad  rumor  nor 
in  the  glittering  foil  set  off  to  the  world,  but  that  fame  based  upon  good  works, 
upon  duty  done,  and  a  life  beyond  reproach,  which  grows  and  blossoms  in  immor- 
tal soil. 

JAMES    H.  FAIRCHILD. 

JAMES  H.  FAIRCHILD  was  born  June  15,  1842,  in  London,  Ontario,  Canada. 
His  father,  John  H.  Fairchild,  was  a  large  land  holder  there,  and  moved  with 
his  family  to  Michigan  in  1844,  settling  in  Lexington  and  engaging  in  the  lum- 
bering business,  and  later,  in  1847,  removing  to  Detroit.  His  grandfather,  Ben- 
jamin Fairchild,  was  surveyor-general  of  Canada.  Mr.  Fairchild  prepared  for 
college  at  Ypsilanti,  Michigan,  and  entered  the  University  of  Michigan  at  Ann 
Arbor,  and  taking  the  law  course,  graduated  in  1863  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
He  then  entered  the  navy,  and  was  attached  to  the  paymaster's  department  of 
that  branch  of  the  service.  After  serving  about  eighteen  months  in  the  navy, 
Mr.  Fairchild  entered  the  office  of  Hon.  H.  H.  Emmonds,  of  Detroit  (late  circuit 
judge),  and  continued  his  legal  studies,  and  in  1865  began  practice  independently 
in  Detroit,  but  after  a  brief  interval  removing  to  Niles,  Michigan,  where  he  con- 
tinued in  practice  until  1872.  In  1867  Mr.  Fairchild  had  assisted  in  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  United  States  Law  Association,  then  the  only  law  association  in  this 
country,  and  was  one  of  the  first  directors  thereof,  and  still  holds  that  position. 
In  1872  he  moved  to  Chicago,  and  established  himself  in  practice,  and  in  the  fall 
of  that  year  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  Blackman,  then  on  the  bench  of  the 
second  judicial  circuit  of  Michigan,  which  partnership  still  exists.  Commercial 
law  is  a  specialty  with  this  firm.  They  have  a  very  extensive  practice,  and  have 
been  very  successful.  Mr.  Fairchild  has  a  very  fine  library,  and  one  of  the  most 
43 


4IO  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

perfect  law  offices  in  the  country.  System  and  order  is  the  rule  with  him,  and  no 
detail  is  overlooked  that  would  add  to  the  completeness  of  his  office  as  a  law 
office.  In  politics  he  is  a  democrat,  but  does  not  aspire  to  any  political  office  or 
preferment,  simply  devoting  himself  to  his  profession.  He  was  recorder  of  the 
city  of  Niles,  Michigan,  from  1869  to  1871.  He  married  a  resident  of  Ypsilanti. 
Michigan,  in  1866,  and  has  three  children. 


EDWIN   F.  BAYLEY. 

EDWIN  F.  BAYLEY  was  born  in  Manlius,  New  York,  June  n,  1845.  His 
father,  Calvin  C.  Bayley,  was  for  ten  years  principal  of  Manlius  Academy, 
and  afterward,  in  1848,  moving  to  Wisconsin,  engaged  in  farming  near  Waupun. 
Mr.  Bayley's  boyhood  was  passed  upon  the  farm,  and  his  preparatory  education 
was  received  at  the  college  at  Ripon,  Wisconsin.  In  1866  he  entered  the  junior 
class  of  Amherst  College,  in  Massachusetts,  where  he  graduated  in  1868.  He  then 
went  to  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  where  he  commenced  the  study  of  law,  and  attended 
the  St.  Louis  Law  School,  and  while  pursuing  his  legal  studies,  held  a  position  in 
the  Washington  University,  in  St.  Louis,  as  instructor.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  July,  1869,  in  St.  Louis,  but  did  not  graduate  from  the  law  school  until  the 
year  1870.  He  retained  his  position  of  instructor  in  Washington  University  until 
1871,  when  he  left  that  institution  and  began  the  practice  of  law  in  St.  Louis.  He 
only  continued  in  practice  in  St.  Louis  one  year,  however,  and  in  October,  1872, 
came  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  been  practicing  his  profession  ever  since.  Mr. 
Bayley  before  entering  at  Amherst  College,  and  during  the  last  year  of  the  war, 
served  in  the  4ist  Wis.  Inf.,  in  Tennessee. 

In  1876  he  was  married,  and  has  two  children.     Mr.  Bayley  is  a  republican, 
but  has  taken  no  active  part  in  politics,  being  entirely  devoted  to  his  profession. 


MICHAEL   M.   MILLER. 

MICHAEL  M.  MILLER,  a  self-made  man,  was  born  in  New  Castle,  county 
of  Limerick,  Ireland.  When  seven  years  of  age  his  parents  immigrated  to 
America,  and  settled  for  a  time  in  New  York  city,  where  his  mother  died  very 
shortly  after  her  arrival.  The  family  was  then  scattered  throughout  the  country, 
and  our  subject  was  adopted  by  a  family  in  New  York,  where  he  spent  the  most 
of  his  time,  and  attended  the  public  schools  until  September,  1863,  when  he 
removed  to  the  West,  finally  settling  in  Chicago.  He  became  a  clerk  in  the 
grocery  store  of  his  uncle.  Soon  afterward,  through  the  advice  and  solicitation  of 
friends,  he  began  to  learn  the  trade  of  a  marble  cutter  and  carver.  This,  how- 
ever, did  not  suit  his  tastes,  and  again  we  find  him  engaged  in  the  grocery  busi- 
ness, where  he  remained  until  he  began  the  study  of  law  with  W.  S.  Avery,  a 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  41  I 

retired  member  of  the  bar,  who  had  formerly  been  an  active  member  of  the  pro- 
fession in  the  South.  Mr.  Miller  was  formally  admitted  as  a  member  of  the  bar 
in  1868,  and  in  1871,  immediately  following  the  great  fire,  was  elected  town  clerk 
of  West  Chicago,  on  the  reformed  ticket,  which  was  headed  by  Joseph  Medill, 
editor  of  the  Chicago  "Tribune,"  for  mayor.  In  1872  he  declined  the  nomina- 
tion as  representative  to  the  state  legislature,  from  the  fourth  senatorial  district, 
but  in  1874  was  elected  to  that  body  on  the  republican  ticket.  In  1876  Mr.  Miller, 
during  the  Tilden  reform  movement,  became  a  democrat,  and  was  a  very  active 
worker  during  the  campaign,  and  continued  on  the  political  field  until  1878,  when 
he  withdrew  from  active  politics.  Mr.  Miller  has  been  an  active  member  of  the 
bar,  and  in  1872  formed  a  partnership  with  John  Mason,  who  was  then  a  noted 
criminal  lawyer.  The  firm  continued  for  a  little  over  two  years,  when  Mr.  Miller 
was  compelled  to  retire  for  a  time  from  active  service,  by  reason  of  impaired 
health,  but  resumed  again  when  his  health  was  restored.  A  greater  portion  of 
his  practice  has  been  in  the  criminal  line,  with  good  success. 

Early  in  life  Mr.  Miller  was  known  for  his  radical  views  on  the  abolition  ques- 
tion, which  was  so  prominent  before  the  people  at  that  time.  That  same  deter- 
mination of  spirit,  combining  with  earnest,  persistent  efforts,  has  been  the  main- 
spring of  his  action  and  the  result  of  his  success. 


THOMAS   B.  BROWN. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Massachusetts,  and  was  born  at 
Wilmington,  in  the  county  of  Middlesex,  August  10,  1827.  He  is  the  son  of 
William  Brown,  late  of  Wakefield  (formerly  South  Reading),  Massachusetts,  who 
died  at  the  ripe  age  of  eighty-five  years,  on  the  place  purchased  of  the  Indians  in 
1642,  by  early  ancestors.  His  mother  was  Hannah  J.  (Eames)  Brown.  Mr.  Brown's 
ancestors  were  all  of  Puritan  stock,  and  of  English  descent,  except  a  portion  of 
his  mother's  progenitors,  who  were  of  Welsh  extraction.  When  Thomas  was  two 
years  old  his  parents  removed  to  South  Reading,  and  he  lived  there  until  he  was 
twenty-one  years  of  age.  His  father  owned  a  small  farm,  and  raised  a  large  fam- 
ily of  children,  and  Thomas  was  thoroughly  initiated  into  the  routine  of  farm 
labor  when  young.  Being  early  accustomed  to  hard  work,  he  has  retained  the 
habit  throughout  all  the  struggles  of  his  life.  He  attended  the  public  and  high 
schools  until  twenty-one  years  of  age,  and  afterward  spent  two  years  at  Brown 
University,  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  and  is  a  graduate  of  the  State  Normal 
School  at  Westfield,  Massachusetts.  He  attended  two  terms  at  the  Albany,  New 
York,  Law  School,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that  city  in  1854.  He  was 
afterward,  upon  examination,  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston,  April  12,  1855,  and 
was  admitted  to  practice  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  October  6,  1855.  July 
14,  1856,  he  was  also  admitted  to  practice  in  the  United  States  district  and  circuit 
courts  for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois,  and  has  practiced  law  and  served  as  a 


412  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

justice  of  the  peace  in  Chicago  until  the  present  time,  1883.  Mr.  Brown  was,  for 
about  eight  years,  a  member  of  the  board  of  police  and  fire  commissioners  of 
Chicago,  and  resigned  December  18,  1871.  In  the  great  conflagration  of  1871  he 
suffered  the  loss  of  all  of  his  papers  and  books,  and  his  law  library.  He  is  one  of 
Chicago's  substantial  men,  and  as  a  lawyer,  possesses  fine  ability  and  keen  dis- 
crimination, and  with  the  reputation  of  being  an  upright,  independent  and  honest 
man,  enjoys  the  fullest  confidence  of  his  legal  associates  and  all  who  know  him. 


WILLIAM    AIKEN    STARRETT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  near 
Pittsburgh,  Allegheny  county,  January  3,  1836,  and  is  the  son  of  William  A. 
Starrett,  and  Eleanor  (McEwen)  Starrett.  His  maternal  grandfather  was  Col. 
Thomas  McEwen,  of  Noblestown,  Pennsylvania.  Of  his  great-grandfathers,  one 
was  a  colonel,  and  the  other  a  quartermaster  with  the  rank  of  major  in  the  revo- 
lutionary army.  William  was  educated  in,  and  graduated  from  Jefferson  College, 
Pennsylvania,  and  also  the  Theological  Seminary  at  Princeton,  New  Jersey. 
Immediately  after  graduating,  he  was  chosen  professor  of  mathematics  in  Mount 
Pleasant  College,  Mount  Pleasant,  Pennsylvania,  and  held  that  position  for  two 
years.  He  was  ordained  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  and  officiated  as  such  for 
seven  years  of  the  earlier  part  of  his  life.  In  the  memorable  year  of  Quantrell's 
raid,  1863,  he  became  pastor  of  the  Presbyterian  church  at  Lawrence,  Kansas,  and 
his  active  labors  in  helping  the  sufferers  who  lost  homes,  means  and  friends  by 
the  fiendish  raiders  will  long  be  remembered.  He  was  the  architect  who  planned 
the  new  Presbyterian  church  at  that  place,  and  by  earnest,  persistent  effort 
brought  the  work  to  completion. 

On  account  of  a  change  of  convictions  as  to  theological  doctrine,  his  views  of 
truth  having  become  entirely  liberalized,  Mr.  Starrett  felt  it  his  duty  to  withdraw 
from  the  church.  The  fact  explains  itself,  and  speaks  well  for  the  church  with 
which  he  was  connected,  that  this  withdrawal  left  the  good  feeling  and  friendly 
respect  existing  between  him  and  the  ministry  unimpaired.  He  counts  among 
his  best  friends  old  ministerial  friends  who  were  formerly  associated  with  him, 
while  the  ministers  and  press  of  the  church  on  their  part  treated  him  at  the  time 
with  the  most  friendly  consideration,  and  accorded  him  the  fullest  indorsement 
as  an  upright  and  honorable  man.  He  was  for  seven  years  secretary  of  the  board 
of  regents  of  the  State  University  at  Lawrence,  and  was  for  a  considerable  time 
editor  of  the  "  Kansas  Tribune."  He  was  elected  superintendent  of  public  instruc- 
tion for  Douglas  county  shortly  after  going  to  Kansas,  and  held  many  prominent 
positions  in  Lawrence,  displaying  in  them  all  conspicuous  ability. 

In  a  letter  to  Hon.  John  K.  Rankin,  mayor  of  Lawrence,  dated  August  28, 
1875,  Hon.  John  Fraser,  state  superintendent  of  public  instruction  of  Kansas,  for- 
merly president  of  the  Agricultural  College  of  Pennsylvania,  and  president  of  the 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  413 

University  of  Kansas,  says  among  other  things:  "I  have  known  Mr.  Starrett  for 
nearly  nineteen  years.  He  is  really  a  man  of  superior  talents,  having  for  distin- 
guishing mental  traits  quickness  of  apprehension,  acuteness  of  intellect  and  reten- 
tiveness  of  memory.  He  is  a  good  classical  scholar,  and  has  a  large,  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  fine  arts,  especially  architectural  and  general  drawing,  in  which 
he  possesses  considerable  practical  skill.  The  practice  of  reading  history,  philoso- 
phy and  literature,  which  he  began  at  college,  and  which  he  has  ever  since  kept 
up  with  more  or  less  assiduity,  has  given  him  possession  of  large  stores  of  knowl- 
edge, which  his  tenacious  memory  enables  him  to  hold  ready  at  command  for 
correct  and  apt  quotation.  The  knowledge  he  has  acquired  he  is  able  to  impart 
to  others  in  a  scholarly  manner,  for  he  is  an  expert  and  correct  writer  and 
speaker." 

After  a  regular  and  thorough  course  of  study  Mr.  Starrett  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  Kansas  in  1876.  In  the  principles  of  the  law  and  legal  learning  few 
lawyers  have  read  and  studied  more  extensively,  more  thoroughly  and  pro- 
foundly. He  still  maintains  his  connection  with  the  press,  and  pursues  the  study  of 
history  and  literature,  and  is  now  incidentally  connected  with  "The  Weekly  Mag- 
azine," published  in  Chicago,  a  literary  journal  of  recognized  and  marked  ability, 
both  editorially,  and  as  president  of  the  company  which  owns  and  publishes  it. 
He  was  married  February  15,  1864,  to  Miss  Helen  Ekin,  at  Xenia,  Ohio,  daughter 
of  Rev.  Dr.  John  Ekin.  Mrs.  Starrett  is  widely  known  as  an  editorial  writer,  and 
contributor  to  literary  journals  throughout  this  country.  They  have  had  seven 
children,  all  of  whom  are  living.  The  eldest,  a  bright,  robust  lad  of  seventeen 
years,  is  advanced  to  the  junior  year  in  college.  Mr.  Starrett  removed  to  Chicago 
in  the  fall  of  1879,  and  is  engaged  in  a  general  practice  of  the  law. 


JOSEPH    PFIRSHING. 

JOSEPH  PFIRSHING  was  born  of  German  parentage  in  the  city  of  Stras- 
J  burgh,  in  the  province  of  Alsace,  now  a  part  of  the  German  empire,  October 
6,  1839.  His  father,  George  A.  Pfirshing,  moved  with  his  family  to  America, 
and  settled  in  Chicago  in  1854,  engaging  in  business  for  some  years,  but  is  now 
retired  and  living  at  Hyde  Park.  Mr.  Pfirshing  attended  the  Lyceum  school  at 
Carlsruhe  in  Germany  some  years,  and  after  settling  in  Chicago,  entered  the 
University  of  Chicago,  where  he  remained  until  1861,  when  he  returned  to  Ger- 
many and  entered  Heidelberg  University,  and  there  devoted  himself  to  the  study 
of  Roman  law  for  two  years,  after  which  he  studied  for  about  eighteen  months  in 
the  University  of  Paris.  Returning  to  Chicago,  he  entered  the  Union  College  of 
Law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1866.  He  was  for  some  time  in  the  law 
office  of  William  B.  Snow,  and  later  formed  a  partnership  with  Daniel  D.  Driscoll, 
which  continued  until  the  death  of  Mr.  Driscoll  in  1872,  since  which  time  he  has 
been  practicing  alone. 


414  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Pfirshing  has  a  large  general  civil  practice,  and  has  been  very  successful. 
He  was  attorney  for  the  complainant  in  the  Dinet  divorce  litigation,  which  occu- 
pied the  attention  of  the  courts  for  ten  years,  and  in  which  some  very  important 
questions  of  law  and  practice  were  settled.  He  is  a  man  of  marked  ability,  an 
excellent  legal  scholar  and  a  profound  lawyer.  He  stands  high  in  the  estimation 
of  his  professional  brethren,  and  is  popular  with  his  clients,  to  whose  interests  he 
is  never  unfaithful.  He  is  a  republican  in  politics,  but  takes  no  active  part 
therein,  devoting  his  life  to  his  profession  and  literary  pursuits,  being  a  man  of 
scholarly  tastes  and  habits.  He  was  married  in  1871  to  Miss  Mina  Wehrli,  of 
Chicago,  and  has  four  children. 


HENRY  S.   MONROE. 

HENRY  STANTON  MONROE,  a  prominent  member  of  the  Chicago  bar, 
was  born  in  Baltimore,  Maryland,  February  9,  1829.  His  father,  Dr.  Henry 
Monroe,  a  native  of  the  state  of  New  York,  was  from  about  one  year  preceding 
our  subject's  birth,  an  invalid,  and  was  at  that  time  in  Baltimore,  hoping  to 
improve  his  health.  He  had  acquired  an  honorable  standing  in  the  medical  pro- 
fession in  Broome  county,  New  York,  when  he  had  reached  his  twenty-sixth  year, 
at  which  date  he  was  obliged  to  seek  a.  respite  from  his  labors.  The  Monroe 
family  were  early  settlers  in  this  country.  There  were  thirteen  in  all  near  rela- 
tives at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  Large  numbers  now  reside  in  Virginia,  Ken- 
tucky and  New  York. 

The  mother  of  our  subject  was  Sylvia  Thomas,  a  relative  of  the  Stantons  of 
Pennsylvania,  and  of  the  late  Hon.  Caleb  Gushing,  of  Massachusetts,  and  her 
biographer  states  that  she  was  "a  lady  of  cultivated  tastes,  and  many  accomplish- 
ments." Her  husband,  in  his  later  years,  gave  his  attention  to  the  opening  of  a 
farm  which  he  purchased  as  wild  land,  in  Broome  county,  and  which  he  made 
one  of  the  best  farms  in  that  county.  On  that  farm  Henry  spent  his  early  years, 
with  an  intelligent  mother  for  his  teacher,  as  well  as  guide,  the  first  decade  of  his 
life.  For  a  few  years  thereafter  he  assisted  his  father  on  the  farm  during  seed- 
time, haying  and  harvest,  and  attended  a  district  school  in  the  winter  term.  At 
the  same  time  he  gave  such  spare  hours  as  he  could  command  to  reading,  for 
which  he  early  cultivated  a  taste,  history  being  a  favorite  study  at  that  period. 
Mr.  Monroe  prepared  for  college  at  Oxford,  Chenango  county,  New  York,  making 
rapid  strides  in  his  studies,  for  which  he  had  a  keen  relish,  and  at  the  end  of 
three  years  entered  the  junior  class  of  Geneva  College,  New  York,  leaping  half 
way  through  at  the  first  bound.  In  compliance  with  the  request  of  the  college 
society  to  which  he  belonged,  he  became  a  competitor  for  the  highest  prizes,  and 
won  them.  He  was  graduated  in  1850,  standing  at  the  head  of  his  class  and  tak- 
ing the  valedictory. 

Mr.  Monroe  studied  law  at  Oxford  with  Henry  R.  Mygatt,  and  taught  school 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of  CHICAGO.  415 

a  few  terms  while  pursuing  his  legal  studies.     He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 

1853,  and  purchasing  a  few  law  books,  with  borrowed  money,  came  directly  to 
Chicago,  where  he  had  one  acquaintance  only,  Hon.  Stephen  A.  Douglas.     Mr. 
Monroe  has  the  capacity,  however,  as  well  as  the  disposition,  to  make  acquain- 
tances, and  also  fast  and  abiding  friends  ;  and  opening  an  office  early  in  the  year 

1854,  he  soon  built  up  a  good  business,  and  canceled  his  debt  for  books.     His  first 
case  of  much  note,  was  that  of  Martin  O.  Walker  vs.  John  Frink,  two  well  known 
stage  coach  proprietors,  twenty  and  thirty  years  ago.     A  brief  account  of  this 
trial  may  be  found  in  a  sketch  of  Mr.  Monroe,  published  in  "The  Biographical 
Encyclopedia  of  Illinois,"  1875.     In  that  case  our  subject  appeared  alone  for  the 
defense,  having  a  great  array  of  talent  against  him,  and  won  a  signal  triumph,  at 
the   same  time  establishing   his  reputation  as  a  first  class  advocate.     The    trial 
lasted  a  long  time,  and  Mr.  Monroe,  who  is  somewhat  of  an  athlete,  physical  we 
mean  (and  we  might  also  add  mental),  endured  the  great  strain  admirably,  and 
came  out  ready  for  another  tilt  at  the  earliest  notice. 

Another  important  case  in  which  Mr.  Monroe  was  engaged,  and  in  which  he 
greatly  distinguished  himself,  was  that  of  Fisher  vs.  Stone,  a  case  of  malpractice, 
noticed  in  the  work  to  which  we  have  just  referred,  and  which  the  reader  may  be 
glad  to  consult.  It  was  a  cause  involving  scientific  problems,  then  unsolved,  in 
which  medical  men  were  profoundly  interested,  and  in  which  several  of  the  lead- 
ing men  of  that  profession  were  summoned  to  testify.  Mr.  Monroe  completely 
mastered  the  details  of  the  matter,  went  to  the  bottom  of  the  subject,  and  aston- 
ished everybody,  and  particularly  the  medical  experts,  with  the  breadth  of  his 
knowledge,  and  his  masterly  presentation  and  handling  of  the  cause. 

The  trial  lasted  a  full  month,  and  our  subject  came  out  of  it  with  an  elastic 
bound,  and  with  the  triumphant  cheers  of  his  friends,  he  winning  for  the  defend- 
ant. It  is  stated  on  good  authority  that  the  result  of  this  trial  was  to  materially 
change  the  opinion  of  medical  experts  upon  scientific  questions,  which  had  been 
debated  and  unsettled,  such  experts  in  Europe  as  well  as  in  this  country,  with 
very  few  exceptions,  siding  with  Mr.  Monroe  in  the  correctness  of  the  theories 
and  principles  which  he  laid  down.  His  success  in  a  few  such  trials  as  these  here 
mentioned,  taking  place  during  the  earlier  period  of  his  practice  in  Chicago,  gave 
him  a  wide  and  high  reputation  as  a  lawyer,  and  his  business  soon  extended  over 
a  broad  area.  It  is  now  spread  over  almost  the  whole  country.  He  was  not  long 
ago  engaged  on  the  celebrated  Reese  will  case  in  California,  and  in  an  important 
land  case  in  New  Hampshire,  and  has  tried  important  cases  in  all  the  northwest- 
ern states  as  well  as  in  New  York. 

Mr.  Monroe  encourages  no  one  to  go  to  law  unless  he  has  a  clear  case,  and 
once  enlisted  labors  with  indefatigable  zeal  for  the  interests  of  his  client.  As 
leading  counsel  in  many  important  corporation,  commercial  and  insurance  cases, 
and  in  defending  prosecutions  under  the  revenue  laws,  his  great  success  has  been 
specially  conspicuous.  As  cross-examining  counsel,  and  as  an  advocate  before  a 
jury,  he  has  few  peers  at  the  Chicago  bar.  Lately  Mr.  Monroe  has  been  largely 


416  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

engaged  in  real  estate  litigation,  he  being  a  leader  in  this  line  of  the  profession. 
As  intimated  in  the  early  part  of  this  sketch,  Mr.  Monroe  has  a  fondness  for  liter- 
ature as  well  as  the  law,  and  has  never  ceased  to  develop  and  improve  his  taste 
in  that  direction.  In  the  great  fire  of  1871  he  lost  one  of  the  largest  and  most 
perfect  law  libraries  in  the  Northwest,  which  has  only  in  a  measure  been  replaced, 
and  he  is  constantly  adding  to  his  private  library,  which  was  noted  years  ago  for 
its  large  size  and  the  great  value  of  the  collection.  It  contains  between  five 
thousand  and  six  thousand  volumes,  nearly  all  in  the  richest  binding,  and 
embracing  the  French  and  German,  as  well  as  English  and  American  classics. 

Mr.  Monroe  married,  in  1856,  Miss  Mattie  Mitchell,  daughter  of  William  B. 
Mitchell,  of  Akron,  Ohio,  and  they  have  an  interesting  family  of  children,  who 
are  receiving  an  excellent  education,  and  are  the  pride  of  their  parents.  In  social 
as  well  as  professional  standing,  Mr.  Monroe  holds  a  front  rank,  the  purity  of  his 
life  as  well  as  his  integrity,  being  unquestioned.  With  mental,  he  intermingles 
physical  recreation  ;  at  one  time  with  his  spirited  horse  on  our  boulevards,  at 
another  with  dog  and  gun  ;  and  thus  he  keeps  up  the  elasticity  of  his  body  as 
well  as  mind,  and  bids  fair  to  see  an  old  age  of  life's  "  linked  sweetness  long 
drawn  out." 


WILLIAM   S.  EVERETT. 

WILLIAM  S.  EVERETT  was  born  in  Fannettsburgh,  Franklin  county,  Penn- 
sylvania, in  1836,  and  is  a  direct  descendant  of  Richard  Everett,  who 
immigrated  from  England  to  America  in  1636,  and  founded  the  town  of  Dedham, 
Massachusetts.  He  received  his  early  education  at  Milnwood  Academy,  located 
at  Shade  Gap,  Huntingdon  county,  Pennsylvania,  where  he  was  awarded  the 
honor  for  excellence  in  oratory.  His  education  was  completed  at  Lafayette  Col- 
lege, Easton,  Pennsylvania,  in  the  class  of  1857.  He  studied  law  with  William 
McLellan  in  Chambersburgh,  Pennsylvania ;  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  had 
commenced  practice  a  short  time  before  the  late  civil  war,  in  which  he  was  active 
in  the  border  service,  and  filled  the  office  of  lieutenant  and  captain  for  a  consid- 
erable period. 

He  was  arrested  by  order  of  Gen.  McCausland,  with  five  other  citizens,  at  the 
burning  of  Chambersburgh,  and  held  with  them  as  hostages  for  the  payment  of 
$500,000,  levied  by  the  rebel  general  upon  the  citizens  of  the  town.  No  attempt 
was  made  to  raise  the  money,  and  the  approach  of  Gen.  Averill  enabled  the  pris- 
oners to  make  their  escape.  He  married,  in  1861,  Miss  Jane  K.  Cree,  who  died  in 
1864,  leaving  two  children.  In  1865  he  married  Miss  Charlotte  S.  Reed,  by  whom 
he  has  seven  children.  In  1863  he  was  appointed  county  attorney,  and  held  that 
office  three  years.  In  1867  he  was  elected  chief  officer  (mayor)  of  the  town.  In 
1869  he  removed  with  his  family  to  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  and  was  appointed 
county  attorney  for  Buchanan  county,  Missouri,  a  few  months  after  settling  there, 
which  office  he  held  two  years.  He  was  repeatedly  urged  to  run  for  congress, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  417 

while  living  there,  but  declined  ;  was  tendered  the  appointment  of  United  States 
district  attorney  for  the  western  district  of  Missouri  by  Attorney  General  Will- 
iams, but  declined  to  accept;  in  1874  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Supreme 
Court  of  the  United  States  ;  in  1875  removed  with  his  family  to  Chicago,  where 
he  still  lives.  He  loves  his  profession,  and  has  been  successful  in  it.  He  has 
made  no  specialties,  but  has  had  an  extensive  general  practice. 

He  has  taken  an  active  part  in  all  the  political  campaigns  since  1860;  can- 
vassed Pennsylvania,  part  of  Ohio,  and  made  speeches  in  other  states  during  the 
canvass  of  1864,  feeling  that  the  condition  of  the  country  required  the  reelection 
of  Abraham  Lincoln.  The  following  from  the  St.  Joseph  "Daily  Union,"  is  one 
of  the  many  favorable  notices  given  him  by  the  press,  as  a  public  speaker: 

"We  take  much  pleasure  in  referring  to  the  oration  of  our  distinguished 
townsman,  W.  S.  Everett,  delivered  at  the  county  seat  of  Holt  county,  which,  as 
usual,  bears  evidence  of  great  thoughtfulness,  originality  and  scholarly  culture. 
Mr.  Everett  never  fails  to  make  a  great  impression  on  those  who  are  fortunate 
enough  to  hear  him,  and  his  breadth  of  knowledge,  in  these  days  of  superficial 
literary  exploits,  is  a  positive  treat.  We  are  instructed  as  well  as  entertained,  in 
listening  to  his  polished  periods,  and  we  could  wish  that  Mr.  Everett's  fame  be 
more  generally  known  in  the  West." 

He  has  been  an  active  Odd-Fellow,  and  has  delivered  many  addresses  on  Odd- 
Fellowship,  which  have  appeared  in  print  from  time  to  time  as  they  were 
delivered. 


ISAAC  G.  WILSON. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  the  present  presiding  justice  of  the  appellate  court, 
was  the  only  son  of  Hon.  Isaac  Wilson,  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  highly 
respected  settlers  of  western  New  York,  and  who  was  the  first  member  of  con- 
gress from  Genesee  county  in  that  state.  Judge  Wilson's  grandfather,  as  also 
his  father,  filled  judicial  stations,  the  former  in  Vermont,  and  the  latter  in  the 
state  of  New  York,  having  been  first  judge  of  Genesee  county  for  many  years,  a 
position  which  he  resigned  on  removing  to  Illinois  in  1835. 

The  present  Judge  Wilson  was  born  in  the  town  of  Middlebury,  New  York, 
April  26,  1817.  He  had  six  sisters,  all  of  whom  lived  to  adult  life,  but  no  brother. 
At  the  age  of  twelve  he  was  sent  to  the  academy  at  Wyoming,  and  remained 
in  school  and  as  clerk  in  a  store  until  1834,  when  he  entered  Brown  University, 
at  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  then  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Wayland.  Among 
his  classmates  were  Charles  S.  Bradley,  afterward  chief-justice  of  Rhode  Island, 
and  law  lecturer  at  the  Cambridge  Law  School;  the  late  Thomas  A.  Jenckes,  for 
many  years  a  member  of  congress  from  Rhode  Island,  and  author  of  the  bankrupt 
act  of  1867;  Ezekel  G.  Robinson,  now  president  of  Brown  University,  and  Geo.  V. 
N.  Lothrop,  the  eminent  Detroit  lawyer. 

Upon  graduating  in  1838,  Mr.  Wilson  came  to  Illinois,  where  his  father's 
44 


41  8  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

family  had  preceded  him,  three  years  before,  and  became  a  student  in  the  office 
of  Butterfield  and  Collins,  then  the  leading  law  firm  of  Chicago,  if  not  of  the 
Northwest.  In  the  spring  of  1840  he  again  went  East,  and  entered  the  Cambridge 
Law  School,  under  the  instruction  of  Judges  Story  and  Greenleaf,  and  gradu- 
ated the  following  year  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws,  in  the  class  of  which 
James  Russell  Lowell  and  W.  W.  Story,  the  sculptor,  were  members.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  Massachusetts  bar  at  Concord  in  July  1841. 

On  returning  the  following  month  to  Chicago,  where  he  had  intended  to 
locate,  he  found  that  instead  of  there  being  room  for  more  lawyers,  many  of  those 
already  there  were  leaving  for  other  places,  in  consequence  of  the  extreme  depres- 
sion in  business,  which  followed  the  financial  crisis  of  1837  and  1838.  He  there- 
upon determined  to  go  into  the  country,  and  in  August,  1841,  opened  a  law  office  in 
Elgin.  There  he  continued  in  the  practice,  doing  a  good  business,  riding  the  cir- 
cuit with  his  books  in  his  saddle-bags,  as  was  then  the  custom,  for  ten  years, 
when,  in  1851,  he  was  elected  a  circuit  judge. 

During  the  next  sixteen  years  he  performed  an  almost  incredible  amount  of 
judicial  labor,  not  exceeded  perhaps  by  that  of  any  judge  who  ever  presided  in  an 
Illinois  court.  He  frequently  held  court  ten  and  a  half,  and  sometimes  eleven 
months  out  of  the  twelve,  and  it  was  his  custom  to  begin  promptly  at  nine,  and 
often  at  eight  o'clock  in  the  morning,  holding  until  six  P.M.,  with  forty-five  min- 
utes intermission  at  noon,  and  also  holding  evening  session  if  necessaryj  to  keep 
up  with  the  business.  He  was  twice  reelected  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  all  parties. 

Upon  leaving  the  bench  in  1867,  Judge  Wilson  opened  an  office  in  Chicago 
with  Col.  H.  F.  Vallette  and  Gen.  Benjamin  J.  Sweet,  of  Camp  Douglas  fame, 
and  upon  the  dissolution  of  that  firm,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  Emery 
A.  Storrs,  and  subsequently  with  Sanford  B.  Perry,  with  whom  he  continued,  his 
practice  being  confined  mostly  to  the  federal  courts,  until  1879,  when  he  was 
again  elected  circuit  judge,  and  immediately  thereafter  was  designated  as  a  mem- 
ber of  the  appellate  court  at  Chicago,  of  which  two  years  later  he  was  made  chief- 
justice. 

Judge  Wilson  has  grown  rapidly  in  the  estimation  of  the  bar  since  his  eleva- 
tion to  the  appellate  bench.  His  education  is  varied,  broad  and  liberal,  and  his 
published  opinions  are  models  of  judicial  writings,  being  logical,  clear  and  pol- 
ished. His  associates  on  the  appellate  bench  are  Hon.  W.  K.  McAllister  and  Hon. 
Joseph  N.  Bailey. 

In  1843  Judge  Wilson  married  a  daughter  of  the  late  Scotto  Clark,  for  many 
years  a  prominent  Boston  merchant,  a  cotemporary  and  friend  of  Amos  and 
Abbott  Lawrence.  Mrs.  Wilson  was  a  lady  of  unusual  accomplishments,  of  rare 
judgment,  and  much  given  to  deeds  of  charity.  She  died  in  1877,  leaving  three 
sons  and  two  daughters,  one  of  whom  died  not  long  after  the  death  of  the  mother. 

In  1875  Judge  Wilson  went  abroad,  visiting  the  principal  cities  and  places 
of  interest  in  England  and  on  the  continent,  spending  some  time  in  the  Swiss 
Alps,  being  a  great  lover  of  mountain  scenery.  In  London,  as  was  natural, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO.  419 

he  was  most  attracted  to  the  English  courts,  and  was  introduced  to  vice-chan- 
cellor Baker,  who  showed  him  gratifying  attentions;  his  observations  in  France, 
where  he  spent  considerable  time,  made  him  somewhat  skeptical  as  to  the 
stability  of  their  present  government,  indeed  he  came  away  impressed  with  the 
conviction  that  the  masses  of  the  French  people  are  not  yet  fitted  for  a  republican 
form  of  government,  and  that  the  existing  order  of  things,  though  in  name  a 
republic,  is  in  fact  a  despotism.  He  regards  the  trials  in  the  French  courts  of 
criminal  procedure  as  a  travesty  of  justice,  where  the  judge  assumes  the  office  of 
prosecutor,  and  not  infrequently,  through  mere  pride  of  winning,  coerces  a  finding 
of  guilty,  pointing  to  the  trepidations  of  the  accused,  which  the  judge  himself  has 
produced  by  browbeating  and  superior  intellectual  strength,  as  evidence  of  guilt. 


FERDINAND  L.   BARNETT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  of  slave  parentage  at  Nashville,  Tennessee, 
February  18,  1855.  He  removed  with  his  father's  family  to  Canada,  in  1859, 
for  school  facilities,  his  father  having  purchased  his  freedom,  and  in  1860  removed 
to  Chicago.  There  he  pursued  a  four  year's  course  of  study  in  the  Chicago  central 
high  school,  from  which  he  graduated  in  June,  1874.  He  then  taught  school  two 
years,  and  afterward  entered  the  law  department  of  the  Northwestern  University, 
and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1878;  during  the  same  year  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  and  immediately  entered  upon  the  work  of  his  profession, 
and  has  built  up  a  paying  business.  He  is  largely  engaged  in  the  probate  court, 
and  has  also  a  fair  share  of  business  in  all  of  the  state  courts.  Mr.  Barnett  is  a 
self-made  man,  having  earned  the  money  with  which  he  procured  his  education 
by  service  rendered  after  school  hours.  He  is  an  energetic  young  man,  affable 
in  his  manners,  and  has  many  personal  friends.  Mr.  Barnett  possesses  fine  liter- 
ary tastes.  He  has  been  for  three  years  editor-in-chief  of  the  "  Conservator,"  a 
paper  which  he  established,  and  which  at  the  present  time,  1883,  is  considered 
one  of  the  best  newspapers  published  by  his  race. 


ALBART  J.   ELVIG. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  Norwegian  by  birth,  and  the  only  person  of 
his  name  living  in  America.  A.  J.  Elvig  was  born  at  Bergen,  Norway,  April 
13,  1841.  His  parents  were  natives  of  Norway,  and  were  people  of  very  high 
standing,  being  known  almost  throughout  the  Scandinavian  peninsula,  and  his 
father  was  a  manufacturer  of  considerable  prominence.  His  youngest  sister, 
Johanne  (Elvig)  Reiwers,  living  in  Christiana,  was  educated  for  the  stage,  and 
reached  the  highest  point  of  honor  in  her  profession,  being  purely  born  to  the 
art.  The  last  play  she  engaged  in  was  ''The  Sorrowful  World,"  in  which,  at  the 
age  of  thirty-two,  she  took  the  character  of  a  girl  of  eighteen.  In  honor  of  her 


42O  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

high  attainments,  the  King  of  Sweden  presented  her  with  the  gold  medal  "Litteris 
et  Artibus"  and  the  Crown  Prince  of  Sweden  with  a  diamond  bracelet  in  admira- 
tion of  her  skill.  Just  as  she  had  reached  this  high  standard  of  excellence,  having 
exhausted  her  strength  and  power  by  over-exertion,  she  died  April  29,  1882,  much 
to  the  loss  of  her  country.  The  whole  city  was  much  grieved,  and  went  in  a 
body  to  the  grave,  forming  a  large  procession  of  the  highest  ladies  in  Norway, 
presenting  great  floral  offerings. 

Mr.  Elvig  received  his  early  education  in  the  public  schools  and  college  of  his 
native  city,  until  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  he  immigrated  to  America,  landing  in 
Boston.  His  first  position  was  in  the  service  of  the  state  as  quartermaster,  where 
he  remained  two  years;  thence  he  entered  the  service  of  the  United  States  govern- 
ment, starting  as  an  ordinary  seaman,  and  served  in  several  positions  until  1864, 
when  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  C.  and 
C.  P.  Kinney.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  the  fall  of  1869,  when 
he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession  alone,  and  has  been  alone  ever  since.  In 
1866  Mr.  Elvig  married  a  lady  from  Pennsylvania,  who  died  in  February,  1881. 
He  has  always  devoted  his  entire  time  and  energy  to  his  practice,  which  has 
become  extensive  and  profitable,  and  is  principally  among  the  Germans  and  Scan- 
dinavians, with  whom  he  is  very  popular. 


GEN.  JOSEPH    S.   REYNOLDS. 

JOSEPH  SMITH  REYNOLDS  was  born  December  3,  1839,  at  New  Lenox, 
Will  county,  Illinois.  His  father,  Isaac  N.,  was  the  son  of  Joseph  S.  Reynolds, 
a  native  of  Maryland,  who  in  early  years  removed  to  Urbana,  Ohio.  In  1817  he 
removed  to  Madison  county,  Illinois,  and  in  1831  settled  at  New  Lenox. 

His  mother,  Rue  Ann,  was  the  daughter  of  Abram  Holderman,  a  native  of 
Pennsylvania,  who  in  1830  settled  in  Kendall  county,  Illinois,  and  who  was  a  son 
of  Christopher  Holderman,  a  Hanoverian  officer  in  the  service  of  England,  who 
was  taken  prisoner  by  the  Green  Mountain  boys  at  the  battle  of  Bennington, 
August  16,  1777.  After  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war  he  settled  in  Pennsyl- 
vania, and  is  the  progenitor  of  the  Holdermans  of  that  state,  and  of  Ohio  and 
Illinois,  many  of  whom  are  among  the  wealthiest  and  most  prominent  business 
people  of  those  states.  Isaac  N.  and  Rue  Ann  Reynolds  are  still  living  on  their 
farm  at  New  Lenox,  surrounded  by  every  comfort. 

Young  Reynolds  worked  on  his  father's  farm  and  attended  the  district  school 
until  September,  1856,  when  he  came  to  Chicago  and  attended  the  public  schools 
of  that  city.  He  entered  the  Chicago  high  school  in  September,  1857,  and  gradu- 
ated therefrom  in  July  1861.  During  the  last  two  years  he  was  president  of  the 
Irving  Society,  the  literary  association  of  the  school. 

During  the  month  of  August  following  his  graduating  he  enlisted  in  the  Union 
army,  and  with  Fred.  W.  Matteson,  son  of  Gov.  Joel  A.  Matteson,  commenced 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  423 

recruiting  the  battalion  of  Yates  Sharpshooters,  which  was  known  later  in  the 
war  as  the  64th  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.  December  31  he  was  commissioned  as 
second  lieutenant  in  Co.  F  of  this  regiment,  and  in  January,  1862,  with  it  went  to 
the  front.  He  was  in  active  service  three  years  and  ten  months,  and  during  this 
time  made  for  himself  a  war  record  that  has  scarcely  a  parallel  for  one  of  his 
youthful  age.  He  was  promoted  five  times  by  commissions  from  the  governor  of 
Illinois,  and  twice  by  commissions  from  the  president  of  the  United  States.  He 
took  part  in  seventeen  historic  battles,  and  was  in  many  lesser  engagements.  He 
was  slightly  wounded  at  Farmington,  Mississippi,  May  3, 1862,  and  again  at  Dallas, 
Georgia,  May  25,  1864.  At  Corinth,  Mississippi,  October  4,  1862,  he  was  wounded 
in  the  left  leg  early  in  the  day,  and  though  the  wound  was  very  painful  he  did 
not  leave  the  field  until  the  victory  was  won.  Soon  after  this  he  was  promoted  to 
a  captaincy  in  his  regiment,  his  commission  stating  "for  gallant  and  meritorious 
service  rendered  on  the  battle-field  at  Corinth,  October  3  and  4,  1862."  He  par- 
ticipated in  the  battles  and  marches  of  Gen.  Sherman's  army  in  going  from  Chat- 
tanooga to  Atlanta,  and  was  conspicuous  for  bravery  at  Resaca,  where  his  sword 
was  shot  from  his  hand  while  leading  a  charge  made  by  the  skirmishers,  and  at 
Dallas  and  Kenesaw  mountain.  November  i,  1864,  he  took  command  of  the  64th 
111.,  and  marched  with  Gen.  Sherman  from  Atlanta  to  the  sea,  and  from  Savannah 
to  Washington.  He  commanded  the  troops  and  led  the  charge  that  captured 
Pocataligo,  South  Carolina,  January  16,  1865,  and  with  his  regiment  was  among 
the  first  to  enter  Columbia,  South  Carolina,  February  18,  and  was  in  the  advance 
line  during  the  charge  on  and  capture  of  Cheraw,  South  Carolina,  March  3.  At 
Bentonsville,  North  Carolina,  March  21,  Gen.  J.  A.  Mower's  division  of  the  seven- 
teenth army  corps  made  an  attack  on  the  left  flank  and  rear  of  the  Confederate 
forces  under  Gen.  Joe  Johnson,  Col.  Reynolds'  regiment  leading  the  attack  as 
skirmishers.  Col.  Reynolds  was  in  command  of  the  advance.  He  drove  the 
enemy's  cavalry  and  artillery  two  miles,  capturing  Gen.  Johnson's  headquarters, 
forty  horses  and  twelve  prisoners.  His  regiment  was  then  in  the  rear  of  John- 
son's army,  and  in  its  line  of  retreat;  his  support  was  being  driven  back,  and  the 
64th  was  in  great  danger  of  being  captured.  He  contracted  his  lines  and  changed 
his  position  with  so  much  skill  and  activity  that  he  was  enabled  to  attack  the 
enemy's  flank  with  great  vigor  and  intrepidity.  Gen.  Hardee,  supposing  he  was 
flanked  by  a  large  force,  fell  back  with  haste,  and  did  not  discover  his  mistake 
until  Gen.  Mower  had  safely  crossed  the  swamp.  The  64th  then  gave  the  enemy 
a  parting  souvenir  and  fell  back.  Both  Gens.  Mower  and  Fuller  highly  compli- 
mented Col.  Reynolds  and  his  officers  and  men  on  this  occasion,  and  Col.  Rey- 
nolds was  also  recommended  by  his  superior  officers  to  the  president  for  promo- 
tion as  brigadier-general,  which  honor  he  subsequently  received.  Gen.  Reynolds 
took  part  in  the  grand  review  of  Gen.  Sherman's  army  at  Washington,  District  of 
Columbia,  May  24,  1865. 

After  leaving  the  army  in  July,  1865,  he  commenced  studying  law  with  Scales, 
Bates  and  Towsle,  and  graduated  from  the  law  department  of  the  Chicago  Uni- 


424  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

versity  in  July,  1866,  and  was  then  admitted  to  the  bar  and  immediately  com- 
menced the  practice  of  the  law  in  Chicago  under  the  firm  name  of  Reynolds  and 
Phelps,  his  partner  being  S.  D.  Phelps.  In  1869  he  formed  a  partnership  with  J. 
C.  Richberg  under  the  firm  name  of  Reynolds  and  Richberg.  Since  May,  1874, 
he  has  been  alone  in  the  practice  of  his  profession. 

In  November,  1867,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  Illinois  legislature  from 
Chicago,  and  reelected  in  the  fall  of  1869.  On  taking  his  seat  in  the  house  he 
soon  became  one  of  its  active  members.  The  Illinois  penitentiary  was  then  an 
expense  to  the  state  of  about  half  a  million  dollars  a  year,  and  he  was  one  to  pro- 
pose and  strongly  advocate  the  change  in  its  management  which  has  ever  since 
rendered  it  self-supporting.  He  opposed  building  the  new  State  House  at 
Springfield,  preferring  either  Chicago  or  Peoria  as  the  future  capital  of  the  state. 
Twice  the  measure  was  defeated  in  the  house,  mainly  by  his  efforts,  and  it  was 
only  when  the  bill  came  from  the  senate,  near  the  close  of  the  session,  that  the 
friends  of  Springfield  triumphed  in  the  house.  During  the  session  of  1869-70  he 
was  chairman  of  the  then  committee  on  municipal  affairs  and  insurance,  and  not- 
withstanding one-third  of  all  of  the  bills  introduced  into  the  house  were  referred 
to  this  committee,  it  was  never  behind  with  its  work,  and  its  chairman  gained  the 
reputation  of  being  one  of  the  most  efficient  workers  in  the  house.  He  intro- 
duced the  bills  to  regulate  life  and  fire  insurance  companies  doing  business  in 
Illinois,  and  secured  their  passage,  and  they  are  now  the  laws  on  our  statute 
books  appertaining  to  life  and  fire  insurance. 

He  was  appointed  in  May,  1870,  a  member  of  the  board  of  education  of  Chi- 
cago, and  served  in  that  capacity  until  July  1874.  • 

In  the  fall  of  1872  he  was  elected  to  represent  the  first  district,  comprising  the 
heart  of  Chicago,  in  the  state  senate,  and  took  a  prominent  part  in  its  organiza- 
tion and  in  its  subsequent  labors.  He  was  a  member  of  the  senate  committees 
on  revision  of  the  statutes,  on  revenue,  on  appropriations,  on  state  institutions, 
on  the  penitentiary  and  on  education,  and  he  looked  closely  after  the  business 
before  each  of  these  committees.  He  discovered  that  the  board  of  trustees  of  one 
of  the  chief  state  institutions  were  acting  contrary  to  law,  and  though  they  had 
just  been  confirmed  by  the  senate  he  secured  a  reconsideration  of  the  vote  of 
confirmation,  the  rejection  of  the  old  board  and  the  appointment  of  a  new  one 
by  the  governor.  Early  in  the  session  of  1872-73  he  introduced  a  bill  to  repeal 
what  was  known  as  the  "Lake  Front  Act,"  and  after  a  prolonged  and  very  excit- 
ing contest  secured  the  repeal  of  that  obnoxious  law. 

He  was  appointed  by  the  governor  a  commissioner  from  the  state  of  Illinois 
to  the  universal  exposition  at  Vienna,  and  sailed  for  Europe,  May  7,  1873. 

In  July,  1875,  he  was  appointed  by  t*he  governor  of  Illinois  a  member  of  the 
board  of  commissioners  to  locate  the  State  Institution  for  the  Education  of 
Feeble-minded  Children,  and  to  select  plans  for  its  buildings,  a  duty  which  he 
faithfully  performed. 

He   has,  since   1867,  been   a  member  of    the  Gtand   Army  of    the   Republic, 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  425 

is  a  warm  friend  of  the  soldier  and  sailor,  and  is  always  ready  to  advocate  their 
rights  and  has  done  much  for  the  unfortunate  and  needy  among  them.  At  the 
grand  encampment  of  the  Grand  Army  of  the  Republic,  held  in  Chicago,  May, 
1875,  he  was  elected  senior  vice  commander-in-chief  of  the  order  for  the  United 
States,  Gov.  John  F.  Hartranft,  of  Pennsylvania,  being  the  commander-in-chief. 
He  has  been  a  member  of  the  chivalric  order  of  Knights  of  Pythias  since  1872, 
and  is  past  chancellor  in  the  order. 

His  first  vote  was  cast  in  favor  of  Lincoln  for  president,  and  he  has  ever  since 
been  a  republican  in  politics. 

Gen.  Reynolds  was  married  January  31, 1877,  to  Miss  Mattie  A.  Carey,  daughter 
of  George  W.  Carey,  of  Chicago.  They  have  one  child,  Joseph  Sheridan  Reynolds, 
born  January  23,  1878. 


OLE  D.  SORENG. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  was  born  in  Norway,  April  23,  1850,  and  came 
to  this  country  in  the  year  1851.  With  a  view  to  entering  the  ministry,  he 
commenced  studying  at  the  age  of  sixteen,  at  the  Augustana  College,  Paxton,  Illi- 
nois, but  afterward  abandoned  his  purpose,  and  going  to  Decorah,  Iowa,  followed 
the  avocation  of  student  and  teacher  up  to  1875.  He  then  commenced  to  study 
law  with  Orlando  J.  Clark,  district  attorney  for  the  tenth  district  of  Iowa,  and 
continued  a  student  in  his  office  nearly  three  years,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  at  Decorah  in  October  1877.  Shortly  afterward  he  went  to  Minnesota,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  that  state,  where  he  settled  in  Granite  Falls,  and  prac- 
ticed law  in  that  place  about  two  years,  but  tiring  of  frontier  life,  closed  his  affairs 
there,  and  in  September,  1880,  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  found  himself  almost 
an  entire  stranger.  Here  he  was  personally  acquainted  with  Rev.  C.  O.  Lindel 
and  Rev.  .N.  C.  Brun,  having  attended  school  with  them  in  1866-7.  He  had 
also  a  business  acquaintance  with  William  H.  Cunningham,  who  introduced  him 
to  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs  and  other  leading  members  of  the  Chicago  bar.  Mr. 
Soreng  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1880,  and  for  a  short  time  was  in 
the  office  of  Col.  R.  W.  Ricaby,  and  afterward  in  the  office  of  Hon.  William  J. 
Hynes  nearly  a  year. 

In  the  spring  of  1882  he  opened  an  office  of  his  own,  and  is  meeting  with  good 
success  in  his  profession.  Of  our  subject,  Orlando  J.  Clark,  with  whom  he  began 
his  law  studies,  says:  "Mr.  Soreng  is  a  young  man  of  good  morals  and  sterling 
integrity  ;  of  good  ability,  and  gives  promise  of  being  a  light  in  the  profession." 
The  following  letter  from  a  member  of  congress  from  Iowa  but  reflects,  respect- 
ing him,  the  high  opinion  entertained  by  those  who  know  him  best:  . 

WASHINGTON,  D.  C.,  July  22,  1878. 

I  have  known  Mr.  Soreng  for  several  years.  He  is  a  young  man  of  excellent  habits,  industri- 
ous, of  good  abilities,  and  I  take  pleasure  in  recommending  him  as  a  young  attorney-at-law, 
worthy  of  confidence.  Very  truly,  T.  W.  BURDICK. 


426  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Soreng  is  an  earnest  and  enthusiastic  republican. 
He  is  a  zealous  advocate  of  temperance,  and  in  his  religious  sentiments  indepen- 
dent and  liberal.  He  possesses  the  happy  faculty  of  making  friends,  and  during 
his  short  residence  in  Chicago,  has  formed  a  large  circle  of  friends  and  acquaint- 
ances, especially  among  the  Scandinavians,  many  of  whom  he  numbers  among 
his  clients.  He  possesses  energy,  ability  and  tact,  and  has  all  the  requisite  ele- 
ments of  a  popular  and  successful  lawyer. 


GEN.  ALEXANDER  M.  STOUT. 

THE  practice  of  patent  law  requires  a  special  talent  and  a  special  preparation 
in  order  to  insure  success.  The  numerous  inventions  and  discoveries  daily 
made,  together  with  the  great  number  of  patents  already  issued  in  the  United 
States  and  foreign  countries,  require  the  close  attention  of  the  practitioner,  and 
the  lawyer  who  gives  his  attention  to  the  general  practice  seldom  keeps  posted  on 
the  patents  that  are  issued,  or  in  the  law  applicable  to  patent  litigation.  Besides, 
in  addition  to  a  thorough  knowledge  of  patents  and  patent  law,  the  lawyer  who 
appears  in  patent  causes  should  have  a  mechanical  turn  of  mind  and  be  able  to 
comprehend  the  most  intricate  machinery  at  sight.  He  should  have  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  chemistry  and  natural  philosophy,  with  a  high  grade  of  talent  to 
enable  him  to  cope  with  the  able  practitioners  who  appear  in  the  United  States 
courts  where  patent  litigation  is  conducted.  Such  a  lawyer,  in  an  eminent  degree, 
is  the  subject  of  our  sketch,  Gen.  Alexander  M.  Stout.  He  is  a  native  of  Shelby 
county,  Kentucky;  was  born  January  8,  1820,  and  is  descended  from  patriotic 
ancestors.  His  father,  Simpson  Stout,  was  a  soldier  of  the  war  of  1812;  a  mem- 
ber of  the  legislature  of  Kentucky,  a  man  of  great  native  abilities,  a  public  man 
of  note  in  Kentucky,  and  a  gentleman  highly  respected  for  his  honorable,  manly 
qualities  and  upright  dealings. 

Alexander  was  educated  at  St.  Joseph's  College  in  Bardstown,  Kentucky,  and 
Harvard  Law  Schcol.  After  a  very  thorough  preparation  he  was  admitted  to  the 
Kentucky  bar  in  March  1842.  He  at  once  entered  upon  a  successful  practice  of 
the  law  at  Owensboro,  Daviess  county,  Kentucky,  where  he  was  favored  with  an 
extensive  business,  and  gained  a  wide-spread  reputation  as  an  eminent  counselor 
and  thorough  trial  lawyer.  Being  an  eloquent  advocate,  his  practice  extended 
over  a  wide  range  of  country.  In  1853  he  removed  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and 
was  made  city  attorney  or  corporation  counsel,  in  which  capacity  he  served  with 
marked  ability  for  four  years,  and  successfully  contended  with  many  of  the  ablest 
.  lawyers  of  that  section. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion  in  1861,  Mr.  Stout,  responding  to  the 
promptings  of  "an  intense  patriotism,  declared  in  many  thrilling  speeches  in  favor 
of  the  Union,  and  engaged  in  raising  volunteers,  resigning  office,  and  entered  the 
Union  army  as  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  iyth  Ky.  Voi.  Inf.,  in  August  1861.  For 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  427 

bravery  and  gallantry  in  the  field  he  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  colonel,  Decem- 
ber 6,  1862,  and  breveted  brigadier-general  of  volunteers,  March  13,  1865.  He 
bore  a  conspicuous  part  in  the  capture  of  Fort  Donelson,  and  was  wounded 
while  leading  his  men  in  the  thickest  of  the  fight  in  the  first  day's  battle  at  Shi- 
loh.  He  was  at  the  battle  of  Chickamauga,  and  at  the  storming  of  Mission  Ridge. 
He  was  in  the  command  of  different  brigades  and  was  in  the  campaign  against 
Atlanta,  and  in  the  battle  of  Franklin.  He  was  mustered  out  of  service  January 
23,  1865,  and  returned  to  Louisville,  Kentucky. 

In  1865  he  was  elected  on  the  republican  ticket  to  the  state  legislature,  and 
was  the  republican  caucus  candidate  for  speaker  of  the  house.  He  was  at  once 
an  acknowledged  leader  in  the  house,  and  his  advice  was  sought  by  his  associates 
in  all  important  or  intricate  matters.  He  gave  strict  attention  to  the  interests  of 
his  constituents,  and  was  an  earnest  advocate  of  all  measures  calculated  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  state,  and  particularly  of  the  section  which  he  repre- 
sented. He  served  in  the  legislature  until  he  was  appointed  chief  clerk  of  the 
patent  office  at  Washington  in  August  1866.'  He  served  there  until  January  20, 
1868,  when  the  office  of  commissioner  of  patents  became  vacant,  and  the  duties  of 
the  office  devolved  upon  him  as  acting  commissioner,  and  he  performed  the 
duties  of  that  office  with  eminent  ability  and  entire  satisfaction  until  September, 
1868,  when  he  resigned  and  opened  a  law  office  in  Washington,  District  of  Colum- 
bia, where  he  remained  until  March,  1872,  making  a  specialty  of  patent  law. 
During  the  time  he  practiced  there  he  measured  lances  with  many  of  the  ablest 
and  most  celebrated  lawyers  in  the  United  States,  and  was  eminently  successful, 
and  gained  a  high  reputation  as  a  patent  lawyer.  He  then  removed  to  Philadel- 
phia, and  continued  the  practice  of  the  patent  law  until  1876,  when  he  returned 
to  Louisville  and  practiced  patent  law  until  October  1879.  He  then  removed  to 
Chicago,  where  he  has  been  in  the  active  practice  of  the  law  ever  since,  and 
makes  a  specialty  of  patents  and  patent  law. 

Gen.  Stout  is  still  an  active  republican.  He  has  been  twice  married,  and  has 
four  children  living.  He  had  one  son  killed  at  the  battle  of  Shiloh. 


JAMES    H.   WARD. 

TAMES  H.  WARD,  a  native  of  Chicago,  was  born  November  30,  1853.  His 
J  parents  were  born  in  Ireland.  His  father,  Hugh  Ward,  who  was  among  the 
largest  building  contractors  of  Chicago  in  her  early  years,  died  in  January,  1859. 
James  Ward,  building  and  supply  agent  of  the  board  of  education  for  over 
twenty  years,  was  an  uncle  of  our  subject.  James  H.  received  his  early  educa- 
tion at  the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  and  afterward  attended  the  University  of 
Notre  Dame,  pursuing  the  regular  classical  course.  He  entered  the  Union  Col- 
lege of  Law,  and  after  two  years'  close  application  graduated,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  July  4,  1876,  since  which  time  he  has  been  in  the  uninterrupted  prac- 
45 


428  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

tice  of  his  profession,  and  attained  to  an  honorable  standing  among  the  younger 
members  of  the  Chicago  bar.  In  April,  1879,  Mr.  Ward  was  elected  supervisor 
and  treasurer  of  the  town  of  West  Chicago,  and  discharged  his  duties  in  that 
office  with  great  satisfaction  to  the  public.  October  25,  1877,  Mr.  Ward  mar- 
ried Miss  Agatha  St.  Clair,  of  Chicago,  daughter  of  the  late  Alexander  St.  Clair, 
a  well-known  railroad  official.  In  politics  he  is  a  democrat.  He  is  an  earnest, 
patient  worker,  and  to  his  untiring  energy  and  honorable  dealing  is,  in  large 
measure,  due  his  success. 


HARRISON    D.    PAUL. 

HARRISON  D.  PAUL  was  born  August  3,  1835,  >n  Medina  county,  Ohio,  a 
son  of  Hosea  Paul,  a  prominent  civil  engineer,  who  was  chief  engineer  of 
the  Atlantic  and  Great  Western  railroad,  and  also  consulting  engineer  of  that 
and  other  roads.  Mr.  Paul  was  educated  at  the  Western  Reserve  College  at 
Hudson,  Ohio;  and  leaving  there  in  1851  he  went  into  the  employ  of  the  Atlantic 
and  Great  Western  railroad  and  other  railroads  thereafter  in  railroad  surveys, 
which  employment  he  remained  in  until  1856.  He  then  began  reading  law  with 
the  firm  of  McClure  and  McKinney,  of  Akron,  Ohio,  and  afterward  entered  the 
office  of  Otis,  Coffinberry  and  Wyman,  in  Cleveland,  Ohio,  where  he  remained 
until  his  admission  to  the  bar  in  1859,  when  he  went  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio.  There 
he  practiced  his  profession  from  1860  until  1877,  when  he  retired  from  practice, 
and  on  account  of  his  wife's  ill-health  spent  the  succeeding  four  years  in  travel- 
ing. In  1880  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  being  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois 
resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  1862  he  entered  the  army  and  served 
one  campaign,  and  was  chief  engineer  of  the  department  of  the  Ohio,  attaining 
the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel.  In  1857  and  1858  he  was  deputy  clerk  of  the 
court  of  common  pleas  in  Cleveland. 


EDMUND  S.   HOLBROOK. 

EDMUND  S.  HOLBROOK  resides  in  Chicago,  and  is  a  lawyer  by  profession. 
He  was  born  in  Grafton,  Massachusetts,  and  there  spent  his  earlier  years. 
His  parents,  Stephen  and  Sally  (Goddard)  Holbrook,  were  of  English  ancestry 
and  descendants  of  the  early  settlers  of  New  England.  They  were  farmers  in 
the  middle  walks  of  life,  and  Edmund  was  the  youngest  of  a  large  family.  From 
his  youth  he  evinced  a  strong  and  well  denned  inclination,  taste  and  aptitude  for 
literary  pursuits.  After  the  usual  education  of  the  village  public  school,  he  took 
the  preparatory  course  at  Phillips  Academy,  at  Andover,  entered  Amherst  Col- 
lege in  1835,  and  graduated  in  1839  with  high  honors. 

Immediately  upon  graduating,  he  was  invited  by  the   New  England  Anti-sla- 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  429 

very  Society  to  become  one  of  its  lecturers  and  standard  bearers.  As  this  suited 
well  his  inclinations  as  a  friend  of  universal  freedom  and  as  a  debater  and  orator, 
he  entered  bravely  upon  that  field  of  labor,  and  it  required  bravery  then  to  espouse 
so  unpopular  a  cause. 

In  the  spring  of  1840,  he  resumed  school  life  in  Essex  county,  Virginia,  as  pro- 
fessor of  languages,  belles-lettres  and  vocal  music,  and  contined  in  that  vocation 
till  1843.  While  residing  there,  he  took  an  active  part  in  the  cause  of  temper- 
ance, finding  occasion  sometimes  to  combat  the  Gospel  ministers.  He  also  took 
part  in  politics,  sometimes  in  debates,  sustaining  the  democratic  party  and  its 
principles,  and  in  the  celebrated  campaign  of  1840  he  met  in  public  debate  the 
whig  representative  in  congress  of  that  district,  Henry  A.  Wise,  a  great  pet  of  his 
party,  and  distanced  him  so  effectually  that  the  democratic  press  boasted  of  his 
defeat  by  a  Yankee  schoolmaster;  whereupon  the  mad-dog  cry  of  abolitionist  was 
raised,  a  mob  organized  and  threats  made,  the  ministers  of  the  Gospel  taking  the 
lead;  but  the  friends  of  the  able  debater  rallied,  talked  as  firmly  and  loudly  as 
their  opponents,  and  violence  was  abandoned. 

While  engaged  in  teaching,  the  young  professor  devoted  his  leisure  hours  to 
the  study  of  the  law,  and,  without  instruction,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Rich- 
mond. Discovering,  however,  that  a  pro-slavery  community  was  in  many  respects 
quite  uncongenial  to  him,  he  came  to  the  Far  West  in  the  fall  of  1843,  settled  first 
at  Ottawa  and  soon  after  at  Peru,  La  Salle  county,  Illinois. 

In  1846,  he  volunteered,  under  the  call  of  the  President  for  troops  for  Mexico, 
assisted  in  raising  a  company,  became  a  lieutenant,  joined  the  ist  Illinois  under 
Col.  Hardin,  served  under  Gen.  Wool,  afterward  under  Gen.  Taylor;  was  in  the 
battle  of  Buena  Vista,  and  returned  at  the  end  of  his  service  in  July,  1847,  having 
served  faithfully  and  with  honor.  In  1848,  he  established  a  weekly  newspaper,  the 
Peru  "Telegraph,"  free  soil  in  politics,  supporting  Van  Buren  for  the  Presidency. 
It  was  the  only  paper  of  that  kind  in  that  section  of  the  country,  and  had  great 
influence  in  molding  public  sentiment  to  what  it  afterward  became.  He  labored 
for  the  establishment  of  the  republican  party,  and  for  the  support  of  it  in  peace 
and  in  war,  and  has  lived  to  see  a  result  so  little  anticipated  when  in  his  youth 
he  first  set  his  face  toward  emancipation. 

In  1852,  he  married  Miss  Ann  Case,  of  Racine,  Wisconsin,  the  daughter  of 
Caleb  Case,  formerly  of  Oswego  county,  New  York.  In  1865,  he  opened  a  law 
office  in  Chicago,  and  a  branch  office  at  Joliet  in  1870.  In  his  profession  he  has 
devoted  his  time  and  attention  to  a  general  law  practice.  In  the  law  on  real  prop- 
erty he  is  without  a  superior  in  the  state  of  Illinois.  His  power  of  reason  is  com- 
prehensive, extensive  and  profound,  and  readily  masters  the  most  abstruse,  com- 
plex and  subtle  propositions.  As  an  orator  he  is  sufficiently  fluent  to  engage,  and 
has  command  of  language  to  express  his  ideas  directly,  tersely  and  powerfully  to 
carry  conviction,  and  yet  upon  occasion  is  full  of  wit  and  satire.  As  a  conversa- 
tionalist, he  is  pleasing,  pensive,  instructive  and  emphatic  in  expression.  In  per- 
son, he  is  robust  and  sound,  enjoys  life,  makes  acquaintances  slowly,  and  is 


430  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

strongly  and  warmly  attached  to  his  friends.  His  learning  and  reading  are  of 
wide  range,  and  so  are  his  writings  and  essays. 

His  genius  for  poesy  developed  in  early  youth,  and  is  of  a  decidedly  superior 
order.  He  was  the  class  poet  at  the  academy  and  in  college.  Among  his  numer- 
ous poetic  productions  are  his  poems  entitled  the  "Mexican  War,"  the  most 
lengthy,  published  by  the  association  of  Mexican  veterans,  "  Chicago  and  the 
Great  Fire,"  "A  Centennial,"  "Apostrophe  to  Man,"  "  Tribute  to  the  Memory  of 
Judge  Breese,"  late  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois;  and  many  others  are  equally 
worthy  of  mention. 

As  specimens  of  his  style  and  power  these  stanzas  are  here  given: 

From  the  "  Mexican  War  :  " 

"  Chapultepec,  the  sentry  of  the  city  at  her  feet, 
How  grand  and  fixed  in  sweet  repose,  in  armor  how  complete! 
Our  last  great  work  shall  be  our  best,  to  lay  her  wondrous  power, 
And  float  '  the  Red,  the  White,  the  Blue,'  above  her  highest  tower. 
To  say  it,  was  the  act  itself  —  the  sealers  volunteer! 
The  cannons  roar,  the  troops  ascend  yet  nearer  and  more  near! 
A  conflict  hand-to-hand  ensues,  the  stormers  mount  the  walls!  — 
A  moment  more  of  life  and  death  —  the  grand  old  Fortress  falls!  " 

From  "Apostrophe  to  Man:" 

"Oh,  man!  endowed  with  mind  of  heavenly  birth; 

Enthroned  superior  o'er  the  world  below; 
Fired  with  ambition  that  o'erspans  the  earth, 

With  energies  to  do,  as  powers  to  know; 

Let  thy  whole  frame  with  living  virtues  glow; 
Let  truth  and  wisdom  all  thy  counsels  be; 

Love,  mercy,  charity  on  each  bestow; 
And  for  thy  soul,  when  death  shall  set  thee  free, 
Cherish  the  faith  and  hope  of  immortality." 

From  "Excelsior"  (an  acrostic)  : 

"  '  EXCELSIOK!  '  the  prayer  of  MAN  to  Gon: 

Come,  Thou,  the  Guide  of  my  aspiring  heart, 
Conduct  my  footsteps  on  the  higher  road; 

Endow  my  soul  with  each  diviner  part, 

Love,  Wisdom,  Joy,  and  Truth's  most  truthful  chart; 
Show  how  each  crime  and  wrong  I  should  abhor; 

Inspire  each  holier  thought,  each  nobler  art; 
Oppress  me  not  in  Life's  e'er  chafing  war; 
Renew  each  day  my  strength,  Excelsior!  EXCELSIOR!!" 

As  a  religionist,  Judge  Holbrook's  course  and  thought  have  been  unique  and 
peculiar.  His  parents  were  Puritans  of  the  old  stripe,  and  so  also  nearly  all  the 
companions  of  his  youth.  Yet  he  revolted  against  all  these,  and  soon  after  his 
education  was  commenced,  through  the  involuntary  action  of  his  own  reason,  he 
came  to  doubt  and  to  deny  the  peculiar  tenets  of  Calvinism  as  unreasonable  and 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  43  I 

unjust.  He  then  had  no  faith  for  many  years.  Considering  that  he  found  in 
Spiritualism  what  he  sought  for  in  vain  elsewhere,  he  has  become  its  bold  and 
earnest  advocate,  both  by  tongue  and  pen,  and  his  writings,  both  in  prose  and 
poetry,  are  widely  known  in  the  journals  and  periodicals  of  that  religious  sect. 


ANSON    B.  JENKS. 

A>JSON  B.  JENKS  was  born  in  Tioga  County,  New  York,  in  1836,  and  was  the 
son  of  Calvin  Jenks,  whose  father  was  the  oldest  settler  in  Tioga  county.  He 
attended  the  Clinton  Liberal  Institute  in  New  York,  and  in  1855  entered  the 
Michigan  State  University  at  Ann  Arbor,  where  he  remained  until  1856.  He  then 
went  to  Wisconsin  and  studied  law  for  one  year  in  the  office  of  Judge  Walker,  of 
Plainfield,  after  which  he  returned  to  his  native  state  and  entered  the  office  of 
Warren,  Tracy  and  Walker,  of  Owego,  where  he  studied  until  the  fall  of  1859, 
having  been  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Norwich,  New  York,  the  spring  preceding. 
He  then  removed  to  Chicago,  and  in  the  spring  of  1860  entered  into  partnership 
with  G.  C.  Walker,  since  governor  of  Virginia,  and  began  the  practice  of  his  pro- 
fession. This  partnership  continued  for  two  years,  and  Mr.  Jenks  was  alone  after 
its  dissolution  until  1865,  when  he  formed  a  connection  with  F.  G.  Bradley,  under 
the  style  of  Jenks  and  Bradley,  which  continued  until  the  fire  in  1871,  since  which 
time  he  has  been  alone. 

He  is  a  democrat,  but  not  an  active  one,  his  life  being  devoted  to  his  profes- 
sion.    His  practice,  which  is  large,  is  mostly  confined  to  civil  cases. 


CHARLES  A.  FOLSOM. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Skowhegan,  Somerset  county,  Maine, 
and  was  born  February  26,  1836,  the  son  of  the  late  Jeremiah  Folsom. 
Charles  A.  is  a  direct  lineal  descendant  of  Gen.  Nathaniel  Folsom,  who  was  a 
delegate  to  the  first  American  congress,  and  commanded  a  brigade  of  New  Hamp- 
shire troops  during  the  revolutionary  war,  and  also  distinguished  himself  in  the 
battles  at  Fort  Edwards,  at  Crown  Point,  on  the  shore  of  Lake  Champlain,  during 
the  French  and  Indian  war  in  1755.  Charles  A.  left  his  early  home  in  the  valley  of 
the  Kennebec,  and  removed  with  his  parents  to  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  where  he 
received  an  academic  education,  including  a  scientific  and  classical  course,  and 
fitted  for  college  at  the  age  of  fourteen  years.  He  followed  the  occupation  of 
surveyor  at  Lowell  for  three  years;  he  then  went  to  Boston  and  worked  for  Nay- 
lor  and  Company,  large  manufacturers  of  and  dealers  in  steel.  But  when  the  war 
broke  out  in  1861  he  left  his  profitable  situation,  and  enlisted  in  the  4th  battalion 
Mass.  Inf.,  and  reentered  the  service  with  the  rank  of  captain  in  September  1861, 
in  the  24th  regiment  Mass.  Vol.  Inf.  He  took  part  in  the  battles  of  Roanoke 


432  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO, 

Island,  Newbern,  Rawl's  Mills,  and  Tranter's  Creek.  He  built  the  fort  at  Wash- 
ington, North  Carolina,  which  was  repeatedly  attacked  without  success  by  the 
enemy,  numbering  ten  thousand  men,  and  which  still  stands.  He  was  in  the 
three  month's  siege  at  Forts  Sumter,  Gregg  and  Wagner,  and  in  a  subsequent 
successful  assault  on  the  deadly  rifle  pits  thereof,  and  in  the  midnight  assault  on 
Fort  Sumter.  He  was  charged  with  the  erection  of  the  defenses  on  Seabrook 
Island,  made  for  the  protection  of  the  navy,  while  preparing  to  attack  the  defenses 
of  Charleston.  He  was  engaged  in  the  campaign  of  Florida,  and  also  in  the 
fight  at  Chester  Station,  Drury's  Bluff,  Richmond  and  Petersburgh  Turnpike, 
Fourmile  Creek  and  Deep  Run,  and  was  engaged  in  the  fortifications  erected  at 
Bermuda  Hundred,  Virginia,  and  was  subsequently  engaged  in  operations  before 
Petersburgh,  Virginia,  and  other  engagements  and  numerous  skirmishes.  He 
was  mustered  out  of  service  in  front  of  Richmond  in  1865,  with  greatly  impaired 
health. 

In  1868  he  came  to  Chicago  and  engaged  in  commercial  business  until  1875, 
since  which  time  he  has  devoted  himself  to  the  practice  of  law.  He  is  a  clear 
thinker,  an  untiring  student,  a  logical  reasoner,  and  a  fluent  speaker. 

Capt.  Folsom  was  married  June  29,  1871,  to  Miss  Sarah  Sweet,  a  highly  edu- 
cated and  refined  lady,  and  daughter  of  the  late  Dr.  Richard  Sweet,  of  Norton, 
Massachusetts. 


THOMAS  PARKER,  JR. 

THOMAS  PARKER,  JR.,  is  a  gentleman  of  broad  views,  with  a  clear,  compre- 
hensive, active  mind.  He  is  an  excellent  trial  lawyer,  and  can  with  great 
readiness  state  a  principle  and  refer  to  the  authorities  that  illustrate  it.  He  is 
eloquent  and  logical,  and  no  man  more  appreciates  or  better  improves  the  tech- 
nical opportunities  offered  him  than  Mr.  Parker.  He  is  fluent,  witty,  incisi've, 
luminous  and  logical,  and  during  his  active  career  as  a  lawyer,  has  measured 
lances  with  some  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  Northwest,  and  the  succession  of 
victories  that  have  crowned  his  efforts  are  evidence  of  the  marked  ability  univer- 
sally accredited  to  him.  Considering  his  age  he  has  attained  high  rank  as  a  law- 
yer. By  his  manly,  upright  practice  he  has  won  the  confidence  of  the  courts 
before  whom  he  practices,  the  good  will  of  his  professional  brethren,  and  the 
esteem  of  his  clients. 

Mr.  Parker  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  in  Washington  county, 
October  3,  1845,  and  is  the  son  of  Thomas  Parker  and  Maria  (Denison)  Parker. 
He  entered  Michigan  University,  and  in  1863  received  the  second  degree,  A.M., 
from  the  University  of  Chicago.  In  1868  he  attended  the  Union  College  of  Law 
of  Chicago,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1869,  and  immediately  entered 
upon  a  successful  career  as  a  lawyer.  He  formed  a  partnership  with  J.  W.  Ela, 
which  has  continued  up  to  the  present  time.  Mr.  Parker  has  been  engaged  in 
many  of  the  more  important  cases  tried  in  Chicago  during  recent  years.  He 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  433 

assisted  in  the  defense  of  the  bondsmen  of  Gen.  McArthur,  ex-postmaster  of  Chi- 
cago, and  many  other  reported  cases  in  the  state  and  federal  courts. 

He  has  always  been  a  republican,  but  has  never  taken  any  very  active  part  in 
politics.  He  was  nominated  in  1880  for  state  senator  in  the  fourth  congressional 
district,  but  on  account  of  large  interests  of  his  own  that  required  his  attention 
he  declined.  He  is  a  Mason,  a  Knight  Templar,  and  a  member  of  Apollo  Com- 
mandery  of  Chicago.  He  is  an  affable  gentleman,  refined  and  courteous,  and  has 
a  large  circle  of  admiring  friends,  who  prize  him  for  his  manly,  upright  qualities, 
and  intellectual  attainments. 

He  was  married  in  May,  1871,  to  Miss  Mary  Ellen  George,  an  estimable  lady, 
accomplished,  highly  educated  and  refined.  They  have  one  child  seven  years  old. 
Mr.  Parker  has  a  fine  presence,  is  of  medium  height,  of  stout'  build,  weighing  one 
hundred  and  eighty  pounds.  He  has  a  high,  broad  and  intellectual  forehead, 
with  blue  eyes  and  classic  features. 


JOHN    MATTOCKS. 

THE  above  named  is  a  son  of  the  late  Rev.  John  Mattocks.     He  is  a  native  of 
Keeseville,  Essex  county,  New  York.     He  was  born  August   13,  1839,  and 
is  a  practicing  attorney  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


FRANK    COMPTON. 

subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  was  born  near  Cincinnati, 
January  7,  1849,  and  is  the  son  of  the  late  A.  Compton,  a  carriage  manufac- 
turer and  an  intelligent  business  man  who  held  various  municipal  offices  and 
enjoyed  the  respect  of  all  who  knew  him  for  his  ability  and  integrity.  The 
mother  of  our  subject  was  Alice  P.  (Fleming)  Compton.  Mr.  Compton  entered 
Kenyon  College  in  1867,  and  graduated  with  honors  from  that  institution  in  1870. 
He  then  entered  Cincinnati  Law  School,  and  took  his  degree  of  LL.B.  in  1872, 
and  in  1873  received  from  his  alma  mater  the  degree  of  A.M.  He  held  the  offices 
of  town  clerk  and  treasurer,  and  other  positions  of  trust,  in  his  native  place,  and 
was  highly  respected  for  his  honor  and  intellectual  attainments. 

He  removed  to  Chicago  in  1873  and  entered  at  once  into  legal  practice,  and 
has  succeeded  in  establishing  a  good  business  by  his  own  exertions.  His  success 
is  the  result  of  his  own  unaided  efforts,  and  he  numbers  among  his  clients  some 
of  the  best  business  men  and  firms  in  Chicago.  He  has  been  engaged  in  several 
suits  of  magnitude  in  New  York,  Ohio,  and  a  number  of  the  western  states,  and 
has  won  the  reputation  of  being  an  accurate,  careful  attorney. 

Besides  being  a  careful  and  conscientious  counselor  and  office  lawyer,  he  is  a 


434  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

fluent  speaker,  and  skillful  in  the  trial  of  his  cases,  and  is  a  gentleman  who  draws 
around  him  many  friends  and  admirers  for  his  moral  and  intellectual  worth. 

In  religious  sentiments  Mr.  Compton  is  an  Episcopalian,  and  in  politics  he  is 
very  conservative.  He  was  married  August  13,  1874,  to  Miss  Eva  Potts,  of  Cin- 
cinnati, a  lady  of  fine  accomplishments,  educated  and  refined.  They  have  one 
child,  Grace  Fleming. 

A.   J.   GROVER. 

ALONZO  J.  GROVER  was  born  in  Bethel,  Oxford  county,  Maine,  August 
26,  1828.  His  father  was  a  farmer  of  the  genial  New  England  type,  though 
attaining  to  some  military  preferment, —  his  farm  on  the  side  of  a  rather  rugged 
hill,  not  favorable  to  accumulation  of  wealth  beyond  comfortable  living  and  rear- 
ing of  a  somewhat  numerous  family.  He  married  Miss  Sophronia  Bryant,  a 
distant  relative  of  the  poet  of  that  name. 

Alonzo  was  the  second  son  of  the  family,  and  early  developing  an  enterprising 
disposition,  and  the  home  prospect  offering  small  inducement,  he  purchased  his 
time  to  one  and  twenty,  for  the  sum  of  $200,  promptly  paying  to  the  last  dollar 
as  fast  as  he  could  earn  the  money.  With  his  entire  wardrobe  and  stock  of 
worldly  goods  tied  up,  literally,  in  the  traditional  bandana  handkerchief,  and 
with  $9  in  his  pocket,  with  not  yet  a  decent  common  school  education,  and  at 
only  fifteen,  he  bravely  took  himself  into  his  own  keeping,  and  entered  on  the 
work  and  warfare  of  human  existence,  determined  to  win  a  manly  success.  By 
patient,  untiring  industry  and  economy,  shunning  all  the  vanities  and  vices,  com- 
mon then  as  now  to  boys  and  young  men,  he  early  discharged  his  debt  to  his 
father,  and  with  a  small  amount  remaining,  he  entered  Gould's  Academy  in  his 
native  town. 

Having  wisely  improved  all  his  leisure  hours  as  he  went  along,  he  was  able  to 
fit  for  college  in  an  unusually  short  time.  He,  however,  decided  not  to  enter  col- 
lege, and  on  leaving  the  academy  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of 
William  Frye,  then  of  Bethel,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Portland  in  1853. 
Becoming  deeply  interested  in  the  anti-slavery  cause,  before  entering  permanently 
into  law  practice,  he  accepted  an  appointment  as  lecturer  for  the  American  Anti- 
slavery  Society,  of  which  William  Lloyd  Garrison  was  president.  In  that  capac- 
ity he  traveled  extensively  through  the  New  England  states,  lecturing  and 
attending  conventions  in  many  of  the  principal  cities  and  towns.  At  that  time 
he  formed  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Garrison,  Wendell  Phillips,  Theodore 
Parker,  Stephen  and  Abby  Kelley  Foster,  Parker  Pillsbury  and  all  the  principal 
workers  in  the  anti-slavery  enterprise. 

In  1853  he  removed  to  Illinois,  and  settled  in  the  county  of  La  Salle,  where 
he  soon  began  to  practice  his  ajiti-slavery  principles,  at  that  time  a  rash  step, 
especially  for  a  stranger,  and  a  young  man  besides.  But  in  1853  he  assisted 
in  forming  the  first  republican  organization  in  Illinois,  in  his  own  county  of 


HCCoipar  Jr  *    Ca 


En,  byEGW.'l,  •..,.,  SBr ..NY 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   Of   CHICAGO.  437 

La  Salle.  His  fidelity  to  the  American  Anti-slavery  Society,  and  his  friendly 
personal  relations  with  its  officers  and  members,  however,  remained  ever 
unchanged.  In  1855  he  was  fiercely  mobbed  in  his  own  town  of  Earlville,  for 
harboring  a  fugitive  slave,  whose  claimant  had  personal  friends  in  the  immediate 
neighborhood.  His  house  was  always  a  sanctuary  to  the  fleeing  slaves,  and  most 
welcome  and  hospitable  home  for  all  who  were  earnestly  laboring  for  their  deliv- 
erance. The  lamented  Owen  Lovejoy,  brother  of  Elijah  Parish  Lovejoy,  the  first 
anti-slavery  martyr,  was  his  personal  and  intimate  friend. 

Religiously  Mr.  Grover  has  always  been  of  the  most  humanitarian,  as  well  as 
liberal  and  progressive  school.  He  was  an  early  and  faithful  disciple  of  Theo- 
dore Parker,  when  his  preaching  was  as  odious  to  the  churches  as  were  the  doc- 
trines of  the  abolitionists  to  the  political  parties.  He  joined  and  remained  true 
to  the  republican  party  till  under  the  Grant  administration  it  changed  its  finan- 
cial policy  of  a  greenback  currency.  He  then  abandoned  it,  giving  powerful  and 
unanswerable  reasons  for  his  course.  He  was  the  author  of  the  famous  plank  in 
the  republican  platform  of  1868  against  repudiation,  and  in  favor  of  the  green- 
back principles  which  the  party  leaders  shamefully  repudiated  in  1874.  The 
plank  referred  to  is  a  most  important  item  in  the  financial  history  of  that  most 
eventful  period,  and  well  worth  copying  here.  It  is  as  follows: 

We  denounce  all  forms  of  repudiation  as  a  national  crime  ;  and  the  national  honor  requires  the 
payment  of  the  public  indebtedness  in  the  uttermost  good  faith  to  all  creditors  at  home  and  abroad, 
not  only  according  to  the  letter  but  the  spirit  of  the  laws  under  which  it  was  contracted. 

The  bonds  were  mostly  by  the  law,  and  the  terms  thereof  at  that  time,  payable 
in  greenbacks  or  legal  tender  treasury  notes.  He  aided  in  inaugurating  what  is 
known  as  the  greenback  party,  and  in  1880  canvassed  his  native  state  in  its  inter- 
est, and  bore  an  important  part  in  electing  Gov.  Plaisted  on  that  platform. 
Against  the  great  landed  railroad  and  monied  monopolies  he  labors  with  pen 
and  tongue,  in  private  and  public,  every  day  and  everywhere,  with  an  ability, 
fidelity  and  fervor  rarely  equaled,  never  exceeded.  In  him  all  the  industrial 
classes,  men  and  women,  have  an  undaunted,  unshaken  and  untiring  friend. 

His  professional  practice,  extending  through  many  states  and  territories,  has 
prospered  beyond  his  expectations,  yielding  an  annual  income  of  from  five  to  six 
thousand  dollars,  for  some  dozen  or  fifteen  years.  His  habits  have  ever  been 
most  temperate,  never  in  his  life  tasting  tobacco  or  intoxicating  drinks,  rarely  tea 
or  coffee,  and  seldom,  now,  eating  animal  food,  and  is  hale,  hearty  and  sprightly 
at  fifty-three  years  of  age. 

Side  by  side  with  Lucretia  Mott,  Susan  B.  Anthony  and  Elizabeth  Cady  Stan- 
ton,  Mr.  Grover  has  always  been  a  firm  believer  in  the  equal  civil,  political,  edu- 
cational and  industrial  rights  of  women  with  men,  and  that  we  are  yet  only  a 
half  republic.  He  holds  that  taxation  is  tyranny  to  men  or  women,  without  rep- 
resentation in  the  government;  that  "the  consent  of  the  governed"  is  the  only 
basis  of  any  just  government,  and  that  it  is  both  cruelty  and  injustice  to  tax 
'46 


438  THE   BENCH  AND   BAK   OF  CHICAGO. 

women,  to  enact,  and  then  compel  them  to  obey  laws,  in  the  making  and  execut- 
ing of  which  they  have  neither  vote  or  voice. 

In  1855  Mr.  Grover  married  Miss  Octavia  E.  Norton,  also  native  of  Maine. 
They  have  four  living  children,  all  sons.  The  eldest  is  in  business  in  Chicago; 
the  second,  a  most  promising  art  student,  still  pursuing  his  studies  in  the  best 
schools  of  Germany  and  Italy.  The  others  are  yet  in  childhood.  Senator  La 
Fayette  Grover,  of  Oregon,  and  Maj.-Gen.  Grover,  of  Georgetown,  District  of 
Columbia,  are  of  the  same  Grover  connection,  and  grew  up  in  the  same  town  of 
Bethel.  They  have  also  paternal  relation  to  the  Cliffords,  of  Maine,  of  whom 
was  the  late  eminent  Chief-Justice  Clifford. 

The  subject  of  this  brief  sketch  was  never  even  candidate  for  office  in  his  life. 
He  never  bad  such  ambition  or  aspiration.  Always  at  the  front  in  every  real  and 
radical  reform,  his  principles,  which  should  have  been  recommendation,  would 
have  barred  him  from  all  political  preferment. 

Besides  his  large  professional  business,  Mr.  Grover  performs  a  vast  amount  of 
writing  and  lecturing  on  various  topics,  temperance,  woman  suffrage,  social, 
financial,  labor  and  other  reformatory  enterprises,  occasionally  publishing  some 
of  his  papers  and  essays  for  wider  circulation.  "The  Serfdom  of  Woman,  Taught 
and  Enforced  in  the  Bible,"  was  one  of  these,  and  has  hitherto  challenged  any 
successful  refutation,  after  a  wide  reading  in  every  part  of  the  country.  He 
established  and  for  some  years  edited  the  Earlville  "Transcript,"  making  it  the 
vehicle  for  all  his  favorite  ideas  on  human  progress  and  elevation.  For  several 
years  he  has  been  editorial  contributor  to  the  Chicago  "  Sentinel,"  and  contrib- 
utor to  the  "  Weekly  Magazine  "  and  other  papers.  Many  of  his  articles  evince  a 
power  of  description  and  discrimination,  of  ringing  invective  too,  as  well  as  logic 
and  argument  when  occasion  demands,  second  to  none  in  the  whole  department 
of  editorial  and  journalistic  genius  and  power. 


A.  D.  CARTER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  thorough  lawyer,  especially  in  real  estate  and 
commercial  law,  to  which  he  has  principally  given  his  attention.  He  is  an 
easy,  fluent  speaker,  with  a  logical  turn  of  mind.  He  presents  his  cases  to  both 
court  and  jury  in  a  clear,  concise  manner,  always  talking  to  the  point,  and  never 
confusing  the  mind  of  the  juror  with  inapt  illustrations  or  words  introduced  for 
mere  show  or  effect.  He  is  well  posted  in  the  statute  law,  and  in  the  decisions  of 
the  courts,  and  is  thoroughly  conversant  with  the  rules  of  practice  of  the  various 
courts.  He  always  exercises  due  care  in  the  preparation  of  all  papers;  is  a  good 
special  pleader,  and  has  excellent  judgment  in  all  matters  of  law  and  general  bus- 
iness. A.  D.  Carter  is  a  native  of  Illinois,  and  was  born  in  Waverly,  Morgan 
county,  November  5,  1843,  and  is  the  son  of  Platt  S.  and  Flora  Carter.  He  com- 
menced his  education  ir,  the  public  schools;  fitted  for  college  under  a  private  tutor; 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  439 

entered  Michigan  University  at  Ann  Arbor  in  1864;  graduated  from  that  institu- 
tion in  1868;  read  law  with  E.  Webster  Evans,  and  Waite  and  Clark  in  Chicago; 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1870,  and  has  been  in  the  successful  practice  of  his 
profession  in  Chicago  since  that  time;  devoting  his  attention  exclusively  to 
civil  practice.  He  now  numbers  among  his  clients  many  of  the  best  business 
firms  in  Chicago  whose  confidence  he  has  retained  by  strict  attention  to  business 
and  true  fidelity  to  his  clients'  interests.  He  sustains  an  unblemished  character 
for  integrity  and  uprightness.  He  is  an  unassuming  gentleman,  kind  and  courte- 
ous in  his  intercourse  with  mankind,  and  possesses  the  faculty  of  making  friends 
of  all  who  are  so  fortunate  as  to  make  his  acquaintance. 


CHESTER  D.   PRATT. 

CHESTER  D.  PRATT  was  born  September  15,  1838,  in  Weymouth,  Massa- 
V_^  chusetts,  and  is  the  son  of  George  W.  and  Lucy  (Russell)  Pratt.  He 
received  his  education  in  Thetford  Academy  (Vermont)  and  Dartmouth  College, 
and  studied  law  with  John  Meyer,  in  Boston.  He  afterward  went  to  Missouri, 
and  after  further  preparation  in  an  attorney's  office  was,  in  1856,  admitted  to  prac- 
tice in  that  state.  He  entered  at  once  into  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Lee- 
mon  and  Brookfield,  Missouri,  and  continued  in  a  successful  business  until  1868, 
when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  which  he  has  since  made  his  home.  Mr.  Pratt  is  a 
lawyer  of  good  ability,  and  is  well  read  in  his  profession. 

He  married  Miss  Sallie  L.  Downey,  of  Linn  county,  Missouri,  a  native  of  Clear 
Spring,  Maryland,  and  a  lady  of  refinement  and  literary  attainments. 


WILLIAM   G.   BEALE. 

WILLIAM  G.  BEALE  is  a  native  of  Maine,  and  was  born  at  Winthrop,  Sep- 
tember 10,  1854,  and  is  the  son  of  William  Beale  and  Lucinda  (Bacon) 
Beale.  He  is  the  grandson  of  John  Bacon,  a  man  of  great  natural  ability  and 
general  information,  well  known  and  highly  respected  in  Kennebec  county,  Maine. 
He  graduated  at  Hallowell  Classical  and  Scientific  Academy,  and  afterward 
entered  Bowdoin  College,  and  graduated  from  that  famous  institution  in  the  class 
of  1877.  He  removed  to  Chicago  the  following  spring,  and  became  principal  of 
Hyde  Park  high  school,  studying  law  in  the  meantime  in  the  office  of  Williams 
and  Thompson,  of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  March,  1881.  Resign- 
ing the  principalship  of  his  school,  he  became  connected  with  the  law  office  of 
Isham  and  Lincoln,  Mr.  Isham  being  a  well  known  lawyer  of  high  standing  in 
Chicago,  and  the  other  member  of  the  firm  being  Hon.  Robert  T.  Lincoln,  the 
present  able  and  popular  secretary  of  war.  and  son  of  Abraham  Lincoln.  Mr. 
Beale  has  early  in  life  entered  upon  an  apparently  successful  career  as  a  lawyer. 


44O  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  has  the  polish  and  refinement  of  a  liberally  educated  gentleman,  and  is  an 
easy,  fluent  and  effective  speaker  and  logical  reasoner.  His  many  friends  have 
good  reason  to  look  forward  to  a  realization  of  their  fondest  anticipations  in  his 
behalf.  He  addressed  political  meetings  with  good  effect  in  the  presidential 
campaign  in  behalf  of  Garfield  and  Arthur.  He  is  a  diligent  student,  active  and 
energetic,  and  highly  respected  by  all  who  know  him  for  his  honor  and  integrity. 


MAXIMILIAN   EBERHARDT. 

MAXIMILIAN  EBERHARDT  was  born  in  the  city  of  Germersheim,  Rhine- 
Bavaria,  June  12,  1843.  His  parents,  also,  were  natives  of  that  place.  His 
father,  George  J.  Eberhardt,  held  the  lucrative  and  honorable  position  of  baker 
to  the  militia.  He  was  appointed  to  it  for  the  reason  that  when  his  son  was 
christened,  Maximilian  II,  afterward  king  of  Bavaria,  was  at  the  city,  and  stood 
god-father  to  the  boy,  also  promising  to  defray  the  expenses  of  his  education. 
The  royal  sponsor  was  as  good  as  his  word,  and  the  senior  Eherhardt  received 
the  appointment  of  superintendent  of  the  bakery.  He  held  this  office  about  five 
years,  when  he  became  implicated  in  the  revolution  of  1848,  and  his  position  was 
taken  from  him.  He  remained  in  the  city  until  1853,  where  his  son  received  the 
excellent  educational  advantages  of  the  German  public  school  system,  until  he 
was  ten  years  of  age.  He  was  then  ready  to  be  transferred  to  the  Latin  school, 
but  before  this  change  could  be  made  the  family  emigrated  to  America.  As  an 
instance  of  the  thorough  manner  in  which  the  common  schools  of  Germany  are 
conducted,  we  mention  the  fact  that  on  reaching  New  York,  Maximilian  and  his 
younger  brother  were  admitted  to  higher  classes  than  those  they  had  left,  although 
not  understanding  a  word  of  English. 

Young  Eberhardt  attended  the  public  schools  of  New  York,  and  afterward  a 
private  college,  until  1859,  when  the  family  removed  to  Cincinnati.  He  had  a 
great  desire  for  knowledge,  and  was  constantly  adding  to  his  store  of  general 
information,  and  also  disciplining  his  mind  by  means  of  close  and  careful  study. 
By  self-instruction,  he  attained  great  proficiency  in  the  language  of  his  native 
country,  and  became  conversant  with  its  literature.  He  also  made  great  progress 
in  the  higher  English  branches,  acquiring  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  His 
thoughts  sought  early  expression  in  verse,  and  when  but  sixteen  years  of  age,  one 
of  his  poems  was  published  in  a  German  literary  journal  of  high  standing  in  New 
York  city.  He  began  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  Jacob  Wolf,  of  Cincin- 
nati, and  meanwhile  formed  an  intimate  acquaintance  with  Judge  Stallo,  of  that 
city,  with  whose  genial  and  scholarly  mind  the  young  man  held  intercourse  of 
great  advantage.  While  pursuing  his  law  studies,  Mr.  Eberhardt  published  a 
lecture  on  art  in  its  relation  to  human  civilization,  handling  his  subject  in  a  very 
able  manner.  The  lecture  received  the  favorable  criticism  of  Judge  Stallo,  and 
was  heartily  appreciated  by  those  who  knew  the  young  student  and  had  watched 
his  intellectual  progress. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  441 

At  twenty-one  years  of  age  Mr.  Eberhardt  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  prac- 
ticed law  three  years.  He  then  removed  to  Chicago,  where  resided  the  family  of 
the  lady  who  afterward  became  his  wife.  Here  he  opened  a  law  office,  and  soon 
became  known  as  an  industrious  student,  who  sought  distinction  by  fair  and 
honest  conduct  in  the  discharge  of  his  professional  duties. 

May  22,  1869,  he  was  married  to  Miss  Sarah  Singer,  of  Chicago,  a  young  lady 
whose  charm  of  manner  was  only  equaled  by  her  grace  of  mind  and  heart.  Dur- 
ing that  year  Mr.  Eberhardt  was  nominated  on  the  people's  ticket  as  justice  of 
the  peace,  and  elected.  He  held  the  office  four  years,  and  by  his  able,  upright 
and  conscientious  course,  gave  such  marked  satisfaction  to  the  public  that  he  was 
again  nominated  and  elected,  but  failed  to  obtain  his  commission  from  the  gov- 
ernor, the  question  having  arisen  as  to  whether  the  office  existed  under  the  new 
constitution.  He  therefore  resumed  the  practice  of  law,  continuing  it  with  uni- 
form success. 

In  1875  ne  was  again  recommended  to  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace,  and 
appointed  by  Gov.  Beveridge.  His  official  conduct  has  received  the  highest 
approval  of  his  fellow-citizens.  He  is  ever  painstaking,  discreet  and  judicious, 
qualities  which  can  never  fail  of  appreciation.  In  politics  Judge  Eberhardt  has 
always  affiliated  with  the  republican  party  until  its  temporary  disruption  in  1872. 
He  was  the  author  of  the  address  of  the  German  American  central  organization 
which,  in  1873,  gave  the  first  impulse  toward  the  coalition  of  the  disaffected 
republicans  and  democrats,  and  which  for  some  time  united  the  liberal  elements 
of  both  parties.  It  was  also  mainly  through  his  solicitation  that  Carl  Schurz 
responded  to  the  call  of  a  number  of  prominent  Germans  of  this  city,  and 
delivered,  in  the  summer  of  1871,  his  famous  speech  in  Chicago,  inaugurating 
the  liberal  movement.  He  is  not  a  partisan,  but  gives  his  influence  in  favor  of 
those  who,  in  his  judgment,  are  most  suitable  for  office,  irrespective  of  political 
prejudice.  He  is  not  a  seeker  of  official  honors;  but  the  excellent  manner  in 
which  he  had  fulfilled,  while  in  office,  the  duties  devolving  upon  him,  led  to  his 
reappointment  in  1878.  He  had  the  recommendation  and  hearty  support  of  all 
the  more  prominent  German  citizens,  in  consideration  of  his  exemplary  record, 
without  regard  to  his  political  views. 

Judge  Eberhardt  has  been  especially  distinguished  by  his  own  countrymen, 
who  have  appointed  him  to  various  positions  of  trust  and  honor  among  them. 
He  was  elected  secretary  of  the  German  Aid  and  Relief  Society  in  1874,  a  position 
which  he  has  held  ever  since,  meriting  the  special  thanks  of  those  who  elected 
him  to  the  position  by  the  excellent  manner  in  which  he  has  at  all  times  dis- 
charged his  onerous  duties.  He  was  for  a  number  of  years  president  of  a  benev- 
olent society  known  as  Bismarck  Bund,  a  very  large  organization,  whose  members 
were,  during  its  existence,  found  in  all  parts  of  the  state.  He  is  also  a  prominent 
member  of  the  North  American  Turner  Bund.  He  was  at  one  time  a  member  of 
the  board  of  directors,  and  vice-president  of  the  Chicago  Union. 

Judge  Eberhardt  has  given  attentive  culture  to  his  literary  tastes,  and  has 


442  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

contributed  a  large  number  of  poems  to  various  literary  journals  of  the  country. 
He  is  represented  in  a  collection  of  poems  by  German  American  authors,  pub- 
lished by  E.  Steiger  and  Company,  New  York,  the  first  work  of  the  kind  ever 
published  in  this  country.  He  has  also  published  a  small  work  in  the  German 
language,  on  the  legal  position  of  married  women,  a  comprehensive  though  con- 
cise essay  which  traces  the  position  of  married  women  from  former  times  under 
the  common  law  to  their  present  one  under  the  recent  changes  in  our  statute  law. 
When  Mr.  John  J.  Lalor  planned  his  "  Encyclopaedia  of  Political  Science  and 
Political  Economy,"  now  in  course  of  publication  by  Rand,  McNally  and  Com- 
pany, Mr.  Eberhardt  was  among  the  first  who  were  invited  to  contribute  to  the 
work,  the  importance  and  high  standard  of  which  is  recognized  and  appreciated 
by  all  competent  critics  throughout  the  country.  Mr.  Eberhardt  has  also  con- 
tributed several  articles  to  Blanchard's  "  History  of  the  Northwest." 


CHARLES   WILLIAMS. 

/CHARLES  WILLIAMS,  the  third  son  of  Richard  and  Caroline  Williams,  is  a 
V — /  native  of  Chicago.  When  he  was  about  five  years  of  age  the  family  removed 
from  the  city  to  a'farm  in  the  wilds  of  northern  Michigan,  near  the  town  of  Lud- 
ington.  Here,  for  six  years,  the  young  lad  lived  in  the  depths  of  the  forest, 
doing  his  part  in  the  rude  labors  of  pioneer  life  throughout  the  long  summer 
days,  and  gathering  the  elements  of  a  sound  English  education  during  the  winter 
months  at  the  little  district  school,  which  was  the  best  educational  institution 
northern  Michigan  afforded  in  those  days.  To  the  stern  discipline  and  vigorous 
exercise  of  his  earlier  years  may  be  attributed  that  iron  constitution  and  that 
indomitable  will  which  have  enabled  him  to  rise  above  the  obscurity  of  his  birth 
and  force  his  way  to  an  honorable  position  in  his  profession. 

In  the  year  1869,  the  family  returning  to  Chicago,  Charles  entered  a  city 
school,  and  maintained  the  class  leadership  both  in  the  school  room  and  on  the 
play  ground  up  to  the  day  of  his  graduation.  He  subsequently  entered  the  Uni- 
versity of  Chicago,  but  determining  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  decided  not  to 
take  a  complete  collegiate  course,  and  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law  at  Chi- 
cago. The  necessity  of  assisting  in  the  support  of  his  widowed  mother  and 
younger  sister  retarded  his  progress  somewhat,  and  when  finally  he  applied  for 
admission  to  the  bar,  he  had  really  been  able  to  devote  only  eight  months  of  the 
two  years  reading  required  to  actual  and  uninterrupted  study.  Despite  this  dis- 
advantage, however,  he  stood  second  in  a  class  of  forty-two,  his  percentage  being 
ninety-six,  while  the  class  leadership  was  carried  off  by  a  man  who  had  devoted  five 
years  to  his  studies  and  obtained  a  percentage  of  ninety-seven.  After  admission  to 
the  bar  Mr.  Williams  at  once  opened  an  office  forhimself  and  engaged  in  active  busi- 
ness, receiving  from  the  beginning  a  fair  patronage,  which  has  steadily  increased, 
and  few  attorneys  of  equal  age  in  Chicago  can  exhibit  a  more  honorable  record 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  443 

or  boast  of  a  more  remunerative  practice.  Mr.  Williams  has  been  identified  with 
several  popular  movements  from  time  to  time.  For  nearly  two  years  he  gave 
considerable  attention  to  political  matters,  but  finding  the  requirements  of  party- 
work  incompatible  with  his  professional  duties,  abandoned  it,  and  has  since  stead- 
fastly refused  the  use  of  his  name  either  upon  committees  or  as  a  candidate  for 
office. 

Mr.  Williams  is  happily  endowed  with  that  indefinable  personal  quality 
termed  a  "presence."  In  speaking,  he  is  deliberate  and  argumentative,  seldom 
telling  stories  and  never  resorting  to  the  dramatic.  Occasional  flowers  of  rhetoric 
adorn  his  diction,  while  spontaneous  bursts  of  wit  often  relieve  his  logic.  In 
repartee,  he  is  quick,  incisive  and  strikingly  original.  Socially,  he  is  genial,  kind 
hearted  and  hospitable,  and  his  office  is  the  rendezvous  of  a  coterie  of  warm 
friends,  who  are  always  welcome  to  the  best  entertainment  his  facilities  afford. 

Concerning  religious  matters  he  is  very  reticent.  His  belief  is:  "  Religion  is 
a  controverted  question,  based  more  upon  individual  opinion  than  upon  evidence. 
I  believe  in  a  God,  but  while  I  entertain  my  own  views  concerning  His  nature 
and  the  future  destiny  of  man,  I  esteem  it  folly  to  waste  time  in  attempting  to 
argue  that  which  from  the  very  nature  of  the  supernatural  must  remain  a  matter 
of  conjecture." 

To  sum  up,  Mr.  Williams  is  a  promising  young  lawyer,  endowed  with  a  fine 
personnel,  a  well  balanced  and  philosophical  mind,  a  broad  and  generous  dispo- 
sition, and  many  of  those  lighter  graces  which  serve  a  man  so  well  in  social  life. 


HENRY  A.  WILDER. 

HENRY  A.  WILDER  was  born  in  Lowell,  Massachusetts,  in  1844,  and  is 
the  son  of  Augustus  Wilder,  and_  Abby  (Tilton)  Wilder,  and  a  direct 
descendant,  in  the  paternal  line,  of  one  of  three  brothers  of  his  name,  who  came 
over  in  the  Mayflower  in  1620.  Mr.  Wilder's  grandfather  held  a  captain's  com- 
mission in  the  war  of  1812.  True  to  Puritan  instincts,  the  old  family  Bible  has 
been  read  and  preserved,  and  this  family  now  has  in  its  possession  one  that  has 
been  read  and  re-read  by  successive  generations  during  the  past  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years.  Mr.  Wilder's  grandmother,  it  is  said,  read  this  book  through  thirty- 
six  times. 

Mr.  Wilder  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  his  native  city,  and  at  Phil- 
lips Academy  at  Andover,  Massachusetts,  and  graduated  therefrom.  He  then 
studied  the  classics  two  years  under  a  private  tutor,  and  entered  Columbia  Law 
College  in  the  District  of  Columbia  in  1868.  He  was  in  the  i4th  Mass.  Vols.  2d 
army  corps,  and  fought  in  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  under  Gen.  W.  S.  Hancock, 
twenty-three  months.  After  being  mustered  out  of  the  service,  he  was  appointed 
to  a  first-class  clerkship  by  the  secretary  of  war,  and  assigned  to  duty  in  his  office 
in  Washington,  District  of  Columbia.  He  remained  there  about  ten  months,  and 


444  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

was  then  appointed  to  a  first-class  clerkship  in  the  second  auditor's  office.  In 
September,  1868,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois, 
and  since  that  time  has  been  engaged  in  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Chicago. 
During  his  practice  he  has  devoted  much  attention  to  the  criminal  branch,  and 
conducted  a  number  of  important  criminal  cases,  notably  that  of  the  people  vs. 
Bridget  Carlin,  who  was  indicted  for  murder  in  1870.  He  defended  her  before 
Judge  McAllister  in  the  circuit  court,  and  secured  her  acquittal.  He  also  defended 
Flora  Crandall  and  Keno  Anderson,  charged  with  being  the  authors  of  the  Wilce 
murder,  which  occasioned  great  excitement  in  Chicago  at  the  time.  Who  the 
perpetrators  of  the  murder  were,  has  ever  since  remained  a  mystery. 


JACOB  C.  TURNES. 

A1ONG  the  promising  young  attorneys  at  the  Chicago  bar,  is  Jacob  C. 
Turnes.  He  was  born  in  Chicago  in  the  year  1857,  and  educated  mainly  in 
her  public  schools.  He  studied  law  with  one  of  the  leading  firms  of  Chicago,  and 
after  a  thorough,  practical  course,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  when  twenty-one  years 
of  age,  passing  a  creditable  examination.  He  at  once  opened  an  office  on  his  own 
account,  and  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  is  prosecuting  the 
same  with  more  than  ordinarily  fair  prospects  of  success.  His  father  is  one  of  the 
older  residents  of  Chicago,  who  has,  by  dint  of  industry  and  careful  management, 
accumulated  a  competency,  and  won  an  honorable  standing  in  the  community. 
Jacob  is  a  young  man  of  substantial  abilities  and  excellent  habits,  and  has  been 
successful  in  chancery  practice  particularly,  and  has  before  him  a  bright  future. 
He  is  devoted  to  his  profession,  and  with  his  industry,  energy  and  integrity  will 
succeed.  Though  yet  young  in  years  and  experience,  he  is  employed  in  important 
cases  in  the  higher  courts,  and  has  often  acquitted  himself  in  a  manner  that 
would  do  honor  to  lawyers  older  in  years  and  practice. 


DANIEL  W.   MANCHESTER. 

DANIEL  W.  MANCHESTER  was  born  in  the  year  1838  in  New  York  city, 
where  his  father,  Hon.  P.  B.  Manchester,  was  then  practicing  law.  having  a 
large  and  influential  practice.  In  the  fall  of  1844,  when  Daniel  was  six  years  of 
age,  his  father  moved  to  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and  it  was  there  that  the  son  received 
his  early  education  and  prepared  for  college.  In  the  year  1852,  at  the  age  of  four- 
teen, he  entered  Yale  College.  After  remaining  two  years  in  the  academical 
department,  he  entered  the  law  school  and  studied  there  one  year.  After  leaving 
college,  he  continued  the  study  of  law  in  Racine,  Wisconsin,  with  Hon.  Wm.  Pitt 
Lyon,  who  is  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  state  of  Wisconsin. 

In  1856,  Mr.  Manchester  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  into  the  active  duties 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAK   OF  CHICAGO.  445 

of  a  newspaper  reporter  for  one  of  the  Chicago  dailies,  continuing  the  study  of 
law  at  the  same  time.  Two  years  later,  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  Mr.  Manchester  immediately  thereafter  became 
a  member  of  the  well  known  law  firm  of  P.  B.  Manchester  and  Sons,  of  Chicago,  and 
is  now  the  only  surviving  member  of  that  firm.  In  1865,  Mr.  Manchester  was 
nominated  on  the  McClellan  ticket  for  the  state  legislature,  but  met  with  the  same 
fate  as  the  rest  of  the  ticket,  which  was  a  general  defeat.  In  the  same  year, 
immediately  after  his  defeat  for  the  legislature,  he  was  elected  attorney  for  the 
Consolidated  Silver  Mining  Company  of  New  York  and  Nevada,  and  remained 
in  that  position  for  two  years,  having  his  office  in  New  York  city,  but  spending 
one  year  in  the  mining  regions  of  Nevada  and  California  in  the  interest  of  the 
company.  Mr.  Manchester  returned  to  Chicago  in  1868  and  resumed  the  practice 
of  law,  which  he  has  continued  uninterruptedly  ever  since.  He  has  a  large  and 
extensive  practice,  both  civil  and  criminal,  and  is  a  well  known  member  of  the 
Chicago  bar. 

MILTON   L.   KNIGHT. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  central  New  York,  born  at  Sau- 
quoit,  Oneida  county,  September  n,  1829.  His  father,  William  Knight, 
was  a  native  of  Sackett's  Harbor,  of  the  Empire  State.  He  was  a  prominent 
citizen  and  politician,  having  represented  his  district  in  the  legislature  at  Albany, 
New  York,  in  1836.  He  afterward  was  elected  to  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace 
and  subsequently  associate  judge  while  Judge  Bacon  was  chief-justice  in  the 
court  of  common  pleas,  holding  the  office  of  magistrate  until  his  death  in  1875. 
The  mother  of  Milton  L.  was  Belinda  (Mosher)  Knight,  who  was  also  a  resident 
of  New  York,  but  originally  of  New  England  stock.  His  early  education  was 
obtained  at  the  public  schools  and  at  the  Sauquoit  Academy;  also  attending 
school  in  the  city  of  Utica,  New  York.  Subsequently  he  attended  college  at 
Cazenovia,  New  York. 

In  1849  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  with  Hon.  Volney  Owen,  an  eminent 
jurist  at  Mohawk,  Herkimer  county,  New  York,  Mr.  Owen  then  being  district 
attorney.  While  in  Cazenovia  he  continued  reading  law  with  Judge  Hough  in 
that  city.  In  1851  he  left  New  York  state  for  the  West,  opening  a  school  at 
Potosi,  Wisconsin,  during  which  time  he  read  law  with  Hon.  Orsimus  Cole,  pres- 
ent chief-justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  Wisconsin.  Immediately  following  he 
engaged  as  principal  of  the  third  ward  school  in  Dubuque,  Iowa,  still  reading  his 
profession  with  Judge  Wiltse,  of  that  city.  Going  from  there  to  Knoxville,  Illi- 
nois, he  read  law  with  Hon.  H.  N.  Keightly,  and  in  the  spring  of  1854  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  when  he  commenced  practice  in  the  city  of 
Galesburg,  being  soon  elected  prosecuting  attorney;  holding  that  office  for  one 
year,  he  was  elected  city  justice,  the  criminal  business  being  specially  assigned  to 
his  court  by  order  of  the  mayor  and  common  council. 
47 


446  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   01-'  CHICAGO. 

During  the  rebellion  he  assisted  in  recruiting  and  raising  a  fund  to  fill  the 
quota  of  troops  in  the  district  where  he  resided.  In  1864  he  removed  to  McDon- 
ough  county,  Illinois,  where  he  was  elected  trustee  and  public  prosecutor  at 
Prairie  City.  While  residing  in  McDonough  county,  Mr.  Knight  was  retained  as 
attorney  and  solicitor  for  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and  Quincy  railroad,  which 
position  he  held  for  six  years.  He  has  been  very  successful  in  the  management 
of  large  railroad  cases,  among  others  recovering  $10,000  in  the  suit  of  Ramsey 
vs.  Pittsburgh,  Cincinnati  and  St.  Louis  Railroad  Company,  first  tried  in  United 
States  circuit  court  before  Judge  Blodgett  and  a  jury,  but  ultimately  tried  on 
appeal  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  at  Washington,  District  of  Columbia, 
and  judgment  affirmed.  He  was  a  candidate  before  the  county  convention  of 
McDonough  county  for  county  judge,  and  came  within  one  vote  of  a  nomination. 

Removing  to  Chicago  in  1872,  he  has  there  continued  in  the  practice  of  the 
law  since.  Mr.  Knight,  being  engaged  in  land  pursuits  since  1880,  spends  a  por- 
tion of  his  time  at  Casselton,  Dakota  Territory.  He  has  incidentally  been 
retained  in  important  litigation  in  the  district  courts  at  Fargo,  Dakota  Territory, 
also  having  a  large  practice  in  the  surrounding  judicial  circuits. 

He  was  married  in  1857  to  Miss  Ann  Seely,  daughter  of  William  Seely,  of 
La  Salle  county,  Illinois,  one  of  the  earliest  pioneers  of  the  state,  having  settled 
at  Springfield,  Sangamon  county,  in  1818,  the  result  of  their  union  being  two 
daughters,  the  elder  being  the  wife  of  Willis  M.  Dietrich  of  Chicago.  In  poli- 
tics, Mr.  Knight  is  a  republican,  being  an  active  worker  and  devoted  to  the  inter- 
ests of  his  party.  H;  is  an  able  attorney,  safe  counselor  and  good  citizen. 


BENJAMIN    F.   RICHOLSON. 

BENJAMIN  F.  RICHOLSON  was  born  January  30,  1854,  at  Adams,  La  Salle 
county,  and  was  the  son  of  Lars  R.  and  Helen  L.  (Johnson)  Richolson,  both  of 
whom  were  of  Norwegian  descent.  His  father  was  a  prosperous  farmer  and  stock 
raiser,and  a  man  who  was  much  respected.  His  mother  is  still  living  (1883).  During 
his  boyhood  Benjamin  lived  at  home,  assisting  in  the  farm  work,  and  also  attended 
the  district  schools,  and  later  spent  two  years  studying  in  Jennings'  (now  Clark's) 
Seminary,  at  Aurora,  Illinois.  In  school  he  was  studious  and  apt,  and  being  fond 
of  study  early  determined  to  prepare  himself  for  professional  life.  Accordingly, 
after  leaving  the  seminary,  in  1873,  he  entered  upon  a  course  of  legal  study  and 
training  in  the  law  office  of  Richolson  and  Snow,  at  Ottawa,  Illinois.  During  the 
succeeding  three  years  he  devoted  himself  assiduously  to  the  study  of  law,  and 
became  familiar  with  its  rudimentary  principles  and  rules  of  practice,  and  in 
January,  1876,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year 
he  removed  to  Chicago,  believing  that  he  should  there  find  a  wider  scope  and 
readier  opportunity  for  the  exercise  of  his  talents,  and  for  a  short  time  was  asso- 
ciated with  Charles  H.  Crawford.  Later  he  was  connected  with  the  office  of 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  447 

Tuley,  Stiles  and  Lewis,  and  in  1879  opened  an  office  in  the  Major  Block,  and 
has  established  there  a  good  practice. 

Mr.  Richolson  is  a  young  man  of  much  promise,  possessing  fine  native  endow- 
ments. He  is  at  once  a  good  lawyer,  a  thorough  business  man  and  a  genial 
gentleman,  and  with  his  abilities  and  attainments  must  take  an  honorable  and 
honored  position  in  his  profession. 

Mr.  Richolson  was  married  October  15,  1879,  to  Miss  Ella  Daley,  of  Chicago, 
a  charming  and  accomplished  lady. 

In  politics  Mr.  Richolson  is  an  active  repulican,  and  is  a  member  of  several 
different  political  organizations. 


ANDREW  GROH. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  Hallstadt,  near  Bamberg,  Bavaria, 
Germany,  July  24,  1836.  He  received  a  classical  education  at  the  Royal 
College  of  Bamberg,  Schwenfurt,  and  at  the  University  of  Wurzburg,  and  at  the 
Royal  Agricultural  College  at  Weihenstephan,  near  Munich,  Bavaria,  and  after- 
ward had,  for  nine  years,  the  management  of  large  estates  in  East  Prussia. 
Immigrating  to  America  in  June,  1867,  he  settled  first  in  Lake  Forest,  Lake 
county,  Illinois,  where  he  worked  in  the  family  of  S.  J.  Learned,  to  learn  Eng- 
lish ;  then  worked  on  a  farm  in  Livingston  county,  Illinois.  From  1868  to 
1870  he  was  engaged  in  teaching  at  Grand  Prairie  Seminary,  in  Onarga,  Illinois, 
where  he  gained  the  reputation  of  being  one  of  the  best  educators  in  the  state. 
He  then,  in  1871,  came  to  Chicago,  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office 
of  Frank  Adams,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1873,  and  has  con- 
tinued in  practice  with  reasonable  success  ever  since.  Since  1873  he  has  been 
connected  with  the  Chicago  Mechanics'  Institute  as  a  director,  and  with  the  Chi- 
cago Athenaeum  and  Bryant  and  Stratton's  College  as  a  teacher,  devoting  his 
spare  time  to  the  teaching  of  German  and  English  in  the  latter  two  institutes. 

Mr.  Groh  is  systematic  in  his  method  of  thought  and  business,  and  a  good 
counselor.  He  is  deep  in  research  of  authorities,  careful  in  the  preparation  of  his 
cases  and  an  expert  in  office  work. 


JAMES  WEST. 

JAMES  WEST  was  born  at  Selby,  England,  June  i,  1841,  and  is  the  son  of  John 
West,  and  Sarah  (Ackroyd)  West.  His  father  was  superintendent  of  the  Mid- 
land railroad,  England,  and  immigrated  to  this  country  to  engage  in  railroading, 
but  died  the  first  year  after  his  arrival  at  Elmwood,  Illinois.  His  mother  was  a 
sister  of  William  Ackroyd,  a  wealthy  manufacturer  of  worsted  goods  at  Stowell's 
Mills,  in  Bradford,  Yorkshire,  England.  James  was  educated  at  Belmont  Academy, 
Liscord,  England,  and  at  Wheaton  College,  Illinois,  and  after  closing  his  studies 


448  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

in  college  in  1859,  he  engaged  in  mercantile  business  at  Wheaton  with  good  suc- 
cess, and  for  a  short  time  afterward  was  buyer  for  Field,  Leiter  and  Company,  in 
the  notion  department  of  their  business,  after  which  he  engaged  in  the  wholesale 
notion  business  in  Chicago  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Torrence,  Manning  and 
Company,  which  afterward  became  Manning  Brothers,  West  and  Company. 
Closing  out  his  interest  in  this  firm  in  1868,  he  was  buyer  and  general  manager 
for  J.  B.  Shay,  wholesale  dealer  in  notions  and  gentlemen's  furnishing  goods, 
Chicago,  until  the  fire  of  1871.  During  the  following  year  he  was  engaged  in 
the  retail  dry  goods  business  on  his  own  account.  Yielding  to  a  long  cherished 
desire  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he  at  the  end  of  that  time  commenced  to  read 
law  with  T.  M.  Manning,  and  also  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law,  and  gradu- 
ated from  that  institution  in  1880  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Chicago,  and 
followed  the  general  practice  one  year.  Since  1881  Mr.  West  has  been  acting  as 
credit  man  and  attorney  for  Eddy,  Harvey  and  Company,  wholesale  dealers  in 
robes,  furs,  hats,  caps,  etc.  He  is  an  energetic,  intelligent,  upright  man  ;  a  good 
judge  of  human  nature,  and  in  his  manner  and  address  pleasing  and  courteous. 
Mr.  West  was  married  December  29,  1875,  to  Mrs.  C.  A.  Long,  and  has  had  by 
her  two  interesting  children. 


EMERY  A.   STORRS. 

"  T  T  OW  difficult  is  it,"  writes  President  Brown,  in  his  preface  to  the  life  of 
1  _l  Rufus  Choate,  "to  portray  the  peculiarities  of  his  character — its  lights 
and  shades  so  delicate,  various  and  evanescent.  I  cannot  but  feel  how  inadequate 
is  any  delineation  to  present  a  complete  picture  of  that  subtle,  versatile  and  exu- 
berant mind  with  psychological  exactness."  Similar  considerations  embarrass  the 
writer  as  he  approaches  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  As  difficult  is  it  to  "paint  the 
bow  upon  the  bended  heavens;  "  to  perpetuate  the  variegated  flashes  of  the  aurora, 
or  by  the  magic  of  art  to  reclaim  the  momentary  sparkle  of  a  gem,  as  with  words 
to  delineate  an  adequate  picture  of  Emery  A.  Storrs,  the  advocate,  the  orator,  the 
scholar,  the  litterateur.  The  mere  fact  that  Mr.  Storrs'  fame  as  an  orator  is  not 
only  national  but  international,  is  indicative,  in  and  of  itself,  of  the  difficulties 
inherent  in  the  very  matter  in  discussion.  Oratory,  as  to  form,  is  protean,  while 
as  to  color  it  is  variable  as  the  chameleon  and  brilliant  as  the  prism.  Like  the 
glories  of  dawn  or  the  hues  of  sunset,  oratory  is  but  for  the  hour.  Like  the  elec- 
tric point,  its  light  is  intense,  yet  self-consuming.  The  very  term  implies  the 
relation  of  speaker  and  hearer,  the  charmer  and  the  charmed,  the  one  who  enchants 
and  those  enchanted.  Separate  these  factors  and  the  spell  is  broken.  Can  the 
untutored  mind  see  aught  in  a  page  of  Mozart  or  Beethoven  but  an  array  of  mean- 
ingless hieroglyphics?  Can  the  untuned  harp  reveal  its  marvelous  possibilities  to 
the  inexperienced  ?  So  is  it  with  the  orator  when  away  from  the  spirit  of  the 
occasion,  the  inspiration  of  the  hour.  All  this  is  particularly  true  of  American 
oratory,  as  contradistinguished  from  that  of  every  other  age  and  country,  and  its 


KCCoopsr  Jf    i     Cc 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  449 

each  and  every  feature  is  forcibly  exemplified  in  the  genius  of  Emery  A.  Storrs. 
For  a  genius  Emery  A.  Storrs  most  assuredly  is,  if  by  that  word  is  "implied  high 
and  peculiar  gifts  of  nature,"  impelling  the  mind  to  creative  imagery  of  the  high- 
est type,  "  and  reaching  its  ends  by  a  kind  of  intuitive  power."  Rufus  Choate  has 
his  only  living  antitype  in  Emery  A.  Storrs.  For  it  is  with  Storrs  as  it  was  with 
Choate, —  his  style  is  a  combination  of  all  that  was  best  in  the  rival  schools  of  Atti- 
cism and  Asianism.  It  possesses  at  once  the  compactness,  the  perspicuity  and 
grace  of  the  first,  with  the  gorgeous  coloring  and  vivid  phrase  of  the  latter.  In 
outline  it  is  as  harmonious  as  a  Greek  statue,  while  its  hues  remind  us  of  an  ori- 
ental garden.  Although  in  his  style  Mr.  Storrs  thus  displays  the  merits  of  these 
schools,  he  at  the  same  time  avoids  their  defects.  In  their  endeavor  to  subor- 
dinate form  to  thought,  the  Attic  orators  were  ofttimes  cold  and  rigid  in  phrase. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  Asiatics  manifested  a  tendency  to  superabundant  orna- 
ment and  inordinate  fancy.  Not  so  with  Mr.  Storrs,  who,  in  his  avoidance  of 
extremes  and  delicate  adjustment  of  substance  to  mould,  reveals  a  literary  art 
akin  to  that  of  Heinrich  Heine.  As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Storrs  is  scarcely  less  distin- 
guished than  as  an  orator.  He  comes  of  a  family  of  lawyers,  and  is  the  son 
of  an  eminent  member  of  that  profession,  his  father  being  Hon.  Alexander 
Storrs,  now  a  resident  of  Cattaraugus  county,  New  York.  Emery  A.  Storrs  was 
born  in  the  same  county,  August  12,  1835.  He  studied  law  first  with  his  father 
and  Hon.  M.  B.  Champlain,  at  Cuba,  Allegany  county,  New  York.  M.  B.  Cham- 
plain  was  twice  attorney  general  of  that  state.  Young  Storrs  then  went  to  Buffalo, 
where,  after  diligently  pursuing  his  legal  studies  in  the  office  of  Austin  and 
Scroggs,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1855.  In  1857  he  went  to  New  York  city, 
remaining  there  but  two  years.  He  came  thence  to  Chicago  in  1859.  Devoted 
to  his  profession,  he  has  never  been  an  officeseeker  or  officeholder.  And  yet,  as  a 
conspicuous  citizen  of  the  republic,  he  has  ever  taken  a  profound,  intelligent  and 
efficient  interest  in  political  affairs.  Never  has  he  been  reluctant  to  sacrifice  either 
personal  ease  or  professional  profit  in  behalf  of  the  public  welfare.  Politically  a 
decided  republican,  to  that  party  he  has  constantly  dedicated  his  great  talent.  In 
1868,  1872  and  1880  he  was  delegate-at-large  from  Illinois  to  the  national  repub- 
lican convention,  being  on  each  occasion  one  of  the  foremost  in  shaping  the  policy, 
characterizing  the  resolutions  and  formulating  the  platforms  of  the  party.  With 
a  trenchant  pen  and  a  clarion  voice  has  he  battled  for  the  right  as  he  understood 
it.  Accomplished  in  literature,  learned  in  jurisprudence,  proficient  in  politi- 
cal philosophy,  familiar  with  economic  science,  acute  and  alert  of  mind,  and  a 
master  of  brilliant  and  lucid  expression,  Emery  A.  Storrs,  whether  as  lawyer  or 
politician,  advocate  or  orator,  has  been  useful  to  his  country  and  an  ornament  to 
his  state. 

So  much  for  the  man  considered  in  the  abstract.  Should  this  terminate  our 
view,  it  could  scarcely  be  complete.  Whatever  a  man  may  be  absolutely,  is  of 
slight  practical  interest.  It  is  his  relative  position  with  which  his  fellows  are 
mostly  concerned.  Potentially,  man  is  naught  to  his  kind  until  quickened  by 


450  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

domestic,  social  and  political  contact,  either  for  weal  or  woe.  This  is  essentially 
true  of  republics.  In  free  states  public  welfare  is  in  exact  proportion  with  the 
extent,  quality  and  degree  of  interest  manifested  by  the  citizens  thereof,  indi- 
vidually and  collectively.  So  sensitive  were  the  democracy  of  ancient  Greece  to 
this  truth  that  a  negative  position  as  to  public  affairs  was  constituted  an  offense 
of  equal  gravity  with  overt  treason.  Through  eternal  vigilance  alone  can  free- 
dom and  prosperity  be  maintained.  No  citizen  of  the  United  States  has  been,  or 
could  have  been,  more  keenly  alive  to  this  verity  than  Mr.  Storrs.  For  thirty 
years  he  has  been  actively  identified  with  movements  in  the  interests  of  public 
morals  and  education.  No  question  of  civil  moment,  whether  in  the  nation,  state 
or  municipality,  has  escaped  his  attention.  In  opinion  sharply  defined  and  in 
character  positive,  his  movements  are  never  undecided.  Familiar  with  the  deduc- 
tions of  Story,  Kent,  Webster  and  Lieber ;  convinced  intellectually  that  the 
federal  union  was  neither  a  league  nor  pact,  but  a  government;  and  stimulated  by 
a  noble  patriotism,  he  was  a  leading  and  potent  member  of  the  union  defense 
committee.  He  drafted  the  constitution  and  by-laws  of  the  Citizens'  Associa- 
tion, and  is  interested  in  the  Historical  Society,  Press  Club  and  other  institutions 
of  kindred  character.  Versed  in  educational  studies,  theoretically  and  practi- 
cally, in  these  matters  he  has  been  an  intelligent  exponent  of  reform.  Believing, 
however,  that  learning  and  morality  should  go  hand  in  hand,  he  has  not  been 
satisfied  with  contemplating  the  generalizations  of  Maurice  or  the  teachings  of 
Bain.  "Action!"  is  his  motto,  as  has  been  instanced  by  his  connection  with  the 
Citizens'  League  for  the  Suppression  of  the  Sale  of  Liquor  to  Minors. 

The  extent  and  value  of  Mr.  Storrs'  attainments  as  a  lawyer,  scholar  and  lit- 
terateur cannot  be  properly  estimated  without  a  continued  personal  contact  with 
him.  As  substantial  monuments  of  his  varied  accomplishments  in  general  liter- 
ature, attention  might  be  called  to  his  numerous  lectures,  notably  those  on  "  Eng- 
lish Constitution,"  on  "Culture,"  "Patriotism,"  "Men  of  Action,"  "Municipal 
Government,1'  and  lectures  before  the  Chicago  Historical  Society.  Of  these 
efforts,  the  first  mentioned  would  have  been  creditable  to  De  Lolme,  Hallam, 
Freeman,  Creasy,  Stubbs,  Thierry  or  Guizot,  while  the  second  immortalized  his 
judicious  and  generous  readings  throughout  every  realm  of  human  thought.  His 
Garfield  funeral  orations  before  the  Union  League  Club  and  at  the  great  lake- 
front  meeting  were  of  noble  quality  and  lustered  phrase.  Distributed  through  the 
supreme  court  reports  of  this  state  are  to  be  found  evidences  of  his  legal  learn- 
ing and  acumen.  So  numerous  have  been  the  important  cases  with  which  he  has 
been  associated  as  counsel  that  it  is  with  difficulty  we  discriminate  those  worthy 
of  particular  mention.  Of  these  perhaps  it  will  suffice  to  enumerate  the  great 
Babcock  conspiracy  case,  tried  in  St.  Louis;  the  contested  election  cases  for  the 
incorporation  of  the  city  under  the  general  law,  the  famous  Michigan  University 
case,  the  case  involving  the  duty  of  railroads  to  deliver  grain  to  elevators  to 
which  it  was  consigned,  the  uniformity  of  taxation  case,  and  those  cases  involv- 
ing the  constitutionality  of  the  law  providing  for  the  erection  of  the  new  state 


THE   BENCH  AND   RAK   OF  CHICAGO.  451 

house,  and  also  of  the  Lincoln  and  South  Park  statutes,  involving  a  question  as 
to  the  power  of  municipalities  to  impose  taxes  without  consent. 

Legal  ability  of  a  uniform  and  versatile  type  is  rare.  In  this  busy  age  there 
is  a  tendency  in  the  direction  of  specialized  talent.  The  majority  of  legal  minds 
find  general  proficiency  out  of  the  question.  Perforce  of  circumstances,  there- 
fore, attention  is  restricted  to  some  particular  phase  or  phases  of  an  almost  illim- 
itable subject.  For  instance,  rare  is  it  to  find  a  lawyer  equally  efficient  in  both 
civil  and  criminal  practice.  If  expert  in  one,  he  is  deficient  in  the  other.  To 
this  rule  Mr.  Storrs  is  an  exception.  His  fine  capabilities  as  a  criminal  lawyer 
were  amply  demonstrated  in  the  famous  Sullivan,  Ransom  and  Cochrane  murder 
cases,  as  well  as  his  masterly  defense  of  Storey  and  Wilkie,  at  Belvidere,  indicted 
for  conspiracy.  In  this  connection  it  is  well  to  note  his  defense  of  the  Chicago 
"Times"  in  the  Higgins'  libel  suit.  His  familiarity  with  political  history,  politi- 
cal philosophy  and  political  economy  has  been  revealed  time  and  again.  To  be 
convinced  we  need  but  read  his  many  political  speeches  upon  vital  national  issues, 
his  extensive  newspaper  and  magazine  work,  and  his  elaborate  arguments  before 
the  congressional  committee  on  ways  and  means  and  the  committee  on  commerce. 
Of  these  it  will  perhaps  suffice  to  mention  his  discussion  of  the  tariff  on  steel 
rails,  transportation  of  live  stock,  inter-state  commerce  bill,  and  concerning  the 
taxation  of  national  bank  deposits. 

In  conclusion,  it  may  be  said  that,  considered  as  a  lawyer  merely,  Mr.  Storrs 
has  few,  if  any,  equals  in  the  West.  Although  versatile  and  facile,  as  we  have 
seen,  he  is  not  superficial.  Exactness  and  thoroughness  characterize  all  his 
attainments,  whether  literary  or  professional.  With  a  multiplicity  of  learning, 
he  is  equally  proficient  in  every  part.  His  intellectual  possessions  are  at  once 
unified  and  assimilated.  They  are  his  own  — a  part  of  the  warp  and  woof  of  his 
mind.  Everything  is  brought  to  bear  upon  his  life  work  as  a  lawyer.  No  erudi- 
tion is  too  precious,  no  truth  too  great,  no  beauty  too  choice,  for  his  employment 
as  an  advocate.  Vigilant,  zealous,  industrious,  could  he  be  otherwise  than  suc- 
cessful? A  perfect  command  of  the  English  language  as  an  art,  combined  with 
the  histrionic  faculty  and  mimetic  artifice,  has  placed  Emery  A.  Storrs  by  the  side 
of  Erskine  and  Wedderburn.  He  is  at  his  best  only  in  great  trials  or  on  great 
occasions  which  bring  out  the  resources  of  his  mind,  when  his  efforts  are  often 
those  of  a  high  order  of  genius.  Then,  with  equal  facility  and  force,  he  employs 
every  instrument  known  to  the  "art  of  discourse."  He  is  clear,  energetic  and 
figurative.  In  representative  imagery  he  is  peculiarly  happy,  and  vision,  personi- 
fication, hyperbole,  simile,  contrast,  allusion  and  antithesis  succeed  each  other 
in  rich  and  varied  profusion.  Wit  and  humor  scintillate  continually  over  and 
through  a  substantial  background  of  searching  analysis  and  comprehensive  syn- 
thesis. Whether  in  persuasion,  dissuasion  or  excitation,  Mr.  Storrs  is  equally  at 
home.  The  grace  and  propriety  of  his  delivery  are  equal  to  the  copiousness  and 
felicity  of  his  diction.  He  is  always  self-possessed  and  prepared  for  any  emer- 
gency. His  manner  and  action  are  energetic,  without  verging  on  that  extrava- 


452  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

gance  which  is  unpleasant.  He  is  a  sort  of  beacon  light  in  the  midst  of  that  pro- 
saic mistiness  which  too  often  hovers  around  our  courts,  unrelieved  by  style  and 
unadorned  by  wit,  eloquence  and  humor.  In  a  word,  Mr.  Storrs  must  have  lived 
in  the  light  of  those  well  known  words  of  Schiller:  "I  hope  ultimately  to  advance 
so  far  that  art  shall  become  a  second  nature,  as  polished  manners  are  to  well  bred 
men;  then  imagination  shall  regain  her  former  freedom  and  submit  to  none  but 
voluntary  limitation." 

In  personal  appearance  Mr.  Storrs  is  below  the  medium  height,  slender,  with 
light  hair,  eyes  and  complexion,  quick  and  nervous  in  movement,  of  courteous 
and  gentlemanly  bearing  and  address. 


HENRY  E.  SEELYE. 

HENRY  E.  SEELYE  is  the  son  of  Seth  Seelye,  and  was  born  June  20,  1827, 
at  Bethel,  in  the  state  of  Connecticut,  where  he  entered  upon  his  academic 
studies,  and  worked  on  his  father's  farm  till  he  was  twenty-one  years  of  age. 
In  1850,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  office  of  Morris  and  Goodrich 
as  a  law  student.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1852,  and  has  practiced  unin- 
terruptedly since,  giving  special  attention  to  real  estate  and  maritime  law.  For 
a  number  of  years,  Mr.  Seelye  was  a  trustee  of  Lake  Forest  University,  and  was 
also  secretary  of  the  Chicago  Orphan  Asylum  for  a  lengthened  period,  and  was 
one  of  the  leading  spirits  in  giving  it  a  fresh  start  from  its  old  routine;  but  for  the 
last  fifteen  years  has  not  been  connected  with  it.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic 
fraternity  and  belongs  to  the  Presbyterian  church. 

Mr.  Seelye  was  connected  with  the  Riverside  Improvement  Company  as  its 
attorney,  and  was  also  treasurer  for  the  same  institution.  After  the  great  fire  the 
company  became  involved  in  serious  difficulties,  and  in  order  to  save  from  loss 
his  friends,  who  had  invested  their  money  through  his  representation,  he  paid 
from  his  own  funds  over  $150,000  of  its  indebtedness.  Owing  to  the  complica- 
tions and  trying  circumstances  forced  upon  him  by  the  fire,  his  business  burdens 
became  so  heavy  that  his  health  became  seriously  impaired,  and  for  a  considera- 
ble time  he  was  a  complete  physical  wreck,  and  but  for  his  indomitable  energ)"- 
and  will  he  must  have  completely  collapsed.  He  is  now,  however,  perfectly 
restored  and  doing  more  hard  work  than  at  any  former  period  of  his  life.  He 
has  traveled  extensively,  and  during  the  war  held  a  distinguished  position  on 
the  sanitary  commission,  and  being  thus  brought  into  contact  with  the  army, 
so  continued  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

In  politics,  Mr.  Seelye  was  an  old  time  whig  until  the  formation  of  the  repub- 
lican party,  to  which  he  has  at  times  rendered  good  service  during  campaigns. 
He  has  been  twice  married,  first,  in  1857,  to  Henrietta  W.  Hurd,  third  daughter 
of  the  late  Dr.  Hurd,  of  Detroit,  and  who  died  in  1865,  and  by  whom  he  has  two 
children,  a  son,  who  has  just  graduated  from  Amherst  College,  Massachusetts, 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAK   OF  CHICAGO.  453 

and  a  daughter,  who  is  now  a  member  of  Smith  College,  Northampton,  Massa- 
chusetts, both  of  which  institutions  are  presided  over  by  brothers  of  Mr.  Seelye. 
He  was  again  married  in  1867  to  Christine  C.  Abeel,  formerly  of  Catskill,  New 
York,  a  daughter  of  Col.  David  Abeel,  who  had  seen  much  active  service  in  the 
war  of  1812.  Mr.  Seelye  is  a  man  of  fine  personal  appearance  and  presence.  He 
stands  six  feet  two  inches  in  height,  and  weighs  about  one  hundred  and  eighty 
pounds;  is  of  light  complexion  and  of  social  habits,  and  is  in  the  truest  sense  a 
genial  gentleman. 

FRANK    BAKER. 

FRANK  BAKER  was  born  in  Seneca  county,  Ohio,  in  1840.  His  parents  are 
Richard  Baker,  son  of  Samuel  Baker,  a  revolutionary  soldier,  and  for  many 
years  county  judge  of  Steuben  county,  New  York,  and  Fanny  (Wheeler)  Baker, 
daughter  of  the  late  Grattan  H.  Wheeler,  of  Wheeler,  Steuben  county,  New  York. 
He  was  graduated  at  Delaware,  Ohio,  in  1861,  and  at  Albany  Law  School  in  1863, 
served  as  a  private  soldier  in  the  84th  regiment  Ohio  Vols.,  and  began  the  prac- 
tice of  law  at  Tiffin,  Ohio,  in  1865. 

He  was  appointed  assessor  of  internal  revenue  by  President  Johnson  in  1866; 
was  elected  city  attorney  of  the  city  of  Tiffin  in  1867,  and  prosecuting  attorney  of 
Seneca  county  in  1869,  and  resigned  both  offices  when  he  removed  to  Chicago  in 
1^73.  Since  his  removal  to  Chicago  he  has  been  actively  engaged  in  the  practice 
of  his  profession. 

Mr.  Baker  is  regarded  as  a  good  trial  lawyer,  careful  and  accurate  in  the 
preparation  of  his  cases  for  trial,  clear  and  precise  in  the  statement  of  his  cases  to 
a  court  or  jury.  He  has  a  good  voice,  fine  presence,  and  is  a  clear  and  forcible 
speaker.  He  was  the  democratic  candidate  for  probate  judge  of  Cook  county  in 
1882,  and  was  defeated  by  Judge  Knickerbocker.  He  was  married  in  1870  to 
Miss  Eliza  Warner,  of  London,  Ohio. 


CLAYTON    E.  CRAFTS. 

CLAYTON-  EDWARD  CRAFTS  is  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  was  born  in  Auburn, 
July  8,  1848,  a  son  of  Edward  Crafts.  His  grandfather,  William  Crafts, 
was  the  first  white  settler  in  the  county  where  he  lived,  and  his  great-grandfather, 
Maj.  Crafts,  was  one  of  the  revolutionary  patriots,  who  gave  his  time  and  whole 
fortune  to  the  cause  of  liberty.  Mr.  Crafts'  mother,  before  marriage,  was  Miss 
Helen  B.  Johnson,  of  an  old  Massachusetts  family. 

At  an  early  age  Clayton  attended  the  district  school,  and  then  the  Eclectic 

Institute  of  Hiram,  now  Hiram  College,  of  which  the  late  lamented  Garfield  was 

once  president.    Owing  to  impaired  health,  caused  by  confinement  and  overstudy, 

he  was  compelled  to  leave  college  a  short  time  before  his  class  graduated,  but  at 

48 


454  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  end  of  the  year,  feeling  that  he  had  fully  regained  his  health,  he  entered 
Union  College  of  Law,  at  Cleveland,  Ohio,  graduating  therefrom  with  honors, 
and  delivering  the  valedictory  address  at  the  commencement  in  1868.  Shortly 
afterward  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Ohio.  He  then 
commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Watkins,  New  York,  in  connection 
with  John  J.  Van  Allen,  where  he  continued  one  year,  after  which  he  removed  to 
Chicago,  which  has  since  been  his  place  of  business.  Soon  after  his  arrival  in 
Chicago  he  commenced  practice  in  connection  with  Henry  Lincoln,  with  whom 
he  remained  until  1873,  since  which  time  he  has  been  in  business  alone. 

Mr.  Crafts  is  a  keen,  shrewd  real  estate  man.  Seeing  it  was  only  a  question 
of  time,  when  Chicago  would  be  surrounded  by  numerous  suburban  villages,  he 
in  1869  settled  with  his  family  at  Austin,  and  has  resided  there  since  that  time, 
being  identified  with  all  or  nearly  all  of  the  improvements  that  help  to  beau- 
tify that  charming  place.  He  takes  an  active  part  in  politics,  and  has  held 
many  offices  in  that  place,  having  been  supervisor,  treasurer,  school  trustee  and 
director.  He  is  also  a  member  of  the  democratic  state  and  county  central  com- 
mittees, and  takes  an  active  part  in  all  political  contests.  In  1878  he  received  the 
democratic  nomination  for  the  assembly  from  the  seventh  district.  He  was 
elected,  November  7,  1882,  a  member  of  the  house  of  representatives  in  the  thirty- 
third  general  assembly  of  Illinois  by  the  democrats  of  the  seventh  district.  He 
was  married,  September  15,  1869,  to  Miss  Cordelia  E.  Kent,  of  Aurora,  Ohio.  He 
is  a  trustee  and  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  and  takes  a  deep  interest  in 
all  church  matters. 


DAVID  L.  ZOOK. 

DAVID  L.  ZOOK  was  born  March  i,  r846,  in  Richland  county,  Ohio.  His 
father,  John  M.  Zook,  and  his  mother,  Rebecca  (Shellenberger)  Zook,  were 
Pennsylvanians,  whose  remote  ancestors  were  German.  David  L.  has  two  broth- 
ers, Aaron  S.  Zook  and  Daniel  Zook,  both  members  of  the  legal  profession,  now 
practicing  at  Goshen,  Indiana,  and  one  sister,  Mrs.  Becknell,  wife  of  I.  J.  Becknell, 
M.D.,  of  Milford,  Indiana.  During  the  infancy  of  our  subject,  his  parents  started 
from  Ohio  for  the  frontier  of  the  West,  by  what  was  then  considered  the  most 
approved  route  for  pioneers,  that  through  the  forests  in  a  canvas-covered  wagon 
drawn  bv  oxen.  A  quarter  section  of  heavily  timbered  land  was  purchased  from 
the  government,  in  Elkhart  county,  Indiana,  and  on  that  quarter  section  the 
cutting  away  of  the  underbrush  by  his  father,  preparatory  to  raising  a  log  dwel- 
ling house,  is  among  the  earliest  scenes  that  David  L.  now  remembers.  His  early 
education  was  derived  from  the  common  country  school  and  the  plow,  in  the  pro- 
portion of  four  months  of  each  year  under  the  former  teacher,  to  eight  months 
under  the  latter  By  the  aid  of  his  father  he  finally  attended  several  terms  of  the 
high  school  at  Goshen,  Indiana,  after  which  he  taught  a  term  or  two  of  school  in 
the  country,  and  then  entered  Hillsdale  College,  Michigan.  After  pursuing  a 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  455 

classical  course  of  study  for  two  years  he  abandoned  it,  and  graduated  in  1873 
from  the  scientific  course.  Through  college  he  earned  his  way  almost  entirely  as 
he  went,  by  teaching  lower  classes  in  mathematics,  performing  the  duties  of  stew- 
ard of  a  boarding  club,  sawing  wood  for  other  students,  etc.  He  neither  boasts 
nor  blushes  now  over  any  of  that  work  performed.  During  the  school  year  of 
1873  he  taught  the  high  school  at  Mishawaka,  Indiana.  Starting  with  his  money 
savings  from  his  year's  teaching  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law,  Chicago, 
September  1874,  and  two  years  later  graduated  therefrom,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  to  practice  in  Illinois,  July  4,  1876.  During  his  two  years'  course  in  the 
law  school  he  earned  his  expenses  by  teaching  in  Bryant  and  Stratton's  Business 
College,  in  Chicago.  He  recited  from  two  to  three  hours,  and  taught  from  three 
to  four  hours  per  day,  and  always  gave  up  half  the  night,  and  often  more,  in 
preparation  as  pupil  and  teacher  for  the  following  day.  He  started  independ- 
ently upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  the  beginning  of  1877,  and  became  a 
member  of  the  law  firm  of  Wilson  and  Zook,  May  i,  1880,  and  continues  that 
relation  in  Chicago  at  the  present  time. 


HON.  MADISON    R.   HARRIS. 

MADISON  R.  HARRIS  was  born  at  Summit  county,  Ohio,  September  29, 
1849,  the  son  of  Hon.  D.  L.  Harris  and  Anna  L.  Eyles  Harris.  His  father, 
the  republican  nominee  of  the  farmers'  convention,  was  elected  to  the  twenty- 
third  general  assembly  of  Illinois  in  1862,  when  his  record  became  well  known, 
he  being  one  of  the  minority  who  stood  by  Gov.  Yates  so  staunchly  during  the 
contest  over  the  peace  resolutions,  which  was  terminated  by  Gov.  Yates  pro- 
roguing the  general  assembly.  His  mother  was  descended  from  the  Puritans  of 
Connecticut,  and  was  the  daughter  of  Judge  Eyles,  of  Medina  county,  Ohio,  who 
was  a  member  of  the  Ohio  legislature  for  a  number  of  years. 

Mr.  Harris,  in  early  life,  attended  the  district  schools,  and  about  the  time  he 
attained  his  majority  entered  Lombard  University  at  Galesburg,  Illinois.  Having 
but  limited  means,  he  devoted  his  vacations  to  teaching  to  obtain  money  to 
defray  his  expenses.  Upon  reaching  his  sophomore  year  in  college,  he  went  to 
Rock  Falls,  Whitesides  county,  Illinois,  and  organized  a  graded  school  of  which 
he  was  made  principal ;  subsequently  returning  to  college,  he  graduated  in  the 
class  of  1871.  After  finishing  his  education  Mr.  Harris,  having  decided  to  devote 
himself  to  the  practice  of  law,  began  his  studies  with  Edsall  and  Bardwell,  of 
Dixon,  Illinois,  and  continued  with  them  until  1874,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
Illinois  bar  the  following  spring. 

He  moved  to  Chicago,  and  after  practicing  a  short  time  on  his  own  account, 
he  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Follansbee  and  Harris,  and  afterward  formed 
a  copartnership  with  James  H.  Ward,  which  lasted  two  years.  Mr.  Harris  is 
an  active  republican  in  politics,  and  was  elected  to  the  thirty-second  general 


456  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

assembly  of  Illinois  from  the  first  senatorial  district.  There  he  became  well  and 
favorably  known,  and  was  very  highly  esteemed,  and  by  earnest,  hard  work  did 
much  for  the  people.  Mr.  Harris  is  a  careful,  pains-taking  lawyer,  a  constant 
worker,  faithful  to  his  clients,  and  by  persevering  effort,  has  risen  from  compara- 
tive obscurity  to  an  honorable  position  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


ERVIN   HOPKINS,  JR. 

ERVIN  HOPKINS,  JR..,  is  a  rising  young  lawyer,  who  has  inherited  many  of 
the  sterling  qualities  of  mind  that  have  made  famous  the  family  to  which  he 
belongs.  He  is  a  native  of  New  York  state,  and  was  born  at  Granville,  February  7, 
1860,  and  is  the  son  of  a  prominent  gentleman  of  that  state,  who  was  at  one  time 
a  member  of  the  legislature,  and  later  in  life  represented  his  district  in  congress. 
He  is  a  nephew  of  Hon.  J.  C.  Hopkins,  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court 
at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  and  Hon.  B.  F.  Hopkins,  a  member  of  congress  from  that 
state.  His  mother  before  marriage  was  Miss  Ruth  Rogers.  Ervin  was  educated 
in  the  public  and  high  schools  of  his  native  place,  and  in  1875  entered  Wheaton 
College,  where  he  remained  two  years.  In  1877  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where 
he  completed  his  education  under  a  private  tutor.  Having  determined  to  devote 
himself  to  the  legal  profession  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Dent  and  Black  in 
1880,  and  also  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  the  Union  College  of  Law  of  Chi- 
cago, and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1882,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
June  of  that  year.  In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Hopkins  is  a  republican.  He 
attends  the  Congregational  church. 


GEORGE    W.  CASS. 

EORGE  WILLIS  CASS  is  the  son  of  a  physician,  Abner  L.  Cass,  of 
Coshocton,  Ohio.  He  was  born  February  n,  1851.  His  father  was  a  state 
senator  at  one  time  in  Ohio,  and  a  brother  of  Gen.  George  W.  Cass,  former 
president  of  the  Chicago,  Pittsburgh  and  Fort  Wayne  railroad,  and  a  nephew  of 
Gen.  Lewis  Cass,  of  Michigan,  a  former  presidential  candidate,  and  a  grandson 
of  Jonathan  Cass,  of  revolutionary  fame.  The  maternal  ancestors  of  our  subject 
were  of  an  old  Scottish  family,  whose  vocation  in  life  seems  to  have  been  that  of 
clergymen. 

George  W.  took  a  four  years'  course  at  Kenyon  College,  and  graduated  there- 
from in  1870,  at  nineteen  years  of  age,  and  delivered  the  valedictory  address.  He 
then  entered  the  Ann  Arbor  Law  School,  where  he  remained  until  1873.  After 
spending  a  few  months  in  Ohio,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Chi- 
cago, in  the  fall  of  that  year.  He  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Elliott  and 
Cass,  which  was  continued  until  1877,  since  which  time  he  has  been  in  business 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  457 

by  himself.  He  has  a  respectable  clientage,  and  is  doing  a  good  business,  having 
power  of  attorney  of  several  corporations  doing  business  in  Chicago.  He  is  an 
upright,  honorable  gentleman,  who  gains  many  friends  by  the  courtesy  and  affa- 
bility that  characterize  his  intercourse  with  all.  He  takes  no  part  in  politics, 
except  to  cast  his  ballot.  His  sentiments  are  democratic.  He  was  married,  in 
1878,  to  Miss  Rebecca  Osborne,  of  Chicago.  As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Cass  is  well  read, 
and  possesses  a  well-balanced  judgment.  Cautious  and  conscientious,  he  is  a 
safe  and  reliable  counselor,  and  although  a  young  man,  is  esteemed  as  an  honor- 
able member  of  the  Chicago  bar. 


I.  S.  WACHOB. 

'"T~*HE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  about  forty  years  of  age,  and  a  native  of  Penn- 
i  sylvania.  He  obtained  a  thorough  education  at  the  Saltsburgh  Academy, 
and  at  Jefferson  College,  at  Cannonsburgh,  Pennsylvania;  studied  law  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania,  in  1877,  and  practiced  law  there 
for  three  years  successfully.  In  1880  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  continued 
his  law  practice  with  an  energy,  diligence  and  uprightness  of  character  which 
command  the  confidence  of  all  who  know  him.  He  is  rapidly  attaining  that  suc- 
cess which  is  the  just  reward  of  an  honest  and  persevering  industry.  In  connec- 
tion with  the  practice  of  the  law  he  is  editor  of  the  "  Central  Law  Monthly,"  a 
periodical  which  under  his  management  has  been  eminently  successful. 

Mr.  Wachob  is  of  Scotch-Irish  descent,  and  of  firm  religious  convictions,  of 
the  Presbyterian  faith;  and  in  all  of  his  professional  and  business  relations,  man- 
ifests a  keen  sense  of  uprightness  and  manliness.  Modest  and  retiring  in  dispo- 
sition, and  frank  and  genial  in  his  manners,  he  seldom  makes  an  enemy,  yet  he 
never  sacrifices  truth  or  principle  for  the  sake  of  friendship.  In  his  profession 
he  is  well  read,  and  his  opinions  are  the  result  of  careful  research.  As  a  special 
pleader,  and  in  general  office  practice,  he  is  regarded  by  those  who  know  him  best, 
as  eminently  skilled  and  reliable. 


JOHN  N.  JEMISON. 

JOHN  N.  JEMISON  is  of  Irish  parentage,  and  was  born  in  Dublin,  Ireland, 
May  29,  1834.  His  father,  John  Jemison,  a  private  banker  there,  was  a 
descendant  of  an  old  French  Huguenot  family,  who  fled  from  France  shortly 
after  the  St.  Bartholomew  massacre.  The  family  first  went  to  England,  whence 
some  of  its  members  afterward  removed  to  Scotland,  and  again  returned  to  Ire- 
land. His  mother's  maiden  name  was  Jane  Newport.  She  was  connected  with 
some  of  the  most  eminent  and  noble  families  of  Ireland.  John  N.  was  educated 
in  his  native  city,  attending  the  Bective  House  College,  from  which  he  graduated 
in  1850.  He  immediately  thereafter  commenced  the  study  of  law,  and  on  arriv- 


458  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ing  at  his  majority  became  a  member  of  the  Dublin  bar.  Mr.  Jemison  remained 
in  active  practice  in  Dublin  until  1869,  when  he  immigrated  with  his  family  to 
America  and  settled  in  Chicago.  He  first  obtained  employment  as  deputy  clerk 
in  the  recorder's  office,  under  Daniel  O'Hara,  and  afterward  became  deputy  in  the 
circuit  court,  a  position  which  he  held  until  the  fire  in  October,  1871.  Immedi- 
ately after  the  fire,  Mr.  Jemison  began  the  practice  of  law,  and  has  continued  the 
same  until  the  present  time. 

He  is  not  only  a  good  lawyer  and  successful  in  his  profession,  but  also  a  man 
of  excellent  personal  and  social  qualities.  He  is  connected  with  several  social 
bodies,  belonging  to  the  Masonic  order  of  Knight  Templars,  the  A.O.U.W.,  of 
which  body  he  is  deputy  grand  master,  and  also  holds  the  office  of  deputy  grand 
president  of  the  I.O.M.A.  Mr.  Jemison  votes  the  republican  ticket,  but  takes  no 
active  part  in  political  work.  He  was  married  in  1859  to  Miss  Annie  K.  Wilson, 
daughter  of  the  late  John  Wilson,  of  Dublin,  who  held  the  position  of  cashier  in 
the  Bank  of  Ireland  fifty-nine  years.  In  religion,  Mr.  Jemison  is  an  Episcopalian, 
with  the  broadest  and  most  liberal  views. 


ADOLPH    LUND. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  preeminently  a  self-made  man,  and  a  striking 
example  of  one  who,  through  many  trials  and  difficulties,  has,  by  force  of 
will,  energy,  and  fixity  of  purpose,  attained  the  goal  to  which  his  ambition 
impelled  him.  He  was  born  in  Hjorring,  Denmark,  in  1851,  and  is  the  son  of 
L.  Moller  Lund,  a  prominent  man  in  politics  in  his  own  country,  but  chiefly 
noted  for  his  labors  in  the  cause  of  education,  having  been  recently  knighted  for 
his  distinguished  services  in  that  cause.  Adolph  was  principally  educated  by  his 
father,  and  his  family  being  in  moderate  circumstances,  he  at  the  age  of  sixteen 
immigrated  to  this  country  in  search  of  his  fortune.  His  father  had  instilled  into 
his  mind  the  ambition  to  be  a  lawyer,  and  he  began  life  with  that  aim  in  view. 
He  engaged  in  various  pursuits  in  Ohio,  where  he  first  settled,  until  in  1871,  when 
he  removed  to  Chicago  and  engaged  in  clerking.  Shortly  after  the  great  fire 
in  1871,  he  went  to  Omaha,  Nebraska,  and  engaged  in  the  commission  business, 
and  also  taught  night  school,  and  most  of  his  pupils  being  grown  men  and  women, 
and  many  of  them  farmers,  he  formed  quite  an  extensive  acquaintance  in  the 
country  around  Omaha.  He  was  elected,  in  1873,  president  of  a  colonization 
company  to  settle  in  Kearney  county,  Nebraska,  and  also  received  an  appoint- 
ment in  the  land  department  of  the  Burlington  and  Missouri  River  Railroad 
Company  in  Nebraska,  as  a  local  land  agent.  Here  Mr.  Lund's  marked  abilities 
received  recognition,  and  he  was  soon  promoted  to  the  position  of  agent  of  the 
road  at  Quincy,  Illinois,  where  he  remained  one  year,  after  which  he  removed  to 
Chicago,  where  he  acted  as  general  agent  of  the  Burlington  and  Missouri  River 
railroad  until  November  i,  1879.  Leaving  the  employ  of  the  company,  he  at  once 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  459 

began  the  study  of  law  in  the  Union  College  of  Law,  of  Chicago,  and  graduating 
in  June,  1881,  was  immediately  thereafter  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois.  October 
i  following  his  admission  he  associated  himself  with  Mr.  James  R.  Mann  in  the 
practice  of  his  profession,  and  has  every  prospect  of  a  bright  and  successful  career. 


ALGERNON   B.   BALDWIN. 

THE  ancestors  of  Algernon  B.  Baldwin  have  lived  in  New  England  since  its 
earliest  settlement.  He  is  the  son  of  Eli  M.  and  Betsey  (Jewett)  Baldwin, 
and  was  born  in  Hancock,  New  Hampshire,  October  9,  1840.  His  early  life  was 
spent  working  on  his  father's  farm  and  attending  the  district  school.  Having  a 
natural  fondness  for  learning,  he  early  determined  to  have  a  good  education,  and 
for  several  years  previous  to  his  admission  to  college  he  supported  himself  by 
teaching,  in  order  that  he  might  devote  his  leisure  hours  to  study.  After  years  of 
patient  toil  he  entered  Dartmouth  College,  from  which  institution  he  graduated 
in  1865.  After  leaving  college  he  engaged  in  teaching  for  two  years  next  ensu- 
ing, first  as  principal  of  the  academy  at  Gilmanton,  New  Hampshire,  and  after- 
ward at  Manchester,  where  he  also  studied  law  in  the  office  of  E.  S.  Cutter.  He 
then  entered  the  Albany  Law  School,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  May,  1868,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  New  York  bar  the  same  year.  In  the  fall  of  i86S,  Mr.  Bald- 
win removed  to  Chicago,  which  has  since  been  his  home.  He  continued  his  legal 
studies  in  the  office  of  A.  W.  Windett,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar  in  the 
spring  of  1870.  He  then  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  for  himself,  and 
now  has  a  large,  lucrative  and  constantly  increasing  business. 

In  May,  1873,  Mr.  Baldwin  was  married  to  Miss  Georgia  M.  Moule,  of  New 
York,  a  lady  of  fine  accomplishments  and  highly  refined,  the  daughter  of  Rev. 
John  Moule,  now  of  Watertown,  Wisconsin,  and  by  that  union  they  have  one  son, 
Arthur  A.  Baldwin. 


DANIEL    L.    CARMICHAEL. 

DANIEL  L.  CARMICHAEL  was  born  in  Oneida  county,  New  York.  His 
paternal  ancestors  were  Scotch,  while  his  mother,  a  native  of  New  York, 
is  descended  from  the  Holland  Dutch.  In  early  life  he  enjoyed  the  advantages 
afforded  by  the  common  schools  and  academies  where  he  lived,  and  made  the 
most  of  his  opportunities.  He  was  an  apt  scholar,  fond  of  study  and  reading, 
and  later  made  rapid  progress  in  the  literary  and  scientific  courses,  at  the  semi- 
nary at  Charlotte,  Michigan.  During  the  civil  war  he  enlisted  in  the  7th  Mich. 
Vol.  Cavalry,  and  was  appointed  adjutant  of  dismounted  cavalrymen  at  Camp 
Stoneman,  and  served  in  that  capacity  with  ability  until  the  close  of  the  war. 

After  leaving  the  service,  Mr.  Carmichael  removed  to  Chicago,  and  there  pur- 
sued a  course  of  legal   studies  in  the  Union  College  of  Law,  and  in  1868  was 


460  THE   BENCH  AND    BAH    OF   CHICAGO. 

admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois.  As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Carmichael  is  able,  energetic 
and  successful,  especially  in  the  practice  of  criminal  law.  He  is  a  man  of 
great  force  of  character,  firm  and  persevering,  and  in  whatever  he  engages, 
whether  as  a  lawyer  or  business  man,  he  acts  from  conscientious  convictions  and 
motives.  Faithful  to  his  clients,  and  true  to  his  professional  honor,  he  is  esteemed 
and  respected  by  all  as  an  upright,  honorable  man.  He  has  from  time  to  time 
been  honored  with  public  trusts,  and  at  the  present  time  (1883)  is  prosecuting 
attorney  for  the  town  of  Lake.  He  belongs  to  the  G.A.R.,  being  now  commander 
of  Whittier  Post,  No.  7,  having  been  reelected  a  member  of  the  Veteran  Club  of 
Englewood;  was  elected  April  n,  1883,  as  grand  dictator  of  the  state  of  Illinois 
of  the  Knights  of  Honor;  also  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  high 
court  of  the  Independent  Order  of  Foresters  of  the  state  of  Illinois  for  the  year 
1883,  and  a  member  of  the  Chicago  Law  Library  Association.  His  political  sen- 
timents are  republican. 

Mr.  Carmichael  was  married  in  July,  1869,  to  Miss  Anna  Fitch,  a  charming 
lady  of  refinement  and  education,  a  native  of  Vermont.  Of  two  sons  that  have 
been  born  to  them,  one  is  living. 


HON.  JESSE  O.  NORTON. 

JESSE  O.  NORTON  was  born  at  Bennington,  Vermont,  December  25,  1812. 
J  As  a  youth  he  was  industrious,  studious  and  ambitious.  Accordingly  he  was 
a  diligent  student  at  Williams  College  in  1831,  where  he  graduated  with  honor  in 
1835.  Being  dependent  upon  his  own  efforts,  he  first  went  to  Wheeling,  Virginia, 
and  for  a  short  time  taught  a  classical  school.  From  thence  He  went  to  Potosi, 
Missouri,  where  he  filled  a  similar  position,  and  at  the  same  time,  began  the  study 
of  the  law.  He  married  here  Miss  P.  S.  Sheldon,  on  his  twenty-fifth  birthday, 
December  25,  1837.  About  a  year  later  they  removed  to  Illinois,  and  in  1839  set- 
tled in  Joliet,  in  that  state.  He  was  soon  afterward  admitted  to  the  bar,  and 
began  the  practice  of  law,  in  which  he  rose  rapidly,  his  genial  manners  giving 
him  at  the  same  time  personal  popularity.  The  first  office  to  which  he  was 
elected  was  that  of  city  attorney,  which  was  followed  in  1846  by  that  of  county 
judge.  To  this  he  was  reelected,  and  in  1848  was  chosen  member  of  the  state 
constitutional  convention.  In  1850  he  was  elected  member  of  the  legislature,  and 
in  1852,  in  the  last  campaign  of  the  whig  party,  he  was  elected  member  of  con- 
gress on  that  ticket.  During  the  second  session  of  congress  came  the  repeal  of 
the  Missouri  compromise,  which  he  resisted  with  all  his  eloquence  and  power, 
insisting  that  there  could  properly  be  no  compromise  with  wrong,  and  that  no 
further  countenance  could  be  given  in  legislation  to  the  infamous  traffic  in  human 
beings,  without  outraging  civilization.  His  course  was  approved  by  his  constitu- 
ency, and  he  was  reelected  to  congress  in  1854  on  the  republican  ticket.  He 
served  in  congress  with  ability  until  March  4,  1857.  In  that  year  he  was  elected 


'- 


/ 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  463 

circuit  judge,  the  duties  of  which  office  he  discharged  with  industry,  promptness, 
courtesy  and  ability.  After  the  beginning  of  the  war,  in  1862,  he  was  again 
elected  to  congress,  and  served  with  honor  during  that  trying  period  until  March 
5,  1865.  He  steadily  maintained  that  the  union  of  the  states  was  not  broken  by 
rebellion  ;  that  the  constitution  was  still  the  supreme  law,  and  binding  upon  con- 
gress as  well  as  upon  the  states  ;  and  that  therefore  congress  had  no  more  power 
to  expel  states  from  the  Union  than  the  states  had  power  to  withdraw.  It  was 
the  logic  which  commanded  the  reason,  but  it  could  not  control  the  passions  of 
the  times.  But  it  is  no  part  of  the  object  of  this  sketch  to  say  more  than  to  state 
the  ground  on  which  the  republican  party,  with  its  new  and  radical  ideas,  was 
severed  from  him. 

In  1866  he  was  appointed  by  President  Johnson  United  States  district  attorney 
for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois.  He  discharged  the  duties  of  that  office  until 
April,  1869,  with  singular  ability,  with  honor  to  himself  and  justice  to  all.  After 
his  retirement  from  that  office  he  became  associated  with  Judge  J.  R.  Doolittle 
in  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago.  He  remained  in  this  partnership  until  the  fire 
of  1871  ;  then  continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  alone,  a  portion  of  the 
time  as  corporation  counsel  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  until  at  last  he  was  confined 
to  his  residence  by  the  illness  which  resulted  in  his  death,  August  3,  1875. 

There  was  in  him  a  genial  and  affectionate  nature,  refined  and  exalted  by  a 
true  Chistrian  life.  In  his  hospitable  home,  where  he  was  almost  idolized  as  hus- 
band, father  and  friend,  these  virtues  stood  forth  in  great  distinctness,  and  made 
a  beauty  of  character  which  no  wealth  can  purchase,  and  no  intellectual  greatness 
can  supply. 

WILLIAM    A.  PHELPS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  December  6,  1846,  in  Fayette  county, 
Ohio,  which  was  at  that  time  the  residence  of  his  parents,  William  A. 
Phelps  and  Eliza  Ann  (Gregory)  Phelps.  William  received  his  early  education 
at  the  public  school  of  Frankfort,  Ohio,  which  he  attended  until  eighteen  years 
of  age,  when  at  the  death  of  his  father  (his  mother  having  previously  died  when 
he  was  but  eleven  years  old)  he  left  his  native  place  and  went  to  New  York  to 
attend  the  Randolph  Academy,  where  he  remained  for  two  years.  After  leaving 
the  academy  he  started  for  the  West,  and  went  down  the  Ohio  River  on  a  raft, 
making  his  first  permanent  stop  at  Cincinnati,  where  he  engaged  in  mercantile 
life,  obtaining  a  position  in  a  wholesale  store,  which  he  held  for  about  a  year, 
when  he  abandoned  his  mercantile  project. 

In  1866  he  removed  to  Decatur,  Illinois,  where  he  taught  school  in  the  spring 
and  summer,  and  attending  the  Mount  Zion  Academy  during  the  winter,  he  hav- 
ing fully  made  up  his  mind  to  fit  himself  for  a  professional  life.  He  pursued  this 
course  of  study  for  three  years,  when  in  1869  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered 
the  Union  College  of  Law,  at  the  same  time  pursuing  his  studies  with  D.  J. 
49 


464  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Schuyler  and  John  Borden.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1872. 
Mr.  Phelps  immediately  went  into  partnership  with  John  H.  Burns,  who  was 
afterward  United  States  district  attorney  at  Deadwood,  Dakota.  After  the  dis- 
solution of  this  partnership,  which  existed  about  a  year,  Mr.  Phelps  continued  his 
practice  alone.  At  the  same  time  he  took  an  active  part  in  politics,  and  in  1880 
was  nominated  by  the  republican  party  for  the  state  legislature  from  the  fifth 
senatorial  district,  and  elected  to  the  thirty-second  general  assembly,  where  he 
was  known  as  a  hard  worker,  filling  his  place  with  great  satisfaction. 

Mr.  Phelps  has  been  an  assistant  in  the  "  Legal  Adviser,"  and  has  worked  hard 
for  its  promised  success.  In  1875  he  was  married  to  Miss  Dora  E.  Simonds,  of 
Chicago.  Mr.  Phelps  is  a  good  lawyer,  and  ranks  among  the  more  prominent  of 
the  younger  class  of  attorneys  practicing  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


GEORGE    W.    BRANDT. 

WE  do  not  intend  to  write  disparagingly  of  the  inhabitants  of  any  other 
section  of  this  magnificent  country  when  we  give  due  prominence  to  the 
eminent  men  to  whom  the  Old  Dominion  has  given  birth.  The  first  English 
immigrants  to  Virginia  were  a  superior  race,  with  enlarged  views  of  government, 
liberty  and  law,  who  sought  out  new  homes  in  the  American  wilds  in  obedience 
to  impulses,  prompted  by  a  lofty  ambition  and  sincere  desires  to  benefit  their 
race,  bringing  with  them  sufficient  means  to  plant,  preserve  and  foster  institutions 
becoming  to  an  enlightened  race.  From  these  ancestors  sprang  men  in  great 
numbers,  renowned  for  patriotism  and  virtue,  unsurpassed  in  statesmanship,  the 
ripest  scholars,  and  unequaled  orators.  A  state,  the  scenery  of  which  is  diversified 
from  the  rugged,  forest-clothed  mountains,  to  the  beautiful,  fertile  valleys,  and 
the  marts  of  commerce,  where  the  inhabitants  rejoice  in  the  enjoyment  of  refresh- 
ing gales  that  sweep  over  the  heaving  bosom  of  the  old  Atlantic.  With  her  natu- 
ral advantages,  and  the  endowments  of  science  and  art,  Virginia  has  bestowed 
upon  her  sons  a  culture  and  elegance,  and  upon  her  daughters  a  refinement, 
unsurpassed  by  any  state  or  nation  on  earth.  A  worthy  son  of  that  noble  state 
is  George  W.  Brandt,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  whose  birth  occurred  in  Hamp- 
shire county,  West  Virginia,  September  14,  1845.  He  is  the  son  of  Daniel  R. 
Brandt  and  Eliza  (Wilson)  Brandt.  His  paternal  grandfather  served  in  the  war 
of  1812;  his  grandfather  Wilson  also  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1798,  and  was 
under  the  command  of  Gen.  St.  Clair  in  his  disastrous  and  memorable  defeat  by 
the  Indians. 

Daniel  R.  Brandt  removed  from  Virginia  to  Chicago  when  our  subject  was 
seventeen  years  old.  George  W.  was  educated  in  the  State  University  of  Iowa, 
after  which  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Richard  T.  Merrick,  formerly  of  Chicago, 
now  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Washington,  District  of  Columbia.  He  made  rapid  pro- 
gress in  the  rudiments  of  his  profession,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Chicago 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  465 

in  1867,  and  immediately  entered  upon  the  successful  practice  of  the  law.  In 
1872  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Francis  A.  Hoffman,  Jr.,  a  very  promising 
young  lawyer,  who  is  thoroughly  posted  in  all  the  theories  of  legal  practice,  as 
well  as  having  an  extensive  knowledge  of  the  decisions  of  the  courts,  both  state 
and  federal,  making  a  firm  admirably  adapted  to  all  classes  of  legal  business. 
Mr.  Brandt  soon  gained  a  wide-spread  reputation  as  an  advocate.  He  is  an  ora- 
tor with  a  good  command  of  language,  and  when  thoroughly  interested  pours 
forth  torrents  of  argument,  with  a  directness  and  force  that  captivates  all  who 
hear  him.  He  is  a  trial  lawyer  of  great  merit,  being  thoroughly  posted  in  the 
rules  of  law  that  govern  the  introduction  of  testimony,  and  being  thoroughly 
conversant  with  the  rules  of  practice  in  the  courts,  and  having  an  inexhaustible 
fountain  of  legal  lore  from  which  to  draw  at  any  moment.  He  is  prompt  and 
Self-possessed,  and  wins  alike  the  confidence  of  the  jury,  the  respect  of  the  court, 
and  the  esteem  of  his  clients,  whose  interests  he  is  ever  willing  to  defend  with  a 
zeal  becoming  an  honorable,  high-minded  practitioner. 

Mr.  Brandt  is  a  legal  writer  of  merit.  He  is  the  author  of  a  work  entitled 
"Brandt  on  Suretyship  and  Guaranty,"  a  work  well  known  and  highly  indorsed 
by  the  legal  profession  throughout  the  United  States,  and  which  has  received  the 
highest  encomiums  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  this  country.  He  has  a  literary  turn 
of  mind,  is  fond  of  poetry  and  the  fine  arts,  and  is  a  gentleman  of  integrity  and 
honor,  who  scorns  an  unjust  act,  and  upholds  the  principles  of  justice  with  a 
befitting  zeal. 

Mr.  Brandt  is  of  medium  height,  with  erect  figure,  a  high,  commanding  fore- 
head, keen  hazel  eyes,  and  classic  features,  is  urbane  and  easy  in  his  manners, 
and  has  a  happy  faculty  of  making  friends. 


HON.   FRANCIS   A.    HOFFMAN. 

A.  HOFFMAN  is  a  native  of  the  city  of  Herford,  in  the  Prussian 
JL  province  of  Westphalia,  where  his  father  was  engaged  in  the  book  and  sta- 
tionery business.  Having  finished  his  elementary  education,  he  was  placed  at 
the  Royal  Frederick  William  Gymnasium,  of  his  native  city,  where  he  acquired  a 
classical  training. 

In  1840,  when  eighteen  years  of  age,  the  attention  of  Mr.  Hoffman  was  drawn 
to  the  United  States  by  the  perusal  of  a  number  of  letters  addressed  to  his  mother 
by  a  former  fellow-townsman,  who,  while  a  student  of  theology,  had  been  com- 
pelled to  leave  his  native  country  for  political  reasons,  and  who  was  at  that  time 
officiating  as  pastor  of  a  small  German  Lutheran  congregation  at  Dunkley's 
Grove,  now  Addison,  Du  Page  county,  Illinois.  Mr.  Hoffman,  though  strenuously 
opposed  by  his  parents  and  relatives,  concluded  to  emigrate.  He  accordingly 
took  passage  on  board  of  a  sailing  vessel  at  Bremen,  and  arrived  at  New  York  in 
September  1840.  Without  a  friend,  or  even  an  acquaintance,  in  that  vast  city, 


466  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

to  whom  to  apply  for  assistance  or  advice,  unable  to  speak  the  English  language, 
his  small  treasury  at  low  ebb,  unaccustomed  to  the  fatigue  of  bodily  labor,  un- 
feelingly repulsed  by  a  number  of  his  countrymen,  whose  advice  he  sought,  Mr. 
Hoffman  naturally  concluded  to  seek  a  refuge  with  his  fellow-townsman  in  the 
distant  (and  how  distant  at  that  time!)  West,  whose  letters  had  allured  him  to 
the  shores  of  the  new  world.  The  journey  was  long  and  tedious.  A  freight 
boat  on  the  Hudson  took  him  to  Albany;  thence  by  another  freight  boat  on  the 
Erie  canal  he  proceeded  to  Buffalo.  Splendid  steamers  plied  at  that  time  between 
Chicago  and  Buffalo.  The  low  state  of  his  exchequer  compelled  Mr.  Hoffman  to 
take  steerage-passage  on  board  a  small  schooner,  which  finally  landed  him  safe 
and  sound  at  the  wharf  of  Whiting's  warehouse,  on  the  north  shore  of  Chicago 
river.  What  must  have  been  his  consternation  and  disappointment  when  he  was 
informed  that  the  friend  of  whom  he  was  in  search  had  lately  left  Dunkley's 
Grove  and  removed  to  Texas.  Every  exertion  to  find  employment  proved  a  fail- 
ure. An  attempt  to  become  a  distinguished  member  of  the  free  and  independent 
order  of  bootblacks,  with  headquarters  at  the  Lake  House,  then  the  leading  hotel 
of  Chicago,  proved  abortive.  An  apprenticeship  at  the  shop  of  a  bookbinder, 
corner  of  Lake  and  La  Salle  streets,  soon  came  to  a  sudden  end  by  the  inability 
of  the  Scotch  boss  to  make  himself  understood  by  the  German  apprentice.  The 
enlistment  in  the  United  States  army,  which  had  a  recruiting  office  at  Fort  Dear- 
born, seemed  the  only  retreat  yet  open,  and  was  earnestly  contemplated;  when, 
fortunately,  a  small  number  of  German  settlers  at  Dunkley's  Grove  concluded  to 
establish  in  their  midst  a  German  school,  and  to  entrust  the  ferule  of  that  acad- 
emy of  science  into  the  hands  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  On  the  most  primi- 
tive, home-made  wagon,  propelled  by  the  united  exertions  of  "Ben  and  Bright  " 
over  the  apparently  endless,  and  certainly  bottomless,  prairies,  Mr.  Hoffman 
finally  reached  the  end  of  his  journey  and  the  field  of  his  philological  labors. 
The  number  of  pupils  was  small;  so  were  the  emoluments  of  the  professorship. 
The  new-fledged  pedagogue  had  the  privilege  of  partaking  in  regular  rotation  of 
the  hospitality  of  the  parents  of  his  pupils,  and  was  paid,  besides,  the  monstrous 
annual  salary  of  $50. 

It  soon  became  evident  to  the  mind  of  Mr.  Hoffman  that  there  could  be  no 
possibility  of  success  unless  he  acquired  a  full  knowledge  of  the  English  language. 
He  consequently  sought  and  obtained  a  home  in  the  family  of  M.  L.  Dunlop,  who 
at  that  time  occupied  a  farm  near  Dunkley's  Grove,  and  who  subsequently  became 
generally  and  favorably  known  under  the  name  of  "  Rural,"  as  the  regular  agri- 
cultural contributor  to  the  Chicago  "Tribune."  While  engaged  in  teaching,  Mr. 
Hoffman,  under  the  auspices  of  the  German  Lutheran  synod  of  Michigan,  devoted 
himself  to  the  study  of  theology,  and  was  subsequently  ordained,  and  placed  over 
the  congregation  at  Dunkley's  Grove.  This  congregation  at  that  time  was  small, 
and  left  Mr.  Hoffman  ample  time  for  missionary  labor.  He  made  regular  pasto- 
ral visits  to  Chicago,  many  parts  of  Cook  county,  and  also  to  Lake  and  Will 
counties,  and  in  this  manner  became  known  to  the  inhabitants  of  a  large  extent 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  467 

of  country.  During  this  period  he  made  the  acquaintance  of  many  leading  men 
of  this  part  of  Illinois,  which  subsequently  grew  into  intimacy  and  friendship. 
He  took  a  deep  interest  in  the  welfare  of  his  countrymen,  many  of  whom  were 
induced  by  his  letters  to  leave  Germany  and  settle  in  Illinois.  To  enable  himself 
to  assist  his  countrymen,  who  were  ignorant  of  our  language  and  institutions, 
more  effectually,  he  made  strong  efforts  to  study  the  political  affairs  and  laws  of 
his  adopted  country.  In  1842  he  was  already  honored  by  the  people  of  Du  Page 
county  by  being  appointed  one  of  the  delegates  to  the  celebrated  river  and  har- 
bor convention,  which  assembled  in  Chicago,  and  which  was  attended  by  some  of 
the  greatest  men  from  all  parts  of  the  country.  While  performing  the  duties  of 
his  pastorate,  Mr.  Hoffman  was  for  a  time  the  editor  of  the  Illinois  "  Staats  Zeit- 
ung,"  then  a  weekly  paper,  published  at  Chicago.  He  also  edited  a  missionary 
monthly,  published  at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  and  frequently  wrote  for  the  Chi- 
cago "  Democrat,"  published  by  Hon.  John  Wentworth. 

In  1844  he  was  married  to  Miss  Cynthia  Gilbert,  an  American  lady,  who  has 
proved  to  be  a  most  efficient  helpmeet,  a  noble  wife,  and  a  devoted  and  exem- 
plary mother. 

In  1847  Mr.  Hoffman  accepted  a  call  from  the  German  Lutheran  church  at 
Schaumburg,  Cook  county.  This  was  a  new  organization,  consisting  chiefly  of 
members  lately  immigrated.  Here  he  found  an  extensive  field  for  his  activity. 
He,  at  one  time,  occupied  the  positions  of  pastor,  postmaster,  town  clerk,  notary 
and  school  trustee  ;  besides  all  this,  working  a  farm  of  40  acres  and  writing  many 
agricultural  articles  for  the  "  Prairie  Farmer,"  then  published  at  Chicago  by 
John  Wright. 

On  account  of  failing  health,  he  resigned,  though  not  without  great  reluctance, 
his  pastoral  charge,  and  removed  to  Chicago  in  1852,  entering  the  law  office  of 
Calvin  DeWolf  as  a  legal  student,  and  soon  became  active  and  influential  in  the 
local  politics  of  the  city.  In  1853  he  was  elected  alderman  for  the  eighth  ward. 
Having  been  admitted  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Hoffman  took  a  small  office  in  the  third 
story  of  a  frame  building  on  the  corner  of  Randolph  and  Clark  streets.  Such 
was  his  success,  that  he  was  soon  enabled  to  remove  his  headquarters  to  large  and 
convenient  rooms  in  a  new  building  erected  by  Dr.  Evans  on  Clark  street,  oppo- 
site the  Sherman  house.  He  now  engaged  largely  in  real  estate  operations  and 
was  quite  successful.  Upon  his  representations,  large  sums  of  money  found  their 
way  across  the  ocean  from  German  and  Swiss  capitalists,  to  be  invested  in  Chicago 
real  estate  mortgages  ;  and  many  of  the  finest  buildings  of  that  time  were  erected 
by  the  assistance  of  funds  procured  in  this  way.  Mr.  Hoffman  also  published 
annually  a  report  of  the  mercantile,  industrial  and  financial  interests  of  Chicago, 
and  had  the  same  distributed  in  thousands  of  copies  at  the  leading  commercial 
points  of  Germany  and  Switzerland.  He  was  appointed  consul  for  several  of  the 
governments  of  Germany,  and  was  thus  enabled  to  render  assistance  and  friendly 
advice  to  many  of  his  immigrating  countrymen.  In  1854  Mr.  Hoffman  opened  a 
banking  house,  in  which  business  he  met  with  great  success  ;  when  in  1861,  owing 


468  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

principally  to  the  financial  panic  resulting  from  the  destruction  of  Illinois  cur- 
rency (stumptail),  brought  about  by  the  rebellion,  the  house  of  Hoffman  and 
Gelpcke,  like  many  other  banking  institutions,  was  forced  into  an  assignment. 

In  1856,  the  anti-slavery  convention  of  Cook  county  unanimously  recommended 
the  name  of  Mr.  Hoffman  to  the  consideration  of  the  state  as  a  candidate  for 
lieutenant-governor.  The  state  convention  unanimously  nominated  the  lamented 
Bissell  for  governor,  and  Mr.  Hoffman  for  lieutenant-governor  by  acclamation, 
though  the  latter  persistently  declared  that  he  was  not  a  candidate,  and  would 
not  accept  the  nomination.  It  was,  however,  subsequently  ascertained  that  he 
was  disqualified,  having  not  been  fourteen  years  a  citizen,  as  required  by  the  con- 
stitution. After  his  name  was  taken  off,  he  canvassed  all  parts  of  the  state,  ad- 
dressing for  a  number  of  weeks  meetings  in  the  English  and  German  languages 
almost  daily. 

Four  years  afterward  the  republican  state  convention  again  nominated  him 
for  lieutenant-governor  by  acclamation  on  the  ticket  with  Richard  Yates  for  gov- 
ernor. Owing  to  his  deep-rooted  disinclination  for  office,  he  again  declined  the 
acceptance  of  the  nomination,  but  was  finally  induced  by  his  friends  in  all  parts 
of  the  state  to  consent  to  run.  Together  with  the  entire  republican  ticket,  headed 
by  Lincoln,  he  was  triumphantly  elected.  He  filled  the  office  of  lieutenant-gov- 
ernor during  four  of  the  most  stirring  and  eventful  years — from  1861  to  1865 — 
that  this  state  or  the  nation  has  ever  witnessed.  He  was  a  most  earnest  and 
efficient  co-worker  with  Gov.  Yates  in  the  military  preparations  and  other  public 
services  of  those  momentous  years  of  war  and  peril.  His  relations  with  Gov. 
Yates  were  ever  of  the  most  friendly  and  intimate  character.  In  his  message  to 
the  general  assembly,  January  2,  1865,  Gov.  Yates  refers  to  his  lieutenant  in  the 
following  language  :  "  I  cannot  fail  here  to  refer  in  kindness  and  gratitude  to 
Lieut. -Gov.  Hoffman,  who  has  been  my  constant  advisor  and  counselor,  and  who 
has  acted  as  governor  in  my  absence  with  great  ability  and  efficiency." 

When  Mr.  Lincoln  was  nominated  for  reelection  to  the  presidency  in  1865, 
Gov.  Hoffman  was  unanimously  nominated  by  the  republican  convention  as  can- 
didate for  presidential  elector  of  the  state  at  large,  and  he  devoted  himself  with 
great  energy  and  earnestness  to  the  work  of  the  campaign.  The  republican  state 
central  committee  intrusted  to  him  the  chief  management  of  the  campaign,  as 
far  as  the  Germans  were  concerned,  and  he  probably  traveled  more  miles  and 
made  more  speeches  than  all  the  other  candidates  for  electors  combined. 

From  1862  to  1866  Mr.  Hoffman  was  commissioner  of  the  foreign  land  depart- 
ment of  the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  in  which  capacity  he  was  instru- 
mental in  inducing  many  thousand  of  German  families  to  settle  in  the  central 
part  of  the  state,  by  which  that  section  was  rapidly  populated,  and  its  agricul- 
tural resources  developed. 

In  1868,  at  the  request  of  German  capitalists,  the  International  Bank  of  Chicago 
was  organized  by  Mr.  Hoffman.  He  acted  for  several  years  as  president  and 
cashier  of  this  institution  with  very  great  success  ;  when  in  1875,  owing  to  con- 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  469 

tinuous  and  severe  sufferings  from  nervous  debility,  he  was  compelled  to  retire, 
and  seek  a  last  refuge  on  Riverside  farm,  in  the  Rock  River  valley  near  Jeffer- 
son, Wisconsin,  where  he  now  resides,  personally  assisting  in  the  labor  of  cultiva- 
tion and  devoting  his  hours  of  leisure  to  contribution  on  agricultural  subjects  to 
a  leading  Milwaukee  weekly. 


GEORGE    C.    BUELL. 

EORGE  C.  BUELL  is  a  young  lawyer  of  much  promise.  He  is  a  native  of 
V_J  Burlington,  Iowa,  and  was  born  July  22,  1853.  He  is  the  son  of  John  T. 
and  Louisa  Pamelia  (Cook)  Buell.  His  father  is  one  of  the  early  settlers  of 
Burlington,  whither  he  removed  in  1839,  and  is  a  prominent  politician.  George 
C.  commenced  his  education  in  the  public  schools.  He  studied  two  years  at 
Peekskill  Military  Academy,  on  the  Hudson  river,  and  afterward  completed  his 
education  at  Knox  College,  Galesburg,  Illinois.  He  attended  law  lectures  at 
Albany,  New  York,  and  studied  law  with  Douglas  and  Harvey,  at  Galesburg, 
and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  before  the  supreme  court  at  Ottawa  in  1877,  and 
immediately  entered  upon  the  practice  of  the  law  in  Chicago,  and  has  been 
engaged  in  several  important  cases.  He  is  a  good  trial  lawyer,  has  an  active 
mind,  and  is  quick  to  see  a  point.  He  is  clear,  luminous,  and  fluent  in  speech, 
and  an  excellent  advocate,  and  enjoys  quite  a  reputation  as  an  orator.  He  is  one 
of  the  executive  committee  of  the  Citizens'  League,  which  is  engaged  in  reform 
work  in  the  city  of  Chicago.  He  belongs  to  the  Knights  of  Honor,  and  attends 
Lincoln  Park  Congregational  Church. 

Mr.  Buell  is  a  gentleman  of  fine  presence,  of  medium  height,  and  well  pro- 
portioned. He  has  dark  brown  hair  and  eyes,  with  sharp  perceptive  faculties, 
and  classical  features.  He  was  married  September  30,  1880,  to  Miss  Kittie  Dex- 
ter Clark,  the  daughter  of  W.  J.  Davis,  Chicago.  They  have  one  son,  Dexter 
Clark  Buell. 

HON.  EDMUND  A.  WEST. 

ONE  of  the  best  known  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar  is  the  subject  of  this 
sketch,  who,  by  assiduously  attending  to  the  duties  of  his  profession  and 
fidelity  to  his  clients'  interests,  has  gained  the  unbounded  confidence  of  all  who 
know  him.  He  has  always  been  careful  to  conform  to  a  high  standard  of  profes- 
sional ethics.  Edmund  A.  West  was  born  at  Elyria,  Lorain  county,  Ohio,  April 
28,  1823,  and  is  the  son  of  Edmund  West.  His  mother  before  marriage  was  Miss 
Julia  Johnson.  His  parents  are  of  New  England  stock,  and  emigrated  from  Connec- 
ticut at  an  early  day,  and  were  among  the  first  settlers  of  Lorain  county.  Edmund 
was  graduated  from  Oberlin  College,  studied  law  in  Elyria,  and  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  Columbus,  Ohio,  in  1846,  and  entered  at  once  upon  the  successful 


470  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

practice  of  the  law  in  his  native  place,  and  continued  there  until  1853.  He  then 
removed  to  Green  county,  Wisconsin,  where  he  practiced  until  1865,  when  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  and  entered  into  partnership  with  his  present  partner,  L.  L. 
Bond,  under  the  firm  name  of  West  and  Bond.  Their  practice  was  at  first  that 
of  general  law  business,  but  Mr.  Bond  being  an  experienced  patent  lawyer,  their 
patent  litigation  increased  to  such  an  extent  that  they  soon  gave  their  entire 
attention  to  that  branch  of  the  law,  and  built  up  a  business  second  to  that  of  no 
patent  law  firm  in  the  Northwest,  both  in  extent  and  importance. 

Mr.  West  was  one  year  a  member  of  the  Wisconsin  general  assembly,  and  two 
years  in  the  senate  of  that  state.  As  a  legislator  he  ranked  very  high,  always 
bearing  in  mind  public  interests.  In  political  sentiments,  Mr.  West  was  origin- 
ally a  whig.  He  early  identified  himself  with  the  free-soil  party;  was  present  at 
Madison  at  the  organization  of  the  republican  party  in  that  city,  and  has 
remained  a  republican  until  the  present  time. 


F.  S.  BAKER. 

TTREDERICK  SHERMAN  BAKER  was  born  in  Chicago,  October  8, 1858,  and 
A  is  the  son  of  Levi  S.  Baker,  who  removed  thither  in  1839.  Mr.  Baker  was  edu- 
cated in  the  public  schools  of  Chicago,  and  also  studied  with  a  private  tutor.  He 
began  the  study  of  law  in  1878,  with  the  late  J.  H.  Truman,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar,  November,  1882,  when  he  at  once  began  practice,  forming  a  partnership 
with  William  J.  Donlin,  under  the  name  and  style  of  Baker  and  Donlin. 


FILLMORE  WEIGLEY. 

I  ''ILLMORE  WEIGLEY  belongs  to  a  family  of  lawyers,  and  was  born  Novem- 
_L  ber  22,  1846,  at  Elizabeth,  Jo  Daviess  county,  Illinois.  His  father,  Wellington 
Weigley,  is  a  prominent  lawyer  at  Galena,  Illinois,  and  he  also  is  the  son  of  a 
lawyer.  After  he  had  completed  his  preliminary  studies,  Fillmore  pursued  a 
course  of  study  at  the  Andover  (Massachusetts)  College,  and  graduated  in  the 
class  of  1866.  Immediately  thereafter  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office 
and  under  the  tuition  of  his  father,  at  Galena,  and  in  1868  was  admitted  to  the  Iowa 
bar,  in  Dubuque.  About  that  time  both  he  and  his  father  removed  to  Chicago, 
and  together  opened  a  law  office,  but  the  failure  of  his  father's  health  soon  com- 
pelled him  to  return  to  Galena.  Fillmore  remained  in  Chicago  until  before  the  fire 
of  1871,  when  he  also  returned  to  Galena,  and  until  1873  practiced  with  his  father 
there,  under  the  firm  name  of  Weigley  and  Son.  During  his  stay  in  Chicago  Mr. 
Weigley,  Jr.,  had  connected  himself  with  Handy,  Simmons  and  Company,  abstract 
makers,  and  had  developed  a  liking  for  real  estate  law,  which  he  cultivated  by 
every  possible  means.  In  1873  he  again  returned  to  Chicago,  and  shortly  afterward 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  471 

became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Handy  and  Company,  abstract  makers.  As  a 
member  of  that  firm,  Mr.  Weigley  has  devoted  himself  entirely  to  real  estate  law, 
and  may  be  said  to  rank  among  the  leading  real  estate  lawyers  of  Chicago.  Mr. 
Weigley  was  married  in  April,  1881,  to  Miss  Mary  J.  Prindel,  of  Chicago.  He  is 
a  republican  in  political  sentiment,  but  takes  no  active  part  in  political  affairs. 


JAMES   ENNIS. 

JAMES  ENNIS  was  born  at  Enniscorthy,  County  of  Wexford,  Ireland,  March 
27,  1837.  His  father,  Lawrence  Ennis,  died  on  his  son's  fifteenth  birthday, 
and  James,  together  with  his  mother  and  five  sisters,  emigrated  to  America.  His 
father  had  been  what  is  known  as  a  "gentleman  farmer,"  and  James  had  received 
a  good  education  in  the  ordinary  branches  On  reaching  America  his  mother 
purchased  a  farm  in  Lake  county,  Illinois,  but  James,  with  his  delicate  health, 
was  not  born  to  be  a  farmer.  With  little  difficulty  he  secured  the  position  of 
teacher  in  a  neighboring  school,  and  taught  for  some  time,  when  he  fell  sick  with 
a  dangerous  fever,  and  his  life  was  for  weeks  despaired  of.  In  1854,  on  a  bitter 
cold  day  in  winter,  accompanying  a  neighbor  farmer,  who  with  an  ox  team  was 
hauling  a  load  of  produce  to  Chicago,  James  walked  to  the  city,  which  destiny 
chose  for  the  place  in  which  he  was  to  achieve  success,  and  pass  the  remainder  of 
his  days.  With  a  five-dollar  bill  in  his  pocket,  and  great  expectations,  he  reached 
the  city  of  his  hopes,  without  a  single  acquaintance  in  the  great  metropolis.  He 
soon  secured  a  situation  in  a  clothing  store,  but  as  the  proprietor  did  not  see  fit 
to  pay  him  as  agreed  upon,  he  left  the  store  one  day  and  went  out  on  the  street 
without  any  definite  purpose,  when  a  sign  "justice  court,"  attracted  his  attention. 
As  he  was  seeking  justice  he  entered  the  office,  and  met  Calvin  DeWolf,  a  citizen 
well  known  to  the  people  of  Chicago,  and  who  has  been  a  justice  of  the  peace  for 
many  years.  After  a  long  conversation  with  Mr.  DeWolf,  the  result  was  that 
James  was  hired  by  him  as  clerk,  and  commenced  the  study  of  law,  and  also  the 
study  of  German,  as  he  foresaw  that  the  knowledge  of  that  language  would  be 
of  great  aid  to  him  in  Chicago,  with  its  large  German  population.  January  n, 
1856,  although  not  yet  of  age,  he  was  admitted  to  practice  law,  and  November  3, 
1858,  he  married  Mary  A.  Sexton,  a  native  of  Chicago  and  a  daughter  of  one  of 
the  original  Chicago  settlers,  Stephen  Sexton. 

In  1861,  the  civil  war  breaking  out,  Mr.  Ennis,  who  was  a  staunch  Douglas 
democrat,  was  eager  to  enlist,  but  on  account  of  the  delicate  state  of  his  health, 
his  friends,  after  a  hard  struggle,  kept  him  at  home,  as  his  physicians  said  that 
the  exposure  incidental  to  campaign  would  kill  him,  as  he  was  then  suffering 
from  lung  troubles.  He  had  built  his  home  on  North  La  Salle  street,  north  of 
Division  street,  where  most  of  his  children  were  born,  and  had  his  office  for  sev- 
eral years  at  109  Madison  street.  In  May,  1871,  however,  he  furnished  two  ele- 
gant offices  at  the  new  Open  Board  Building,  145  Madison  street,  in  a  most 
50 


472  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

complete  and  magnificent  manner,  and  they  were  said  to  be  by  the  bar,  and  com- 
mented upon  by  the  press  as,  two  of  the  finest  law  offices  in  Chicago.  His  law 
library  alone  was  valued  at  seven  thousand  dollars.  A  few  months  later,  in 
October  of  the  same  year,  the  ever  memorable  fire  swept  away  his  offices,  his 
home,  and  his  houses  on  the  North  Side,  and  he  lost  in  twenty-four  hours  twenty- 
five  thousand  dollars  of  property  which  he  had  worked  for  long  and  industri- 
ously. His  real  estate,  his  wife  and  seven  children,  together  with  a  house  on 
West  Randolph  street,  remained.  All  his  personal  property,  save  an  album  of 
family  pictures  and  a  horse  and  buggy,  had  been  swept  away.  His  property  had 
been  insured  in  a  home  company,  which  paid  but  three  mills  on  the  dollar,  but 
with  his  characteristic  energy  he  furnished  his  West  Side  house,  opened  his  law 
office  in  the  parlor,  and  proceeded  after  only  a  week's  delay  with  his  law  business. 

In  1872  he  moved  his  office  to  room  22,  Metropolitan  Block,  where  it  remained 
up  to  the  time  of  his  death,  and  is  now  occupied  by  his  son  and  successor  in  busi- 
ness, Lawrence  M.  Ennis.  The  panic  which  swept  the  country  in  1873  cost  him 
forty  thousand  dollars.  He  had  purchased  a  large  tract  of  Chicago  real  estate, 
and  owing  to  the  depression  in  business,  was  unable  to  meet  his  payments,  and 
lost  the  whole  tract.  August  n,  1876,  his  loving  wife  died,  leaving  nine  children, 
the  eldest  of  which  was  sixteen  years  of  age,  and  the  youngest  a  mere  babe.  This 
was  the  heaviest  loss  of  all,  and  he  never  seemed  to  recover  from  it.  A  couple  of 
years  later  he  married  again,  and  had  one  child  by  his  second  wife.  November 
9,  1880,  after  a  two  days'  illness,  he  died  of  heart  disease  at  his  residence,  aged 
forty-two  years,  seven  months  and  twelve  days,  and  two  days  later  in  the  pres- 
ence of  sorrowing  friends,  relatives,  clients  and  neighbors,  he  was  buried  in  Cal- 
vary Cemetery,  and  his  short,  but  busy  life  was  over.  A  few  days  after,  a  large 
meeting  of  the  Chicago  bar  was  held,  attended  by  the  judges  and  lawyers,  and 
long  resolutions  were  drawn  up  and  adopted  to  his  memory. 

Mr.  Ennis  was  tall,  slim  in  figure,  with  a  strikingly  intellectual  countenance, 
with  coal  black  hair  and  eyes,  his  face,  saving  a  black  mustache,  was  kept  clean 
shaven,  and  he  looked  to  be  no  more  than  thirty-three  or  thirty-four  years  of 
age.  Owing  to  the  fact  that  he  neglected  to  have  his  photograph  taken  since 
his  early  youth,  we  are  unable  to  preserve  an  engraving  of  him  in  this  work. 
His  eldest  son  was  often  taken  for  his  brother  by  those  who  did  not  know  that 
he  was  brotherless.  He  was  a  deep  student.  Science,  history  and  the  study  of 
German  and  Latin  were  his  recreations.  He  was  a  hospitable  host,  but  despised 
parties  and  society  generally.  He  was  a  man  of  firm  convictions,  and  with  suffi- 
cient energy  to  carry  his  projects  into  effect.  In  religion  he  was  a  Roman  Cath- 
olic, and  his  wife  and  children  are  of  the  same  faith.  In  politics  he  was  a  life- 
long, active  democrat.  Although  often  tendered  nomination  for  different  offices 
by  his  party,  he  always  answered,  "Wait  till  Lawrence  [his  eldest  son]  is  old 
enough  to  take  care  of  my  practice,  but  not  now."  His  son,  Lawrence,  inherited 
his  father's  politics,  and  was  of  age  November  2,  1881,  the  day  of  the  presidential 
election.  Father  and  son  cast  the  same  ticket  for  Winfield  Scott  Hancock,  and 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAK   OF  CHICAGO.  473 

one  week  later  the  father  died,  leaving  Lawrence  just  old  enough  to  carry  on  his 
business.  He  spoke  German  so  fluently  that  his  nationality  was  often  discussed 
and  doubted,  and  there  is  many  a  good  old  German  in  Chicago  to-day,  who,  if 
you  tell  him  that  James  Ennis  was  not  a  German,  will  shake  his  head  dubiously, 
but,  if  you  dare  go  further  and  say  that  Ennis  was  an  Irishman,  you  will  receive 
a  very  emphatic  denial  to  your  statement. 

As  an  advocate  Mr.  Ennis  was  at  his  best.  He  was  a  clear,  logical,  convinc- 
ing speaker,  and  with  his  ready  Irish  wit,  remarkable  memory,  teeming  with  droll 
and  witty  stories,  was  a  success  before  a  jury.  The  history  of  the  Chicago  bat- 
eau never  be  completely  written  without  a  page  devoted  to  him.  He  was  honest, 
able,  capable  and  the  soul  of  honor,  and  in  his  twenty-four  years'  practice  never 
forgot  his  duties  as  a  gentleman  and  a  lawyer.  He  was  very  successful  before 
the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  as  the  reports  will  show.  He  was  remarkable  for 
his  clear  perception  of  principles  of  law  pertaining  to  any  litigation  with  which 
he  was  connected.  He  appreciated  by  intuition  the  character  and  motives  of  liti- 
gants, jurors  and  witnesses  ;  was  persuasive  and  convincing  in  argument,  and 
achieved  success,  not  only  by  his  eloquence,  but  by  clear  and  terse  presentation 
of  truths  as  applied  to  the  common  interests  of  society. 

His  practice  was  large  and  lucrative,  and  at  his  death  he  left  about  twenty-five 
thousand  dollars'  worth  of  real  estate  to  his  children.  His  love  of  Latin  can  be  seen 
in  some  of  their  names,  which  are  as  follows:  Lawrence  M.,  James  I.,  Callistus  S., 
Lullus  J.,  Susie  M.,  Felicia  A.,  Stephen  F.,  Agnes  M.,  Laura  G.  and  Juventius  T. 
James  I.  Ennis  has  an  important  position  in  the  Merchants  Loan  and  Trust  Bank, 
Callistus  is  with  J.  V.  Farwell  and  Company.  Lullus  is  with  a  prominent  board- 
of-trade  firm,  the  four  eldest  being  graduates  of  the  Chicago  high  school.  The 
remainder  of  the  children  are  attending  school.  They  all  bear  many  of  their 
father's  characteristics,  and  possess  a  marked  family  individuality,  and  although 
their  father  was  the  last  of  his  name,  it  will  undoubtedly  be  some  years  before 
the  family  name  dies  out  in  Chicago. 


ARBA   BROOKINS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  in  Erie 
county,  December  29,  1839,  the  son  of  Alanson  Brookins,  now  of  Westmore- 
land, Oneida  county,  New  York,  and  Catharine  (Vanwormer)  Brookins,  of  Can- 
andaigua,  New  York.  He  was  educated  in  Hamilton  College,  Oneida  county, 
New  York,  with  Rev.  Herrick  Johnson,  of  Chicago,  and  Erastus  Willard,  late  of 
Indiana,  and  was  a  classmate  of  Milton  H.  Northup,  of  Syracuse,  and  George  M. 
Weaver,  of  Utica,  New  York,  Prof.  Beach,  of  Beloi.t,  Wisconsin,  and  Dr.  West- 
fall,  an  eminent  divine.  Mr.  Brookins  afterward  entered  Columbia  College 
Law  School,  in  New  York  city,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1861. 
He  also  studied  law  with  Judge  William  A.  Gilbraith,  of  Erie,  Pennsylvania, 


474  rHE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  M.  S.  Bowen,  of  Coldwater,  Michigan,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1862. 
During  that  same  year,  in  response  to  a  sense  of  duty,  he  enlisted  in  the  24th 
regiment  N.  Y.  Vol.  Cavalry,  and  entered  the  army  with  a  lieutenant's  commis- 
sion. He  participated  in  thirty-six  different  battles,  including  the  Peninsular 
campaign,  Wilson's  Creek,  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  Spottsylvania,  Cold  Harbor 
and  North  Anna.  He  was  in  the  front  of  Petersburgh  and  at  Yellow  Tavern,  at 
Peeble's  farm,  in  the  great  Weldon  raid,  under  Gen.  Gregg,  and  was  in  the  battle 
of  Five  Forks  and  Hatch's  Run,  and  at  the  surrender  of  Gen.  Lee.  After  his 
return  from  the  army,  he  opened  at  Coldwater,  Michigan,  a  law  office  and 
pursued  the  practice  of  his  profession  until  his  removal  to  Chicago  in  1871. 
Since  that  time  he  has  continued  in  the  general  practice  of  his  profession,  and 
justly  earned  the  reputation  of  being  a  lawyer  of  discrimination  and  ability,  and 
a  thoroughly  upright  man  and  citizen.  Mr.  Brookins  married  Miss  Fanny  Pat- 
terson, only  daughter  of  V.  K.  Patterson,  of  Oneida  county,  New  York. 


PHILIP   A.    HOYNE. 

PHILIP  AUGUSTUS  HOYNE,  the  subject  of  this  sketch,  was  born  in  New 
York  city,  November  20,  1825.  His  father,  Patrick  Hoyne,  was  an  Irish  pa- 
triot, who,  on  account  of  his  sympathy  with  movements  looking  to  the  independ- 
ence of  his  native  country,  incurred  the  displeasure  of  the  government  authorities; 
in  consequence  of  which  he  sought  a  refuge  in  the  United  States.  When  about 
four  years  of  age  his  father  died,  and  he  was  at  that  early  age  left  an  orphan,  his 
mother's  death  occurring  the  following  year.  He  was  taken  care  of  by  friends 
and  relatives,  and  sent  to  the  public  schools  in  New  York  city  until  he  reached 
his  thirteenth  year,  when  he  entered  the  book-binding  and  printing  establishment 
of  Colton  and  Jenkins,  then  a  prominent  business  concern  situated  in  the  heart  of 
the  newspaper  and  publishing  business  of  New  York.  The  business  being  uncon- 
genial to  his  taste,  and  he  having  a  longing  to  live  in  the  Great  West  of  that 
day,  he  determined  to  proceed  thither,  and  left  New  York  in  the  summer  of 
1841.  He  traveled  to  Chicago,  then  a  city  of  4500  inhabitants,  the  journey  being 
made  by  the  Erie  Canal  to  Buffalo,  and  thence  around  the  lakes  by  steamer, 
taking  two  weeks.  Upon  his  arrival  in  Chicago,  he  entered  the  law  office  of 
his  brother,  Thomas  Hoyne,  who  had  preceded  him  west  about  four  or  five 
years,  and  sat  down  to  the  study  of  Blackstone  and  the  necessary  languages  to 
fit  him  for  the  law;  but  after  applying  himself  for  over  a  year,  and  becoming 
dismayed  by  the  unusual  quietness  reigning  in  Chicago,  and  hearing  of  the 
famous  lead  mines  at  Galena,  he  journeyed  across  the  country  in  a  wagon,  the 
journey  taking  him  five  days,  and  he  arrived  in  Galena  in  the  summer  of  1842, 
determined,  if  possible,  to  better  his  condition.  He  immediately  received  a  posi- 
tion as  book-keeper  in  a  prominent  store  in  Galena,  which  occupation  he  varied 
at  times  by  mining  on  a  small  scale.  He  returned  to  Chicago  in  1844,  as  an  agent 


HCCi.p.r  Jr   i   C. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  477 

of  a  St.  Louis  fur  company,  but  relinquished  that  position  after  a  few  months' 
trial,  and  returned  to  Galena. 

In  those  days  Mr.  Hoyne  was  fond  of  roughing  it,  and  made  a  great  many 
trips  on  business,  often  camping  out  for  days  and  nights  in  the  territories  of  Iowa 
and  Wisconsin,  at  that  time  a  wilderness,  but  now  perhaps  the  garden  of  the 
world.  On  one  of  these  trips,  in  a  skiff,  from  Galena  to  St.  Louis,  in  1844,  he 
stopped  at  Nauvoo,  which  place  was  the  home  of  the  Mormons,  and  witnessed  the 
excitement  attendant  upon  the  murder  of  the  great  Mormon  prophet,  Joseph 
Smith,  and  his  brother  Hiram. 

After  staying  a  few  years  at  Galena,  frequently  visiting  Chicago,  he  settled 
permanently  in  Chicago,  and  went  into  the  real  estate  business  with  the  late  Col. 
J.  B.  F.  Russell,  in  1851.  In  March,  1853,  he  was  elected  the  first  clerk  of  the 
recorder's  court  of  the  city  of  Chicago,  which  had  just  then  been  created  by  the 
legislature.  He  was  elected  over  his  two  competitors,  and  held  that  office  five 
years.  He  resumed  his  studies  of  the  law  during  his  leisure  moments,  and  com- 
pleted them;  and  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  state  of 
Illinois  early  in  the  year  1855,  and  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
February  3,  1868.  While  yet  acting  as  clerk  of  the  recorder's  court  of  Chicago, 
January  9,  1855,  he  was  appointed  by  Hon.  Thomas  Drummond,  judge  of  the 
United  States  court,  a  United  States  commissioner  for  the  district  of  Illinois.  The 
district  then  comprised  the  whole  state,  but  the  state  was  soon  afterward  divided 
into  two  districts,  the  northern  and  the  southern,  leaving  Mr.  Hoyne  commis- 
sioner for  the  northern  district  of  Illinois,  a  position  which  he  has  held  for  nearly 
a  third  of  a  century,  and  he  is  the  oldest  in  the  service  in  the  Northwest.  He  also 
holds  appointments  from  the  several  governors  of  the  states  and  territories  as 
commissioner  of  deeds  for  each  state  and  territory,  as  well  as  like  appointments 
for  the  provinces  of  Canada  and  British  America;  an  appointment  by  the  Presi- 
dent as  commissioner  for  the  District  of  Columbia,  and  he  is  a  commissioner  of 
the  United  States  court  of  claims,  the  court  of  commissioners  of  Alabama  claims 
and  the  French  and  American  claims  commissions  respectively. 

Among  other  public  positions  held  by  him,  Mr.  Hoyne  has  been  a  member  of 
the  board  of  education  of  the  city  of  Chicago  for  nine  years,  acting  as  president 
of  the  board  for  two  successive  terms.  He  was  connected  with  the  fire  depart- 
ment in  early  days,  and  also  with  the  military,  having  been  a  member  of  the  old 
Chicago  artillery  for  years  prior  to,  and  at  the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war.  He 
is  an  Odd-Fellow  and  a  Freemason,  filling  some  of  the  highest  positions  in  the 
two  orders.  He  was  instrumental,  in  connection  with  Hon.  John  Wentworth,  E. 
G.  Keith,  Judge  Bradwell  and  others,  in  starting  the  Union  League  Club,  in  the 
winter  of  1880,  which  is  now  a  thriving  and  prosperous  institution.  He,  with  M. 
E.  Stone,  of  the  "Daily  News,"  D.  K.  Pearson  and  others,  took  the  initiative  in 
the  movement  for  a  memorial  of  the  great  fire.  In  fact,  he  has  a  hand  in  most  of 
the  enterprises  of  the  day;  and  the  name  Phil  Hoyne  is  a  household  word.  He 
was  closely  identified  with  the  democratic  party  previous  to  the  outbreak  of  the 


478  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

war  of  the  rebellion  in  1861,  when  his  fidelity  to  the  Union  cause  led  him  to  act 
in  conjunction  with  the  republicans  and  war  democrats,  and  he  naturally  drifted 
into  the  ranks  of  the  republican  party,  of  which  he  has  since  been  an  active  and 
honored  member;  and  he  was  a  member  of  the  republican  state  central  commit- 
tee of  Illinois  from  1876  to  1881. 

He  married  Teresa  C.  French,  daughter  of  the  distinguished  grammarian, 
D'Arcy  A.  French,  April  29,  1849,  and  has  two  sons,  William  A.  Hoyne,  and  John 
Thomas  Hoyne;  the  former  being  associated  with  the  firm  of  Culver,  Page, 
Hoyne  and  Company,  stationers,  and  the  latter  with  the  well  known  dry  goods 
house  of  John  V.  Farwell  and  Company,  of  Chicago. 

That  public  man  has  sterling,  lovable  qualities  who  is  given  a  nickname  by 
his  friends  and  the  public.  "Abe"  Lincoln,  "Tom"  Hood,  "Phil"  Sheridan, 
"  Pap  "  Thomas,  "  Tecumseh  "  Sherman,  "Jim  "Elaine,  "The  Little  Corporal." 
These  names  mean  more  than  respect  for  their  bearers,  they  mean  love  as  well; 
and  Mr.  Hoyne's  is  no  exception  to  the  rule.  The  court,  the  bar,  the  people  have 
a  hearty  regard  for  "  Phil  "  Hoyne. 


EDWARD    J.    HILL. 

^T^HE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  studious,  industrious,  patient  lawyer,  who  has 
1  won  a  high  reputation  both  as  a  practitioner  and  legal  writer.  In  style  he 
is  terse,  vigorous,  apt  in  illustration,  accurate  and  concise  in  statement,  without 
repetition.  He  is  the  author  of  several  works  of  great  merit,  among  which  may 
be  mentioned  his  "Digest  of  the  Illinois  Reports,"  which  has  received  high  enco- 
miums from  the  lawyers  and  judges  throughout  this  country.  It  has  been  so 
carefully  and  thoroughly  prepared,  that  without  resort  to  the  original  reports, 
with  the  table  of  cases  cited,  the  substance  of  every  case  digested  may  be  gath- 
ered with  certainty  and  precision.  It  contains  full  notes  to  every  case  in  the 
reports,  with  reference  to  the  statutes  when  necessary;  a  table  of  cases  overruled, 
modified,  criticised  and  explained;  a  table  of  reports,  enabling  one  to  find  out 
at  a  glance  when  any  case  cited  was  determined  or  submitted;  a  table  of  cases, 
enabling  parties  to  pursue  investigations  by  cases,  and  a  full  alphabetical  and 
analytical  index,  with  cross-references.  The  state  of  Illinois  has  adhered  more 
closely  to  the  English  practice  than  any  other  state,  and  rests  to  some  extent 
upon  English  precedent  and  the  history  of  English  jurisprudence. 

Mr.  Hill  was  born  at  Albion,  Orleans  county,  New  York,  June  24,  1833;  grad- 
uated at  the  University  of  Vermont  in  August,  1853;  read  law  at  Burlington, 
Vermont,  from  1853  to  1855,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1855,  but  was 
engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits  from  1856  to  1860.  He  commenced  the  active 
practice  of  the  law  at  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  in  June,  1860,  where  he  gained  an 
excellent  reputation  as  a  wise  counselor,  a  skillful  practitioner,  and  a  lawyer  of 
persistency  and  courage.  He  was  admitted  to  the  supreme  court  of  that  state  in 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  479 

August,  1860,  and  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in  1863.  He  removed 
to  Chicago  in  June,  1868;  was  admitted  to  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  in  1869, 
and  has  been  in  active  practice  at  Chicago  from  that  time. 

Mr.  Hill  is  a  thorough  lawyer  in  every  department  of  the  profession.  His 
cases  are  always  thoroughly  prepared,  and  he  always  appears  in  court  with  the 
authorities  at  hand  with  which  to  support  his  propositions.  He  is  a  good  advo- 
cate, always  presenting  his  case  pointedly  and  in  a  comprehensive  manner,  and 
always  makes  every  point  his  case  contains.  He  is  a  logician  of  high  order,  and 
is  an  effective  speaker,  either  before  a  court  or  jury. 

Mr.  Hill  is  easy  in  his  manners,  affable  and  courteous,  and  bears  the  impress 
of  a  liberal  education.  He  is  a  polished  gentleman,  of  fine  personal  appearance. 
He  is  of  medium  height,  of  stout  build,  and  well  proportioned;  has  a  high,  broad 
forehead,  with  black  hair  and  sharp  black  eyes. 


JAMES   J.   HOCH. 

JAMES  J.  HOCH  was  born  in  Waukesha  county,  Wisconsin,  August  n,  1854, 
and  is  the  son  of  William  Hoch,  who  was  a  prosperous  farmer  in  that  county. 
He  attended  the  public  school  in  Milwaukee,  and  in  1868  studied  in  Saint  Francis 
College,  near  that  city.  In  1870  he  entered  Saint  Vincent's  College,  in  Westmore- 
land county,  Pennsylvania,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1873.  Having  determined 
to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he  removed  to  Chicago  immediately  after  graduat- 
ing, and  entered  the  office  of  James  Ennis  and  began  the  study  of  law.  He  was 
admitted  to  practice  January  4,  1878,  and  since  that  time  has  been  actively 
engaged  in  practice,  with  good  success. 

In  politics  Mr.  Hoch  is  a  republican,  although  he  takes  no  active  part  in  polit- 
ical affairs,  being  a  close  and  careful  student,  and  finding  in  his  professional  work 
his  chief  pleasure.  He  was  married  in  1882. 


PERRY   A.    HULL. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Ohio,  and  was  born  in  Williams- 
field,  Ashtabula  county,  December  22,  1850,  the  son  of  William  M.  Hull,  and 
Samantha  C.  (Dodge)  Hull.  His  father,  a  highly  respected  citizen  of  Williams- 
field,  is  one  of  the  leading  men  in  Ashtabula  county,  being  a  wealthy  and  exten- 
sive land  owner.  His  mother  belonged  to  one  of  the  most  highly  respected  and 
intelligent  families  in  northern  Ohio,  and  is  a  daughter  of  Capt.  John  Dodge,  of 
Connecticut,  who  served  as  an  officer  in  the  war  of  1812.  Perry  A.  attended  the 
common  schools  until  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age,  when  he  entered  Kingsville 
Academy  at  Ashtabula,  Ohio,  and  continued  there  two  years  and  finished  his 
preparatory  course.  He  then  entered  Hillsdale  College,  Michigan,  and  remained 


480  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

there  a  year  and  a  half,  giving  his  attention  to  the  most  practical  studies,  and 
then  read  law  for  two  and  a  half  years  with  Col.  R.  W.  Ricaby,  then  prosecuting 
attorney  for  Hillsdale  county.  Removing  to  Chicago  at  the  expiration  of  that 
time,  he  continued  his  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  William  H.  Richardson,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  about  January  i,  1872,  and  afterward  formed  a  copart- 
nership with  Mr.  Richardson,  which  continued  one  year.  In  January,  1873,  he 
commenced  business  by  himself,  devoting  his  attention  to  general  civil  practice, 
and,  considering  that  he  settled  in  Chicago  an  entire  stranger,  his  success  in 
building  up  by  his  own  exertions  a  business  second  to  no  man  of  his  age  in  the 
city  is  remarkable.  Having  that  peculiar  fitness  requisite  in  a  successful  trial 
lawyer,  he  has  to  a  large  extent  made  the  trial  of  cases  in  court  a  specialty.  He 
is  well  read  in  his  profession,  and  is  honest  and  trustworthy  and  a  safe,  relia- 
ble counselor.  In  political  sentiments  he  is  a  republican,  and  has  taken  consid- 
erable interest  in  politics,  and  devoted  much  time  to  political  work. 


C.    STUART   BEATTIE. 

/CHARLES  STUART  BEATTIE,  a  native  of  Illinois,  was  born  at  Ottawa, 
V_x  September  30,  1855.  He  is  the  son  of  Charles  J.  Beattie,  a  practicing  attor- 
ney of  Chicago,  and  Eliza  B.  (Card)  Beattie.  The  family  are  of  Irish  extraction. 
The  parents  of  young  Beattie  moved  from  La  Salle  county  to  Pontiac,  Illinois,  in 
1857,  where  our  subject  received  his  early  education,  attending  the  grammar  and 
high  schools  of  that  place.  In  1872  he,  with  the  family,  moved  to  Chicago,  and 
in  the  fall  of  the  same  year  entered  the  office  of  John  Lyle  King,  and  commenced 
the  study  of  the  law.  He  continued  in  this  connection  about  one  vear,  and  then 
went  into  his  father's  law  office  in  the  city,  and  continued  his  legal  studies  until 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  state  on  examination  by  the  supreme  court  at  Spring- 
field, in  January  1876. 

His  health  having  become  impaired  by  over-application  to  study,  he  was 
employed  by  the  "Inter-Ocean"  company,  and  remained  in  their  employ  about 
six  months.  In  April,  1877,  he  opened  a  law  office  in  Chicago,  where  he  has 
remained  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  ever  since,  doing  a  prosperous  business. 
Among  other  important  cases  in  which  Mr.  Beattie  has  been  retained  was  the 
case  of  The  People  ex  rel.  Francis  P.  Gleason  vs.  George  A.  Meech.  This 
case  grew  out  of  the  act  of  the  legislature  of  1881,  dividing  the  county  of 
Cook  into  two  justice  districts.  Chicago  being  one  and  the  remaining  portion 
of  the  county  the  other,  the  constables  of  the  county  being  by  the  act  pro- 
hibited from  serving  papers  in  the  city,  virtually  destroying  the  emoluments 
of  those  offices  outside  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Beattie  was  retained  by  the  officers, 
and  attacked  the  act  by  mandamus  before  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  the  law 
being  contrary  to  the  uniformity  clause  of  the  constitution  of  the  state.  The 
Citizens'  Association,  Merchants'  Exchange  and  five  railroad  companies  of  Chi- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  481 

cago  combined  to  sustain  the  act,  retaining  Hon.  C.  B.  Lawrence,  ex-chief-justice 
of  the  supreme  court,  against  Mr.  Beattie.  The  case  was  presented  at  the  June 
term,  1881,  of  the  court  at  Springfield.  The  law  was  defended  by  the  daily  press 
and  "Legal  News"  of  Chicago,  and  by  the  thorough  articles  written  by  able 
attorneys  ;  and  on  September  30,  the  twenty-sixth  birthday  of  our  subject,  the 
supreme  court,  by  a  unanimous  opinion,  sustained  the  mandamus  and  declared  the 
law  unconstitutional.  A  petition  for  a  rehearing  was  filed  at  the  January  term, 
1882,  of  the  supreme  court,  but  was  denied. 

Mr.  Beattie  has  been  uniformly  employed  upon  the  side  of  the  defense  of  his 
suits  in  court,  and  has  been  largely  employed  in  criminal  cases,  and  has  achieved 
a  marked  degree  of  success  in  defending  his  clients.  He  has  a  good  deal  of  prac- 
tice in  the  appellate  court  of  Chicago. 

He  is  of  medium  height,  dark  complexion,  black  hair  and  eyes,  is  well  formed, 
a  good  lawyer,  of  fluent  and  pleasing  address,  a  young  man  of  refinement  and 
culture,  having  literary  tastes,  and  is  well  read  in  history  and  classic  poetry.  He 
is  high  court  representative  of  the  I.O.F.  of  Illinois,  is  independent  in  politics, 
though  he  has  affiliated  generally  with  the  democratic  party,  and  is  well  posted 
in  the  politics  of  the  day,  but,  devoted  to  the  law,  he  gives  it  his  undivided  atten- 
tion, and  being  young  in  years  he  may  well  hope  to  reach  higher  acclivities  in 
climbing  with  laudable  ambition  toward  the  acme  of  success  in  the  high  and 
honorable  calling  he  has  chosen. 


JACOB    R.   CUSTER. 

JACOB  R.  CUSTER  is  one  of  the  most  substantial  young  men  practicing  at 
the  Chicago  bar.  While  many  men  have  gained  distinction  by  practicing  a 
specialty,  Mr.  Custer  has  attained  high  rank  by  making  himself  thoroughly  con- 
versant with  every  department  of  the  profession.  He  is  a  good  trial  lawyer,  is 
well  acquainted  with  the  rules  of  court  and  the  law  of  evidence  and  is  equally 
proficient  in  all  of  the  details  of  office  work.  He  enjoys  the  reputation  of  being 
honorable  and  upright,  a.id  has  the  confidence  of  all  who  are  favored  with  his 
acquaintance.  His  ancestors  were  among  the  first  settlers  of  Pennsylvania. 

Jacob  R.  Custer  was  born  May  27,  1845,  at  Lawrenceville,  Chester  county, 
Pennsylvania,  and  is  the  son  of  David  Y.  Custer,  and  Esther  F.  (Rambo)  Custer. 
He  commenced  his  education  at  Washington  Hall,  in  Trappe,  Pennsylvania, 
entered  the  sophomore  class  of  Pennsylvania  College,  at  Gettysburg,  Pennsylva- 
nia, in  1864,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  August,  1867,  taking  the  third 
honor  in  his  class.  He  studied  law  one  year  in  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania,  in 
1868,  and  attended  the  Albany  Law  School  at  Albany,  New  York,  and  graduated 
therefrom  in  1869,  at  which  time  he  was  admitted  to  the  New  York  bar.  In  the 
fall  of  1869  he  came  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  been  practicing  law  ever  since  with 
excellent  success.  He  practiced  alone  until  June,  1879,  when  he  formed  a  part- 
Si 


482  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

nership  with  Hon.  William  J.  Campbell,  his  present  partner.  In  1880  Mr.  Custer 
was  appointed  master  in  chancery  of  the  superior  court,  which  office  he  has  held 
since  that  time,  giving  the  utmost  satisfaction.  Mr.  Custer  served  in  the  Penn- 
sylvania militia  during  the  memorable  battles  of  Antietam  and  Gettysburg. 

He  was  married  December  i,  1879,  to  Miss  Ella  A.  White,  an  estimable  lady  of 
Chicago.  They  have  one  child  living.  Mr.  Custer  is  attractive  in  personal 
appearance.  He  is  of  medium  height  and  well  proportioned.  His  hair  and  eyes 
are  dark,  and  forehead  high  and  square,  with  regular  features.  His  face  is  shaved 
clean  with  the  exception  of  a  dark  brown  mustache. 


G.   ROCKLIFFE    KNIGHT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  England,  and  was  born  at  Edgevas- 
ton,  January  7,  1855,  and  is  the  son  of  Finlay  Knight,  Queen's  Counsel,  and  a 
prominent  lawyer  in  London.  The  mother  of  our  subject  is  Ellen  G.  (Billing- 
hurst)  Knight,  a  daughter  of  Admiral  Billinghurst,  of  the  British  navy. 

Our  subject  pursued  a  scientific  and  classical  course  of  study  at  Westminster, 
England.  He  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  England,  but  completed  his 
preparatory  legal  studies  after  immigrating  to  America,  at  Toronto,  Canada,  in 
the  office  of  Foster  and  Clark.  Remaining  there  as  a  student  until  September, 
1881,  he  then  removed  to  Chicago,  and  upon  admission  to  the  bar  opened  an 
office  and  entered  with  earnestness  and  vigor  into  his  chosen  profession,  with 
every  prospect  of  success. 

Mr.  Knight  is  a  young  man  of  good  abilities,  a  faithful  student,  well  versed  in 
the  rudiments  of  the  law,  and  withal  honorable,  fair  and  reliable  in  all  his  rela- 
tions. 

AUSTIN   O.    SEXTON. 

THE  subject  of  this  biographical  sketch  is  a  native  of  Chicago,  and  the  son  of 
the  late  Stephen  S.  Sexton,  who  contracted  to  build  the  first  school  house  in 
Chicago,  who  has  figured  conspicuously  as  a  builder  of  many  of  the  most 
important  buildings  in  the  city,  and  who  has  held  several  important  offices,  being 
at  one  time  chief  of  the  Chicago  police.  His  mother  was  Mary  A.  (Gaughn)  Sex- 
ton. Both  of  his  parents  were  of  Irish  descent.  They  died  in  1861.  Austin  O. 
commenced  his  education  in  the  public  schools;  being  an  apt  scholar,  he  soon 
entered  the  high  school  and  graduated  therefrom  in  June  1872.  He  traveled  in 
the  West  one  year,  and  in  1873  entered  the  law  office  of  the  late  James  Ennis, 
where  he  made  rapid  progress  in  the  rudiments  of  his  profession,  and  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  in  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois,  July  4,  1876. 

In  political  sentiments  Mr.  Sexton  is  a  democrat.     He  was  elected  in  Novem 
ber,  1876,  to  the  thirtieth  general  assembly  of  Illinois,  and  reelected  to  the  same 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  483 

body  in  1878,  in  1880,  and  again  in  1882,  and  was  the  nominee  of  the  democrats 
for  speaker  of  the  house  in  the  session  of  1883.  As  a  legislator  Mr.  Sexton  takes  a 
leading  part  on  the  democratic  side,  especially  in  matters  pertaining  to  Cook 
county.  He  is  an  influential  member,  whose  advice  and  opinions  are  always 
sought  on  all  important  matters  of  legislation,  and  a  fearless  advocate  of  what  he 
deems  to  be  right  and  in  the  interest  of  his  constituents.  He  has  always  been 
very  active  in  ward  politics,  has  been  a  delegate  to  all  the  city  and  county  dem- 
ocratic conventions,  and  is  a  member  of  the  city  and  county  central  committee. 
He  is  a  member  of  the  American  Order  of  United  Workmen,  and  of  the  Indepen- 
dent Order  of  Foresters. 

He  was  married  in  the  fall  of  1874,  to  Miss  Mary  I.  Lyons,  an  estimable  lady. 
They  have  four  children.  Mr.  Sexton  has  a  fine  presence  and  a  robust  constitu- 
tion. He  has  a  clear,  comprehensive  mind,  quick  and  apt,  and  is  thoroughly 
posted  in  his  profession.  He  is  a  logical  reasoner,  an  easy,  graceful  speaker, 
and  has  every  reason  to  look  forward  to  the  realization  of  his  most  cherished 
hopes  and  anticipations  of  success  in  his  profession  and  business. 


HON.  S.  CORNING  JUDD. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Otisco,  Onondaga  county,  New  York, 
July  21,  1827.  He  is  the  son  of  Solomon  and  Eleanor  (Clark)  Judd.  His 
mother  died  when  he  was  four  years  of  age.  He  received  his  primary  education  at  a 
private  school,  preparatory  to  an  academic  course,  which  he  entered  upon  at  the 
age  of  nine,  in  Aurora  Academy,  Erie  county,  New  York,  continuing  till  he  finished 
his  course  at  the  age  of  seventeen.  Here  he  formed  the  acquaintance  of  Hon. 
Millard  Fillmore,  afterward  President  of  the  United  States,  with  whom  he  was 
ever  after  on  friendly  terms,  and  whose  influence  had  considerable  to  do  in  shap- 
ing his  political  course.  While  at  Aurora  he  began  the  study  of  law  under  Judge 
La  Fayette  Carver,  but  the  winter  following  the  completion  of  his  academic  course 
he  spent  in  Canada,  teaching  school.  Returning  in  the  spring  of  1845,  he  contin- 
ued his  legal  studies  with  the  firm  of  Griswold  and  Corning,  in  Syracuse,  New 
York,  Richard  S.  Corning,  of  this  firm  (after  whom  Mr.  Judd  received  his  middle 
name),  being  a  brother  of  the  late  Hon.  Erastus  Corning,  of  Albany;  the  former 
being  a  particular  friend  of  his  father. 

Mr.  Judd  continued  his  professional  studies,  attaining  to  a  marked  proficiency; 
and  at  Albany,  New  York,  in  1848,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one,  was  admitted  to 
practice  in  all  the  courts  of  the  state  of  New  York.  He  then  formed  a  law  part- 
nership with  H.  S.  Winsor,  of  Syracuse,  under  the  firm  name  of  Winsor  and  Judd, 
and  practiced  law  and  wrote  editorials  for  the  Syracuse  "  Daily  Journal,"  which 
attracted  attention  to  him  as  a  writer  of  no  ordinary  abilities.  In  1849  he  was 
appointed  by  the  common  council  of  Syracuse  to  the  office  of  city  clerk,  which 
office  he  held  one  year,  at  the  expiration  of  which  he  accepted  the  editorship  of 


484  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  Syracuse  "  Daily  Star,"  at  that  time  an  independent  journal  in  politics.  The 
position  had  been  offered  him  some  time  previous  on  account  of  the  reputation 
he  had  acquired  as  a  newspaper  writer.  In  August,  1850,  shortly  after  Mr.  Fill- 
more's  accession  to  the  presidency,  Mr.  Judd,  by  recommendation  of  the  Presi- 
dent, accepted  a  situation  in  the  department  of  the  interior  at  Washington,  and 
remained  in  that  capacity  about  eighteen  months,  when  he  resigned,  and  at  the 
solicitation  of  Hon.  George  F.  Comstock,  the  proprietor  of  the  paper,  again 
assumed  the  editorship  of  the  Syracuse  "  Daily  Star,"  and  shortly  afterward 
purchased  the  paper  of  Mr.  Comstock.  In  1852  the  "  Star  "  became  the  organ  of 
the  conservatives,  the  "  hunkers,"  "  adamantines  "  or  Dickinson  men  of  the  demo- 
cratic party,  and  the  "silver  grays"  or  the  Clay,  Webster  and  Fillmore  men  of 
the  Whig  party,  these  having  in  effect  coalesced.  The  "  Star  "  was  at  that  time 
the  only  conservative  journal  published  in  the  city  of  Syracuse.  In  1853  Mr.  Judd 
sold  the  paper  to  the  democrats,  who  changed  its  name  to  the  Syracuse  "  Repub- 
lican," and  later  to  the  Syracuse  "  Courier,"  he  remaining  as  one  of  its  editors, 
and  from  that  time  forward  acting  in  earnest  connection  with  the  democratic 
party,  to  whose  sound  and  conservative  principles  he  was  strongly  attached. 
Early  in  the  year  1854  he  resigned  his  position  as  editor,  and  removed  to  Lewis- 
town,  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  accepting  a  previously  tendered  law  partnership 
with  his  brother-in-law,  Hon.  William  C.  Goudy,  now  and  for  some  time  past 
an  eminent  attorney  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Judd,  while  attorney  at  Lewistown,  prac- 
ticed in  the  various  state  and  federal  courts,  attaining  a  wide  reputation,  till 
January  T,  1873,  when,  having  formed  a  partnership  with  William  Fitzhugh 
Whitehouse,  son  of  the  late  Bishop  Whitehouse,  of  the  diocese  of  Illinois,  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  since  practiced  his  profession  in  this  city.  At  the 
annual  meeting  of  the  Chicago  Bar  Association  held  in  January,  1883,  Mr.  Judd 
was  elected  president  of  that  organization,  which  position  he  now  holds.  Mr. 
Judd  has  had  a  large  railroad  and  general  practice  since  his  removal  to  Chicago. 
We  need  not  here  enlarge  upon  the  qualities  and  successes  of  one  so  well  known 
and  so  eminent  in  his  profession  as  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  The  simple 
facts  of  his  record  speak  more  eloquently  than  any  praise  we  could  bestow. 

In  1860  Mr.  Judd  was  the  democratic  candidate  for  presidential  elector  on  the 
Douglas  ticket,  for  the  Fulton  congressional  district,  Hon.  William  Pitt  Kellogg 
(since  governor  of  Louisiana,  and  member  of  the  United  States  senate  from  that 
state)  being  candidate  for  elector  on  the  republican  or  Lincoln  ticket.  In  1864  he 
was  nominated  by  the  democratic  party  of  Illinois  for  the  office  of  lieutenant  gov- 
ernor, and  vigorously  canvassed  the  southern  and  western  sections.  Hon.  James 
C.  Robinson  was  candidate  for  governor  on  the  same  ticket.  Since  1864  Mr. 
Judd  has  taken  little  active  part  in  politics,  but  has  confined  his  labors  closely  to 
his  profession,  with  the  exception  of  making  a  few  speeches  in  different  parts  of 
the  state  during  presidential  campaigns. 

In  his  church  proclivities  and  relations  Mr.  Judd  is  an  Episcopalian,  having 
been  confirmed  in  Syracuse  in  1851.  Since  1862  he  has  been  repeatedly  elected 


THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO.  485 

to  represent  the  diocese  of  Illinois  in  the  general  (or  national)  convention  of  the 
church.  In  1871  he  was  elected  by  the  diocesan  convention  chancellor  of  the  dio- 
cese of  Illinois,  which  position  he  still  holds,  having  been  reflected  by  the  con- 
vention every  three  years  since  that  date.  On  behalf  of  the  diocese  he  conducted 
the  famous  trial  known  as  the  Cheney  case,  in  all  its  various  phases. 

Mr.  Judd  was  married  July  5,  1852,  to  Miss  Lavina  J.  James,  daughter  of  the 
late  William  James,  of  Washington  city,  and  sister  of  Hon.  L.  W.  James,  now  of 
Peoria,  Illinois.  He  has  two  children,  the  eldest  being  the  wife  of  Fred.  Louis 
Foltz,  architect,  of  Chicago,  and  his  son,  William  Goudy  Judd,  late  a  hardware 
merchant  of  this  city,  but  now  in  the  same  business  at  Fargo,  Dakota. 


WILLIAM    B.   BRADFORD. 

WILLIAM  B.  BRADFORD  is  a  lineal  descendant,  in  the  maternal  line,  of 
the  celebrated  Kentucky  pioneer,  Daniel  Boone.  He  is  the  eldest  son  of 
David  G.  Bradford,  a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  of  Aberdeen,  Ohio,  where  our  sub- 
ject was  born  October  27,  1851.  He  received  his  early  education  at  Monmouth, 
Illinois,  in  the  academy  and  college  of  that  place.  In  1867  he  entered  the  high 
school  in  Chicago,  and  after  completing  his  course  of  studies  there,  removed  to 
Knoxville,  Illinois,  where  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of 
Hon.  A.  N.  Craig,  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois.  He 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  January,  1874,  and  in  November  of  the  same  year 
commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Chicago,  in  connection  with  the  firm 
of  Bennett,  Kretzinger  and  Veeder,  with  whom  he  remained  until  April,  1876, 
when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  George  W.  Plummer.  After  a  lapse  of  two 
years  Mr.  Bradford  commenced  business  by  himself,  and  by  devoting  his  entire 
time  to  his  profession,  he  has  built  up  quite  a  large  civil  practice. 

In  politics  Mr.  Bradford  does  not  take  any  active  part,  but  is  a  republican, 
and  is  also  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church.  He  was  married  April  5,  1877, 
to  Miss  Carrie  E.  Craig,  a  daughter  of  Judge  Craig,  of  Galesburg,  Illinois. 


WILLIAM    H.    KINKAID. 

WILLIAM  H.  KINKAID  was  born  in  New  York  city,  June  21,  1847.  His 
father,  Alexander  Kinkaid,  was  descended  from  the  old  and  prominent 
Scotch  family  of  that  name,  and  was  a  well  known  and  wealthy  wholesale  leather 
merchant  in  New  York.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  prepared  for  college  at  the 
Polytechnic  Institute,  of  New  York,  and  entering  Columbia  College,  where  he 
took  both  the  literary  and  law  courses  in  1865,  graduated  in  1868.  He  then 
entered  the  office  of  John  Livingston,  the  law  publisher,  of  New  York,  and  after 
his  admission  to  the  bar,  in  the  fall  of  1868,  was  employed  as  attorney  for  the 
firm  of  L.  M.  Bates  and  Company,  and  continued  in  their  employ  and  that  of 


486  THE   BENCH  AND   B.IK   OF  CHICAGO. 

their  successors.  Bates,  Reid  and  Cooley,  for  seven  years.  In  1878  Mr.  Kinkaid 
was  appointed  attorney  for  the  New  York  Dry  Goods  Association,  and  in  1880 
removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  represents  the  interests  of  that  body.  He  was,  up 
to  the  time  of  their  dissolution,  in  January,  1882,  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Remy, 
Kinkaid  and  Chumasero,  in  Chicago,  since  which  time  he  has  been  alone. 

Mr.  Kinkaid  makes  a  specialty  of  commercial  law  and  collections.  He  has  a 
large  practice,  and  numbers  among  his  clients  some  of  the  largest  and  wealthiest 
firms  in  New  York,  Boston,  Philadelphia  and  Chicago.  In  politics  he  is  a  repub- 
lican, but  takes  no  active  part  therein.  He  is  a  thorough  lawyer,  and  devoted  to 
his  professional  duties. 

JOHN    ROWLAND  THOMPSON. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Heath,  Franklin  county,  Massachu- 
setts, and  is  directly  descended,  on  his  mother's  side,  from  John  Howland, 
who  was  the  last  survivor  of  those  who  came  over  in  the  Mayflower.  He  was 
born  September  8,  1827,  and  attended  the  Williston  Seminary  at  East  Hampton, 
Massachusetts,  and  in  1846  entered  Amherst  College,  graduating  in  1850.  He 
then  taught  for  one  year  in  the  Monson  Academy  in  Massachusetts,  and  then  for 
one  year  was  principal  of  Deerfield  Academy.  In  1852  he  brgan  the  study  of  law 
in  the  office  of  Beach  and  Bond,  of  Springfield,  Massachusetts,  and  afterward  was 
in  the  office  of  Judge  Vose,  of  the  same  place.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
the  fall  of  1853,  and  about  the  same  time  became  associate  editor  of  the  Spring- 
field "Republican."  In  the  spring  of  1854,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  was  for 
a  time  employed  in  the  office  of  Blackwell  and  Beckwith,  and  afterward  in  the 
office  of  Judge  Manniere,  to  whose  business  he  succeeded  upon  Mr.  Manniere's 
election  to  the  bench.  In  October,  1856,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Henry  W. 
Bishop,  under  the  style  of  Thompson  and  Bishop,  which  continued  until  1880. 
Mr.  Thompson  takes  considerable  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  republican  party, 
but  is  thoroughly  devoted  to  his  profession.  He  was  a  director  of  the  Third 
National  Bank  of  this  city. 


HENRY   S.   GOLDSMITH. 

HENRY  S.  GOLDSMITH  was  born  at  Hamburg,  Germany,  May  26,  1845, 
and  is  the  son  of  S.  H.  Goldschmidt,  and  Frederike  (Lichtenhein)  Gold- 
schmidt,  a  descendant  of  an  old  and  noble  family.  Mr.  Goldsmith  had  all  the 
advantages  of  a  collegiate  education,  graduating  from  the  well  known  gymna- 
sium at  Hamburg  in  1862  at  the  age  of  seventeen  years.  Immediately  after 
graduating,  in  1862,  he  emigrated  to  this  country,  and  settled  at  Leavenworth, 
Kansas,  where  he  entered  the  office  of  Hon.  C.  Tholen,  with  whom  he  remained 
until  his  admission  to  the  bar  at  Leavenworth,  December  21,  1872,  when  he 
entered  into  partnership  with  his  preceptor  under  the  firm  name  of  Tholen  and 
Goldsmith. 


TffJK  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  487 

To  the  German  population  of  Kansas,  western  Missouri  and  southern  Iowa, 
the  firm  was  well  known,  as  they  were  the  only  German  lawyers  in  that  part  of 
the  country,  and  were  frequently  called  into  cases  in  Iowa  and  Missouri  in  which 
Germans  were  litigants.  In  May,  1874,  this  firm  dissolved  by  mutual  consent, 
and  Mr.  Goldsmith  went  to  Washington  county,  Kansas,  and  in  July  of  the  same 
year  he  was  appointed  deputy  county  attorney. 

In  June,  1875,  Mr.  Goldsmith  removed  to  Chicago.  Beginning  his  career  in 
this  country  without  friends  or  money,  at  the  early  age  of  seventeen  years,  he  has 
by  patient  industry  and  honest  toil  established  a  business  of  which  any  young 
man  might  be  proud.  His  business  is  mostly  conducted  for  citizens  of  his  own 
nationality,  and  consists  principally  of  office  work.  He  is  a  member  of  many 
societies,  belonging  to  the  Grand  Lodges  of  the  A.O.U.W.,  D.O.H.,  and  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  I.O.O.F.  and  Encampment  I.O.M.A.,  I.O.B.B.,  and  of  the  Select  Knights 
of  the  A.O.U.W. 

He  was  married  September  30,  1877,  to  Miss  Annie  Reinke.  They  have  two 
children,  David  and  Samuel. 


CHARLES   WALHART   WOODMAN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  preeminently  a  self-made  man.  He  was  born  in 
Alburg,  Denmark,  March  n,  1844,  and  is  the  son  of  Henry  Woodman,  a 
prominent  citizen,  and  formerly  mayor  of  that  city.  Charles  W.  attended  school 
until  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age,  when  his  father  became  financially  embarrassed, 
and  failed  in  business,  whereupon  he  determined  to  depend  upon  himself  for  sup- 
port, and  relieve  his  father  to  that  extent.  Seizing  the  first  opportunity  offered 
him,  he  embarked  in  an  expedition  to  the  Arctic  Ocean,  and  during  the  succeed- 
ing seven  years  followed  the  sea,  making  in  that  time,  after  his  return  from  his 
Arctic  expedition,  three  voyages  around  the  world.  He  enlisted  in  the  federal 
navy  in  1863,  and  served  under  Admiral  Farragut  until  the  close  of  the  war,  tak- 
ing part  in  the  actions  at  Mobile  and  Fort  Morgan.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he 
entered  the  merchant  service,  and  traded  between  Philadelphia  and  the  Gulf  for 
more  than  a  year.  Going  to  Chicago  in  1865,  he  did  so  with  the  purpose  of  at 
once  settling  down,  and  completing  his  preparation  for  the  practice  of  the  law, 
which  he  had  studied  throughout  his  whole  seafaring  life.  Overpowered  in  his 
purpose,  however,  by  his  strong  attachment  to  a  sailor's  life,  he  again  embarked, 
and  for  the  next  two  years  we  find  him  coasting  on  the  lakes.  At  the  expiration 
of  that  time,  in  1867,  he  went  into  life  insurance  business,  which,  with  the  study 
of  the  law,  occupied  his  attention  until  1870,  when  he  entered  the  Union  College 
of  Law  at  Chicago.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  October,  1871,  and  com- 
menced his  practice  with  the  firm  of  Monroe  and  Sybold,  with  whom  he  continued 
until  1873. 

In  1879  he  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  lower  courts  in  Chicago, 
and  held  that  position  until  his  appointment  to  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace 


488  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

in  1882.  In  politics  Mr.  Woodman  is  an  earnest  republican,  and  takes  an  active 
part  in  all  the  affairs  of  his  party.  He  was  a  Grant  delegate  to  the  last  national 
convention,  and  was  one  of  the  famous  "306."  He  was  married,  in  1867,  to  Miss 
Hamilton,  a  young  lady  of  French  descent.  By  that  union  they  had  one  daugh- 
ter, Jessie  E.  Woodman. 


HON.  JOHN    D.  CATON,  LL.D. 

JOHN  DEAN  CATON  was  born  in  Monroe,  Orange  county,  New  York,  March 
19,  1812.  His  grandfather,  once  connected  with  the  British  army,  settled  on 
the  Potomac  in  Virginia,  where  he  resided  at  the  time  of  the  revolution.  Two  of 
his  sons  joined  the  patriots,  one  of  whom,  Robert,  was  only  fourteen  years  of 
age.  Having  served  through  the  war,  Robert  settled  down  as  a  farmer  near  the 
Hudson.  He  laid  down  his  arms  as  a  soldier,  but  became  at  the  same  time  a 
preacher  among  the  Friends,  of  which  society  he  was  a  zealous  member.  John 
was  the  fifteenth  child  and  twelfth  son  of  this  venerable  patriarch,  who  died 
when  he  was  three  years  old.  Soon  afterward  his  family  removed  to  Paris, 
Oneida  county.  Here,  at  the  age  of  five,  the  boy  commenced  attending  the  com- 
mon school.  At  the  age  of  nine  he  began  to  work  industriously  on  the  farm 
during  the  spring  and  summer,  and  during  the  winter  months  he  pursued  with 
avidity  his  studies  in  the  district  school.  At  sixteen  he  entered  the  academy  at 
Utica,  where  he  remained  one  year,  and  at  seventeen  commenced  teaching.  He 
entered  the  Grosvenor  high  school  at  Rome  in  1841,  and  pursued  his  studies 
with  zeal  and  ardor,  applying  himself  specially  to  surveying.  Upon  leaving  the 
academy  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  with  Beardsley  and  Matterson  at 
Utica.  In  1833  he  started  for  Michigan,  where  he  learned  of  a  hitherto  unknown 
place  called  Chicago,  to  which  he  directed  his  footsteps,  and  found  it  chiefly  a 
collection  of  rude  huts  in  a  low,  swampy  place,  containing  about  two  hundred 
persons.  His  office  was  at  first  peripatetic,  and  for  his  consultations  he  occupied 
the  most  convenient  box  or  barrel.  He  was  the  first  attorney  who  instituted  a 
suit  in  a  court  of  record  of  Cook  county.  On  a  brig,  Queen  Charlotte,  being  the 
same  brig  that  was  taken  from  the  British  by  Com.  Perry,  he  tried  the  first  jury 
cases  ever  tried  in  Cook,  Will  and  Kane  counties. 

To  gain  admittance  to  the  bar  he  was  compelled  to  journey  to  Greenville, 
Bond  county,  a  distance  of  three  hundred  miles,  on  horseback,  the  journey  being 
through  the  silent  forests  and  almost  untrodden  prairies,  stretching  from  Lake 
Michigan  to  the  Ohio  river.  A  severe  and  protracted  illness  resulted  from  this 
journey,  on  recovering  from  which  Mr.  Caton  applied  himself  with  assiduity  to 
his  profession.  In  1835  he  returned  to  New  Hartford,  New  York,  where  he  was 
married  to  Laura  Adelaide  Sherrill,  and  the  wedding  trip  was  made  by  way  of 
the  lakes  to  Chicago.  In  1836  he  formed  a  partnership  with  N.  B.  Judd,  a  former 
schoolmate  and  friend. 


/" 


EX- CHIEF- JUSTICE  OF  ILLINOIS. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  49 1 

In  1839  Mr.  Caton,  owing  to  failing  health,  removed  to  Plainfield,  Illinois, 
where  he  purchased  a  farm  of  fifteen  hundred  acres,  and  for  several  years  was  at 
once  farmer  and  lawyer.  With  returning  vigor  he  bestowed  more  time  upon  his 
practice,  and  in  1842  Gov.  Carlin  appointed  him  as  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of 
the  state  for  the  winter.  There  were  then  nine  judges,  each  presiding  over  a  cir- 
cuit in  the  summer,  and  together  holding  the  appellate  court  in  the  winter. 
Being  at  this  time  but  thirty  years  of  age,  he  failed  of  an  election  to  the  supreme 
bench  ;  but  Gov.  Ford  soon  appointed  him  to  fill  another  vacancy.  He  was 
elected  by  the  legislature  on  the  expiration  of  his  second  appointment,  and 
served  until,  in  1849,  the  supreme  court  was  reorganized  under  the  new  constitu- 
tion. He  was  then  chosen  as  one  of  the  three  judges  of  that  court,  Judges  Trum- 
bull  and  Treat  being  his  associates'.  From  that  time  he  continued  upon  the 
supreme  bench  until  1864,  when  he  resigned,  having  served  in  the  temple  of  jus- 
tice for  about  twenty-two  years,  during  more  than  six  years  of  which  he  presided 
as  chief-justice. 

Having  studied  telegraphy,  and  becoming  greatly  interested  in  the  art,  he 
constructed  the  Illinois  and  Mississippi  lines,  which  in  1867  were  leased  to  the 
Western  Union  Telegraph  Company. 

Of  his  many  public  addresses,  perhaps  the  most  remarkable  are  those  made 
upon  his  resignation  from  the  supreme  bench,  and  upon  his  presentation,  on 
behalf  of  the  western  alumni,  of  the  Perry  H.  Smith  Library  Hall,  to  the  trustees 
of  Hamilton  College.  As  a  literary  man  Judge  Caton's  style  is  simple,  lucid, 
perspicuous  and  elegant.  He  is  never  sensational,  never  florid  or  even  highly 
ornate.  He  seeks  to  express  his  thoughts  in  the  clearest  manner,  and  in  the 
most  concise  form  consistent  with  an  easy  and  graceful  style.  Some  of  his  pro- 
ductions are  really  classical  in  style  and  diction. 

Judge  Caton's  fame,  however,  must  rest  chiefly  upon  his  judicial  decisions 
promulgated  from  the  supreme  bench,  and  which  are  contained  in  thirty  volumes 
of  the  Illinois  Reports.  These  opinions  are  models  of  st.yle  and  monuments  of 
research. 


MOSES  SALOMON. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  has  been  remarkably  successful  since  he  began  the 
practice  of  the  law,  and  has  been  engaged  in  several  important  cases.  For 
a  man  of  his  age,  he  has  acquired  quite  a  large  clientage,  and  is  doing  a  prosper- 
ous business.  He  is  of  Jewish  parentage,  the  son  of  Solomon  Salomon;  who  is  of 
German  descent,  and  was  formerly  in  business  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  where  Moses  was 
born  December  13,  1857.  His  mother  before  marriage  was  Miss  Sophia  Rosen- 
field.  In  1863  his  parents  removed  to  Chicago,  where  our  subject  received  his 
education.  He  attended  the  public  schools  and  afterward  entered  the  Union 
College  of  Law,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  October  1881.  While  in 
the  law  college  he  was  at  the  same  time  actively  engaged  in  the  office  of  Allen  C. 
52 


492  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

Story.  After  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Salomon  commenced  active 
practice  by  himself.  His  first  important  case  was  one  in  which  he  defended 
the  butterine  dealers  before  the  criminal  court,  and  in  which  he  made  a  very  able 
argument,  securing  his  client's  acquittal.  Mr.  Salomon's  second  important  case 
acquired  for  him  quite  an  extensive  reputation.  He  was  appointed  by  the  court 
to  defend  James  Tracy,  who  was  indicted  for  the  murder  of  a  police  officer. 
Although  he  made  an  able  argument  in  the  defense  of  his  client,  the  verdict  of 
the  jury  was  against  him. 

Mr.  Salomon  is  an  active  democrat,  and  takes  a  warm  interest  in  all  political 
matters. 


FRANK    P.   REYNOLDS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  young  man  of  much  promise,  and  if  he  is  true 
to  himself  in  the  future  as  he  has  been  in  the  past  he  will  reap  the  reward 
of  his  industry  and  enterprise.  He  is  a  native  of  New  York,  and  was  born  in 
Lockport,  July  31,  1854,  and  is  the  son  of  James  Reynolds. 

He  attended  the  public  schools  in  Lockport  until  1872,  when  he  attended  La 
Salle  College,  in  Toronto,  Ontario.  After  completing  his  course,  in  1874,  he  went 
to  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  where  he  attended  the  high  school  two  years. 

In  September,  1877,  he  took  up  his  residence  in  Chicago,  and  entering  the 
Union  College  of  Law,  graduated  from  that  institution  June  5,  1879,  a"d  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  on  the  I4th  of  the  same  month.  He  at  once  opened  an  office 
and  commenced  practice  in  Chicago,  and  has  been  reasonably  successful  in 
establishing  a  practice. 


DANIEL  L.  SHOREY. 

THE  bar  of  Chicago  contains  in  its  list  a  number  of  prominent  men  who  hail 
from  the  Pine  Tree  State,  and  one  of  the  foremost  among  them  is  Daniel 
Lewis  Shorey,  who  was  born  at  Jonesborough,  Washington  county,  January  31, 
1824.  He  comes  of  the  very  best  revolutionary  stock,  his  grandfather,  John 
Shorey,  enlisting  as  a  private  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  taking  part  in  the  battle  of 
Bunker  Hill  and  serving  until  the  close  of  the  war,  being  part  of  the  time  a  mem- 
ber of  Gen.  Washington's  body-guard.  The  father  of  our  subject,  Joseph  Shorey, 
a  native  of  Wolfborough,  New  Hampshire,  went  to  Maine  while  it  was  a  part  of 
Massachusetts,  and  was  there  engaged  in  agricultural  pursuits.  He  served  for 
many  years  as  a  justice  of  the  peace,  being  one  of  the  first  appointed  for  the  state 
of  Maine,  and  was  a  man  of  more  than  ordinary  intelligence  and  influence,  being 
well  read  in  English  literature  and  the  politics  of  the  day.  He  married  Sylvia 
Hall,  a  native  of  Washington  county,  Maine,  and  a  descendant,  on  her  mother's 
side,  of  the  Mortons  of  Massachusetts. 

Mr.  Shorey  prepared  for  college  at  Philips  Academy,  Andover,  Massachusetts, 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  493 

and  was  graduated  with  honors  at  Dartmouth  College,  Hanover,  New  Hampshire, 
class  of  "51.  He  commenced  reading  law  in  Washington,  District  of  Columbia, 
where  he  also  taught  the  classics  for  two  years  in  the  Rittenhouse  Academy,  fin- 
ishing his  legal  studies  at  the  Dane  Law  School,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  and 
being  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1854  in  Boston.  There  he  practiced  one  year,  and 
then  removed  to  Davenport,  Iowa,  where  he  was  in  extensive  practice  for  ten 
years.  While  there  he  was  a  partner  for  some  years  of  Gen.  J.  B.  Leake,  now 
United  States  district  attorney,  Chicago.  He  was  city  attorney  of  Davenport 
from  1862  to  1865,  and  president,  about  the  same  time,  of  the  city  school  board. 
He  had  greatly  endeared  himself  to  the  friends  of  education  while  a  resident  of 
that  progressive  hawkeye  city,  and  when  he  left  it  was  a  loss  seriously  felt,  espe- 
cially by  the  better  class  of  people. 

Mr.  Shorey  removed  from  Iowa  to  Chicago  in  the  summer  of  1865,  and  entered 
at  once  upon  the  practice  of  the  law.  He  had  at  one  period  James  S.  Norton  for 
a  partner;  at  another,  Benjamin  M.  Shaffner,  and  latterly  he  has  been  alone.  He 
practices  in  the  civil  courts  exclusively,  with  a  strong  leaning  to  chancery  practice. 

One  of  the  weekly  religious  papers  of  Chicago  thus  spoke  not  long  ago  of  our 
subject  as  a  lawyer: 

Mr.  Shorey's  training  at  that  best  school,  the  bar,  has  been  unusually  broad,  and  no  lawyer  in 
the  city  to-day  has  a  better  or  more  general  knowledge  of  every  branch  of  practice,  or  is  better 
equipped  and  able  to  handle  successfully  any  case  that  may  come  into  his  hands,  than  he.  His  fine 
natural  .abilities  have  heen  rounded  out  by  his  thorough  education  and  wide  practice,  and  the  law 
of  natural  selection  has  operated  to  give  him  one  of  the  most  lucrative  and  satisfactory  legal  busi- 
nesses in  the  city. 

One  of  the  best  features  in  the  character  of  Mr.  Shorey  is  his  great  activity  in 
certain  kinds  of  public  work,  particularly  in  library  matters.  He  drafted  the  first 
public  library  law  ever  presented  to  the  legislature  of  Illinois,  and  the  impress  of 
his  mind  is  upon  the  law  of  that  kind  now  in  force  in  that  state.  He  was  a  leader 
in  organizing  the  public  library  of  Chicago,  and  a  director  of  the  board  for  eight 
years,  and  president  for  four  years,  resigning  when  he  became  a  member  of  the 
city  council  in  1880.  It  has  been  well  said  of  him  by  a  writer  in  Washington, 
District  of  Columbia:  "No  citizen  of  the  Northwest  has  been  a  more  constant 
and  intelligent  friend  to  library  interests  than  he." 

In  politics  Mr.  Shorey  was  originally  a  whig,  and  on  the  demise  of  that  party 
joined  the  republican  party,  in  whose  ranks  he  has  since  trained.  The  seat  of 
alderman  of  the  third  ward,  which  he  has  held  the  last  year,  is  all  the  office  he 
would  accept,  though  his  name  has  been  mentioned  more  than  once  in  connection 
with  a  judicial  position,  for  which  he  evidently  has  eminent  fitness. 

Mr.  Shorey  is  a  member  of  the  First  Unitarian  Church,  Chicago,  and  a  very 
prominent  layman  in  that  denomination,  having  been  for  eight  years  president  of 
the  Western  Unitarian  Conference. 

He  is  a  blue  lodge  Mason  and  high  up  in  the  I.O.O.F.  In  1870  he  was 
appointed  grand  representative  of  the  Grand  Lodge  of  Illinois  to  the  Grand 


494  ']'HE   tiEMCH  AND    BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

Lodge  of  the  United  States,  and  performed  his  duties  in  that  connection  with 
distinguished  ability. 

The  wife  of  Mr.  Shorey  was  Maria  Antoinette  Merriam,  of  Bedford,  Massa- 
chusetts, married  in  1856.  They  have  two  children,  Paul,  a  graduate  of  Harvard 
University  at  the  head  of  the  class  of  '78,  and  with  the  highest  honors  in  history, 
the  classics  and  philosophy,  now  a  lawyer  traveling  in  Europe,  and  Mattie  Hall, 
who  is  pursuing  her  studies  in  Europe. 


GEORGE  W.   PLUMMER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  at 
Tyrone,  December  23,  1844,  and  is  the  son  of  William  R.  Plummer,  a  farmer 
and  an  old  settler  in  the  state.  He  is  of  English  descent.  The  mother  of  our 
subject  was  Catharine  Traester,  a  German  lady.  George  W.  commenced  his  edu- 
cation in  the  common  schools.  He  afterward  entered  Allegheny  College,  at  Mead- 
ville,  Pennsylvania,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1869.  He  studied  law 
with  Judge  Derickson,  of  Meadville,  and  S.  S.  Blair,  of  Hollidaysburg,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  Pennsylvania  in  1870,  and  one  year  later  removed  to  Chi- 
cago and  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar,  and  entered  at  once  into  a  successful 
practice  of  the  law,  confining  his  attention  entirely  to  civil  business.  Mr.  Plum- 
mer is  well  read  in  the  rudiments  of  his  profession,  is  a  diligent  student,  accurate 
and  methodical,  has  a  fluent  use  of  language  and  is  regarded  as  an  excellent  trial 
lawyer,  and  is  often  employed  by  other  attorneys  to  try  their  cases  after  they  have 
prepared  them.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  good  address  and  draws  around  him  many 
friends.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Methodist  church,  in  good  standing.  In  political 
sentiments  he  is  a  republican,  and  belongs  to  the  F.A.A.M. 

He  was  married  July  14,  1870,  to  Miss  McClintock,  an  estimable  lady  of  Mead- 
ville, Pennsylvania.  They  have  two  sons  —  Ralph  and  Earle,  aged  respectively 
eight  and  three  years. 


CAPT.   WILLIAM  VOCKE. 

WILLIAM  VOCKE  was  born  April  4,  1839,  in  Prussian  Minden,  Westphalia, 
Germany.  He  is  the  son  of  William  Vocke,  who  was  a  member  of  the 
Prussian  civil  service,  and  was  educated  at  Minden.  His  father  having  died  he 
immigrated  to  America  in  the  year  1856,  and  for  about  six  months  lived  in  New 
York  city,  employed  as  clerk  in  a  business  house.  In  December  1857,  he  removed 
to  Chicago,  where  he  held  various  positions  until  the  commencement  of  the  civil 
war  in  1861.  Entering  the  24th  regiment,  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  April  16,  1861,  he  first 
served  under  Gen.  Fremont,  in  Missouri;  afterward  his  regiment  being  trans- 
ferred to  the  army  of  the  Cumberland,  he  served  under  Gens.  Sherman,  Buell 
and  Thomas,  and  was  in  all  of  the  principal  battles  in  which  the  Army  of  the  Cum- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO.  495 

berland,  was  engaged  up  to  the  time  of  his  leaving  the  army,  which  was  in  August 
1864,  when  he  had  attained  the  rank  of  captain. 

Captain  Vocke  then  returned  to  Chicago  and  became  the  city  editor  of  the 
Illinois  "  Staats  Zeitung,"  a  position  which  he  very  ably  filled  for  about  nine 
months.  In  April,  1865,  he  was  elected  clerk  of  the  police  court,  and  held  that 
office  until  November  1869.  He  was  also  a  member  of  the  board  of  education. 
During  this  period  he  had  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  the  Union  College  of  Law, 
of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1867,  in  which  year  he  was 
also  married.  In  1869  he  opened  an  office  and  began  the  practice  of  his  profes- 
sion, in  which  he  has  continued  doing  a  successful  business  up  to  the  present 
time.  He  was  on  the  republican  ticket,  and  was  elected  to  the  state  legislature  in 
1871,  serving  one  term  to  the  utmost  satisfaction  of  his  constituents. 


JUDGE    HENRY    BOOTH. 

THE  family  of  Booths  were  of  English  origin.  The  ancestors  of  Henry  Booth 
on  both  sides,  that  of  his  father  as  well  as  that  of  his  mother,  were  from 
Cheshire,  England;  came  over  in  the  same  ship  about  the  year  1640,  and  settled 
in  Stratford,  near  Bridgeport,  Connecticut.  His  father's  name  was  Ely  Booth; 
his  mother's  maiden  name  was  Abigail  Minor.  Both  are  now  deceased;  his  father 
died  at  the  age  of  eighty,  and  his  mother  lived  to  the  age  of  eighty-one.  A 
brother  and  sister  are  still  living  in  his  native  town.  His  father  was  a  farmer  in 
moderate  circumstances  for  a  Litchfield  county  farmer. 

Henry  Booth  was  born  at  Roxbury,  Litchfield  county,  Connecticut,  August  19, 
1818.  He  worked  on  the  farm  with  his  father  until  he  was  seventeen  years  old; 
attended  the  district  school  in  winter.  During  the  following  year  he  attended 
an  academy  in  his  native  village  and  prepared  for  college.  He  was  admitted  a 
freshman  at  Yale  in  the  fall  of  1836,  graduated  in  the  regular  course  in  the  fall  of 
1840,  ranking  in  scholarship  among  the  first  twelve  in  a  class  of  ninety-nine. 

Immediately  after  leaving  college  he  took  charge  of  an  academy  at  Wells- 
borough,  Pennsylvania,  and  taught  for  a  year.  Returning  home  in  the  fall  of 
1841  to  his  native  state  with  health  somewhat  impaired,  he  soon  rallied  and  pur- 
sued the  study  of  law  at  Litchfield,  under  the  instruction  of  Origen  S.  Seymour. 
Next  spring  went  back  to  the  farm  to  recover  his  health  and  strength.  In  the  fall 
of  1842  he  entered  the  Law  School  at  New  Haven,  and  pursued  his  studies  there 
until  1844;  graduated  and  was  admitted  to  the  New  Haven  bar,  but  did  not  prac- 
tice in  that  city. 

In  May  of  that  year  he  finally  left  his  native  state  and  went  to  Harrisburg, 
Pennsylvania,  studied  the  statutes  and  practice  of  that  state,  and  in  September 
following  located  at  Towanda,  Bradford  county.  Continued  in  practice  there  for 
twelve  years.  Mr.  Booth  was  three  years  prosecuting  attorney  for  Bradford 
county,  the  only  office  he  held  in  that  state,  except  such  as  school  director  or 
member  of  town  council. 


496  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

In  October,  1846,  he  was  married  to  Ellen,  daughter  of  Samuel  W.  Morris,  of 
Wellsborough,  Tioga  county,  Pennsylvania;  has  three  sons  and  three  daughters. 

In  May,  1856,  he  accepted  a  professorship  in  the  State  and  National  Law 
School,  at  Poughkeepsie,  New  York,  and  removed  to  that  city,  where  he  remained 
in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  professor  and  in  practice  until  the  fall  of  1859. 
Mr.  Booth  then  received  an  invitation  from  the  University  of  Chicago  to  come  to 
this  city  and  assist  in  the  organization  of  a  law  department  for  that  institution. 
From  that  time  he  had  the  principal,  and  for  much  of  the  time  sole  charge  of 
that  department,  devoting  much  of  the  time,  three  to  four  hours  a  day,  to  the 
work  of  instruction,  the  business  being  conducted,  as  far  as  practicable,  before 
and  after  the  usual  office  hours,  until  1870,  when  he  was  elected  one  of  the  judges 
of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county.  For  the  first  two  years  he  paid  no  attention 
to  practice,  devoting  his  time  and  attention  wholly  to  the  school. 

In  the  spring  of  1862  he  formed  a  law  partnership  with  Mr.  H.  B.  Hurd.  This 
partnership  continued  until  a  short  time  before  his  elevation  to  the  bench,  during 
all  of  which  time  he  was  engaged  in  an  active  and  successful  practice  at  the  bar. 
In  1873  he  was  reflected  to  the  bench  for  six  years. 

In  politics  he  was  decidedly  anti-slavery;  and  while  the  "  irrepressible  conflict" 
was  in  progress  was  a  firm  supporter  of  the  Union  and  acted  with  the  republican 
party.  He  has  never  been  a  strong  party  man,  but  has  always  held  his  fealty  to 
right  above  that  to  party.  His  elevation  to  the  bench  was  without  regard  to  his 
politics. 

FREDERICK  G.   DANNECKER. 

T^REDERICK  G.  DANNECKER  was  born  April  17,  1828,  near  the  Rhine,  in 
A  Germany.  He  is  a  nephew  of  the  great  sculptor  of  the  same  name,  who 
was  given  the  title  of  nobleman  on  account  of  his  artistic  skill.  The  subject  of 
this  sketch  served  an  apprenticeship  in  his  early  days,  and  while  working  at  his 
trade  devoted  his  spare  moments  to  the  study  of  law.  He  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  in  Kentucky  in  April,  1857,  and  six  years  latei  (in  1863)  was  elected  city  attor- 
ney at  New  Albany,  Kentucky.  Later  he  went  to  Louisville,  Kentucky,  and  prac- 
ticed law  until  1878,  and  established  a  business  there  second  to  that  of  no  other 
attorney  in  that  city.  Thence  he  removed  to  St.  Louis,  Missouri,  and  resumed 
his  profession,  but  soon  afterward  (in  1879)  left  that  city  and  settled  in  Chicago, 
where  he  has  since  made  his  home,  and  devoted  himself  to  the  practice  of  law. 
His  religious  sentiments  are  best  expressed  in  his  own  words:  "My  reading  of 
astronomy  has  convinced  me  that  there  is  a  Supreme  Being,  but  I  am  not  con- 
vinced beyond  a  reasonable  doubt  that  man  has  a  spirit  that  lives  hereafter,  but 
I  believe  it  reasonable  that  such  is  the  case." 

Mr.  Dannecker  has  a  full  development  of  sublimity,  and  is  an  ardent  and 
enthusiastic  admirer  of  the  beautiful  and  grand  in  art  or  nature.  He  is  a  fond 
admirer  of  painting  and  sculpture,  but  finds  his  chief  delight  outside  of  his  pro- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  497 

fession  in  music,  believing,  as  he  says,  "  that  it  is  one  of  the  peculiar  arts  that 
teach  the  human  race  that  there  is  a  hereafter."  He  is  a  skillful  and  accomplished 
violinist,  and  has  been  the  owner  of  over  one  hundred  violins  in  his  lifetime,  and 
is  the  owner  of  one  that  is  two  hundred  and  sixty  years  old.  Many  of  the  best 
violins  owned  by  musicians  in  Chicago  have  passed  through  his  hands.  He  was 
married  May  30,  1850,  to  Miss  Mary  Ann  Hankey,  whose  mother  belonged  to  the 
nobility  of  Hanover,  and  has  had  by  her  three  sons  and  one  daughter.  Mr.  Dan- 
necker  is  not  what  is  usually  termed  a  social  person,  but  when  he  finds  congenial 
company  he  is  very  social,  and  has  a  few  very  intimate  friends. 


EDGAR  P.   HARPER. 

F^DGAR  P.  HARPER  was  born  in  Carthage,  Illinois,  in  1858,  and  was  the 
1  ^  son  of  Henry  P.  Harper,  one  of  the  oldest  settlers  in  Hancock  county.  After 
receiving  his  preliminary  education  he  entered  Carthage  College,  where  he  taught 
while  pursuing  his  studies,  and  graduated  in  1877.  After  completing  his  college 
course  Mr.  Harper  went  to  Keokuk,  Iowa,  and  there  began  the  study  of  law  in  the 
office  of  McCrary  and  Hagerman,  and  remained  one  year,  at  the  expiration  of 
which  he  removed  to  Chicago.  During  the  year  1878  he  continued  his  legal 
studies  in  the  office  of  H.  R.  Stebbings,  of  Chicago,  and  in  the  fall  of  the  follow- 
ing year,  1879,  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  at  once  began  to  practice.  Mr. 
Harper  is  a  young  man  of  talents,  and  a  careful  student,  and  with  the  advantages 
of  his  thorough  training  and  his  love  for  his  profession  cannot  but  succeed.  He 
was  married  in  1879,  and  has  one  child. 


JOHN    R.   PARKER. 

JOHN  R.  PARKER  was  born  August  12,  1847,  in  Grand  View,  Spencer  county, 
Indiana.  His  parents  were  Henry  Nelson  and  Mary  Ann  (Stillwell)  Parker. 
In  September,  1853,  the  family  moved  to  De  Kalb  county,  Illinois,  and  settled  on 
a  farm.  John  attended  the  district  school  in  the  winters,  and  worked  on  the  farm 
summers,  until  he  was  fifteen  years  of  age.  He  is  self-educated.  By  teaching 
school  evenings  and  during  vacation  he  obtained  means  to  prosecute  his  studies. 
He  attended  the  Sycamore  high  school  for  two  years  (1862  and  1863),  and  in  the 
following  year  taught  the  home  district  school.  He  then  attended  Clark's  (now 
Jennings')  Seminary  for  two  years,  supporting  himself  by  teaching;  thence  he 
went  to  Hillsdale  College,  where  he  studied  for  four  years,  supporting  himself  in 
the  meantime  by  teaching.  He  graduated  in  1871,  and  in  the  fall  of  the  same 
year  became  principal  of  the  public  schools.  In  1872  he  held  the  same  position 
at  Fulton.  He  removed  to  Chicago,  August  10,  1873,  and  entering  the  law  office 
of  Wheaton,  Canfield  and  Smith,  completed  a  course  of  legal  studies,  and  in  June, 


498  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

1875,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois.  Until  the  following 
year  he  was  associated  in  business  with  Mr.  Canfield  under  the  firm  name  of 
Canfield  and  Parker,  and  in  1876  opened  an  office  by  himself,  and  has  succeeded 
in  establishing  himself  in  a  good  business,  which  under  his  careful  management 
is  rapidly  increasing. 

He  is  a  member  of  the  I.O.O.F.  and  the  Royal  Arcanum. 

On  September  29,  1875,  Mr.  Parker  was  married  to  Miss  Mary  Josephine  Dan- 
iels, of  Kendallville,  Indiana,  and  has  one  child,  Irving  Parker,  aged  three  years. 
In  politics  Mr.  Parker  is  a  republican. 


BENJAMIN    MARION    SHAFFNER. 

BENJAMIN  M.  SHAFFXER  was  born  May  20,  1847,  in  Konigsberg,  Prussia. 
His  father,  Abraham  Shaffner,  came  to  this  country  in  1850,  and  settled  first 
in  New  Orleans,  but  in  1857  removed  to  Springfield,  Illinois.  The  subject  of  this 
sketch  was  graduated  at  the  high  school  in  Springfield  in  1863,  and  at  once 
entered  the  army,  serving  in  the  quartermaster's  department  in  Springfield  until 
1865,  when  he  was  appointed  to  the  naval  academy  at  Annapolis,  receiving  his 
appointment  from  congressman,  now  senator,  Shelby  M.  Cullom.  He  was  gradu- 
ated at  that  institution  among  the  first  five  in  the  class  of  1869,  and  returning  to 
Illinois,  entered  the  law  office  of  Judge  Skinner,  at  Quincy.  He  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  the  autumn  of  1869,  and  in  January,  1870,  removed  to  Chicago  and 
began  practice.  He  was  for  a  time  a  partner  of  James  Goggin,  and  later  of  D.  L. 
Shorej',  but  for  several  years  has  been  alone.  His  practice  is  very  large,  and  he 
has  been  very  successful.  He  is  a  bright,  able  lawyer,  very  industrious  and  ener- 
getic, and  one  of  the  most  successful  young  men  at  the  Chicago  bar. 

In  politics  Mr.  Shaffner  is  independent,  though  he  inclines  toward  the  repub- 
lican party.  He  was  married  in  1871,  to  Miss  Jennie  Einstein,  daughter  of  Morris 
Einstein,  of  Chicago,  and  has  one  son. 


GILBERT  \VYMAN. 

ILBERT  WVMAN  is  a  prominent  and  successful  member  of  the  Chicago 
legal  fraternity.  He  is  a  native  of  Woodstock,  Vermont,  and  was  born 
October  5,  1842.  He  is  descended  from  the  Puritans  of  New  England.  His 
paternal  great-grandfather,  Thomas  N.  \Vyman,  was  a  surgeon  in  the  continental 
armv,  and  was  at  the  battle  of  Bunker  Hill.  His  parents,  Justin  M.  and  Martha 
C.  Wyman,  were  natives  of  New  England,  who,  at  an  early  day  removed  to  Illi- 
nois and  settled  on  a  farm,  in  what  is  now  Ford  county.  His  father  was  a  large 
furniture  dealer  and  manufacturer  in  Boston,  whither  he  removed  when  our  sub- 
ject was  about  two  years  old.  There  Gilbert  received  his  early  education,  and 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  499 

lived  until  sixteen  years  of  age.  After  his  parents  removed  to  the  West  he  worked 
on  his  father's  farm,  until  he  attained  his  twentieth  year,  when,  having  deter- 
mined to  fit  himself  for  a  profession,  he  began  the  study  of  law  with  W.  W.  Wil- 
lard,  of  Salem,  Marion  county,  Illinois;  there  he  continued  for  four  years,  until 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  in  the  spring  of  1867.  He  practiced  in  Marion  county- 
one  year,  after  which  he  removed  to  Chatsworth,  Livingston  county,  Illinois,  and 
practiced  with  great  success  until  1878,  when  he  moved  to  Chicago  and  continued 
his  practice,  and  at  the  same  time  became  somewhat  engaged  in  the  real  estate 
business. 

Mr.  Wyman  married,  at  the  age  of  twenty-one.  Miss  Margarett  E.  Burdeau, 
formerly  from  Troy.  New  York.  He  is  a  good  lawyer  and  a  successful  business 
man. 


DAVID  J.  LYON. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Louisiana,  born  at  New  Orleans 
in  1843.     His  father,  Benjamin  Ross  Lyon,  was  born  in  Schenectady,  New 
York,  and  his  mother,  Clara  (Lafarque)  Lyon,  was  a  native  of  the  Crescent  City. 
David  J.  was  educated  in  the  first  instance  at  the  Jesuit  College  of  New  Orleans, 
and  subsequently  at  Woodstock  Academy  in  the  state  of  Vermont. 

In  August,  1862,  feeling  that  the  Union  needed  his  services  to  assist  in  putting 
down  armed  treason,  and  the  establishment  of  the  Union  cause,  he  enlisted, 
joining  the  I2th  Vt.  regiment,  which  formed  a  part  of  the  2d  Vt.  brigade,  that 
took  such  a  gallant  part  in  the  engagement  at  Gettysburg.  After  his  term  of 
enlistment  expired,  returning  to  Vermont,  and  being  mustered  out  of  the  service. 
he  remained  there  until  August,  1864,  when  he  came  to  Chicago,  where  he 
commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  A.  D.  Rich,  of  that  city, 
taking  a  course  at  the  Law  University  of  Chicago,  under  the  tutelage  of  Judge 
Henry  Booth.  Graduating  in  1867,  he  entered  into  a  partnership  with  Hon.  E. 
B.  Sherman,  and  subsequently  was  associated  in  the  practice  of  his  profession 
with  George  K.  Clark,  a  well  known  lawyer  of  Chicago.  The  fire  terminating 
the  last  mentioned  partnership  in  1871,  Mr.  Lyon  has  since  practiced  his  profes- 
sion alone.  He  has  for  the  last  two  years  been  solicitor  for  the  Chicago  and 
Indianapolis  Air  Line  Railroad  Company,  largely  owned  and  controlled  by  Hon. 
Henry  Crawford,  who,  as  an  eminent  railroad  lawyer,  enjoys  a  national  reputation. 

Mr.  Lyon  in  political  faith  is  a  republican.  He  was  nominated  by  his  party 
for  alderman  in  1873,  and  was  the  republican  nominee  for  the  legislature  of  Illi- 
nois in  1878.  Mr.  Lyon  is  a  member  of  the  Masonic  order,  an  Odd-Fellow,  and 
from  1875  to  1881  was  the  supreme  representative  of  the  order  of  the  Knights  of 
Pythias  for  the  state  of  Illinois  in  the  supreme  body.  He  was  elected  an  honor- 
ary member  of  the  Garibaldian  Legion  as  a  token  of  their  appreciation  for  an 
eloquent  oration  delivered  by  him  at  Haverly's  Theater  in  1882,  in  commemora- 
tion of  the  death  of  the  great  Italian  hero.  Garibaldi. 
53 


500  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Our  subject,  born  of  a  Catholic  mother,  was  baptized  in  that  church,  but  in 
religion  he  holds  to  no  fixed  tenets  of  belief,  but  believes  in  exercising  a  large 
charity  toward  others  in  matters  of  religion,  and  adheres  to  the  doctrine  of  doing 
right  in  all  the  varied  relations  of  life.  He  was  married  to  Miss  Alice  Packard, 
of  Rochester,  Vermont,  in  1867,  a  lady  of  gentle  and  kindly  disposition,  and  noted 
for  high  intellectual  qualities  and  her  purity  of  character.  But  she  and  an  infant 
child  died  in  September,  1880,  and  mother  and  babe  lie  buried  in  the  cemetery 
of  the  little  village  of  Rochester,  Vermont. 

In  the  spring  of  1883  Mr.  Lyon  was  appointed  justice  of  the  peace  for  the 
south  division  of  Chicago,  one  of  the  most  responsible  official  positions  in  the 
gift  of  the  judiciary,  governor  and  senate  of  the  state. 

Mr.  Lyon  is  very  successful  as  a  trial  lawyer,  especially  in  jury  causes.  He  is 
fair,  honorable  and  courteous  to  his  opponents  and  to  the  witnesses,  and  impresses 
a  court  and  jury  strongly  in  his  favor.  He  is  not  captious  or  over  technical,  but 
looks  to  the  few  strong  points  in  a  case,  and  seeks  by  all  honorable  means  to 
attain  a  successful  result.  As  a  speaker  he  is  fluent,  ornate  and  enthusiastic,  and 
rarely  fails  to  carry  an  audience  by  the  force  of  his  eloquence  and  impassioned 
earnestness. 

In  private  life  Mr.  Lyon  has  warm  friends  whose  esteem  and  confidence  he 
has  won  by  his  straightforward,  manly  conduct,  his  sincerity,  candor  and  many 
estimable  qualities  of  character. 


MAJ.  CHARLES  E.  MOORE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Dublin,  Ireland,  April  12,  1821,  and  is 
the  son  of  a  hotel-keeper  in  that  city,  by  the  name  of  Thomas,  and  Margaret 
(O'Connor)  Moore,  a  relative  of  the  patriot  O'Connor.  Charles  E.  attended  school 
in  Dublin  until  1836.  He  then  immigrated  to  America  with  an  uncle,  and  went 
to  Albany,  New  York,  where  he  attended  St.  Mary's  College  one  year.  He  then 
served  five  years  with  Adam  Todd,  an  architect  and  builder,  and  while  at  this 
business  attended  a  night  school.  In  1848  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  in  com- 
pany with  his  uncle,  Charles  O'Connor,  engaged  in  contracting  and  building.  In 
1859  he  took  a  trip  to  Pike's  Peak,  but  returned  in  1860,  in  time  to  help  raise  the 
23d  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  in  connection  with  Col.  James  A.  Mulligan,  and  served 
three  years  and  three  months  as  major  of  the  same  regiment.  He  was  captured  at 
Lexington,  Missouri,  and  while  a  prisoner  his  regiment  was  mustered  out  of  service. 
The  order  was  afterward  revoked  by  the  President,  and  the  officers  were  ordered 
to  recruit  the  regiment,  with  headquarters  at  Camp  Douglas,  Chicago.  After  it 
was  filled,  the  regiment  was  ordered  to  West  Virginia.  Maj.  Moore  was  in  all 
the  skirmishes  in  which  the  regiment  was  engaged,  including  those  of  Philippi, 
Rumney,  Martinsburgh  and  Frostburgh.  He  was  an  efficient  officer  and  a  brave 
soldier,  but  at  the  end  of  three  years  and  three  months'  active  service,  by  the 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  50 1 

\ 

advice  of  the  regimental  surgeon,  he  resigned  his  commission,  and  was  mustered 
out  of  service.  In  1865  he  returned  to  Chicago.  He  then  traveled  over  England, 
Ireland  and  Scotland,  but  returned  to  Chicago  in  1867  and  began  the  study  of 
the  law,  and  during  that  year  was  elected  to  the  office  of  justice  of  the  peace, 
which  he  held  four  years,  and  was  made  police  justice,  the  duties  of  which  he  dis- 
charged with  marked  ability. 

He  was  then  appointed  by  Mayor  Joseph  Medill  a  member  of  the  board  of 
health,  which  he  held  until  the  abolition  of  that  board,  since  which  time  he  has 
been  in  the  practice  of  the  law.  Maj.  Moore  is  a  gentleman  who  is  quick  of 
apprehension,  has  good  practical  judgment,  and  is  an  excellent  counselor.  He 
has  a  large  circle  of  admiring  friends. 


JESSE  B.  BARTON. 

JESSE  B.  BARTON  was  born  in  Demorestville,  Ontario,  Canada,  and  is  the 
son  of  Samuel  E.  Barton,  and  is  descended  from  the  Barton  family  of  Massa- 
chusetts, who  were  staunch  Puritans  and  of  old  revolutionary  stock.  He  gradu- 
ated from  Albert  College,  Belleville,  Ontario,  in  1873,  and  at  once  removed  to 
Chicago  and  began  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Ewing  and  Leonard,  where 
he  studied  until  he  was  admitted,  in  January  1876.  He  then  entered  the  office  of 
the  corporation  counsel  of  the  city  of  Chicago  as  a  clerk,  rose  to  the  position  of 
assistant  counsel,  and  held  that  office  until  the  Harrison  administration  in  1879. 
He  then  started  in  practice  alone,  and  has  been  connected  with  the  south  park 
commission  as  attorney.  He  is  democratic  in  his  political  tendencies,  but  is  not 
a  strong  partisan. 


HON.   EVERT   VAN    BUREN. 

ONE  of  the  oldest  men  still  practicing  at  the  bar  of  Cook  county,  and  one 
who  has  made  a  brilliant  record  as  a  lawyer,  both  in  New  York  and  this 
state,  is  he  whose  name  we  place  at  the  head  of  this  sketch,  and  who  was  born  at 
Kinderhook,  Columbia  county,  New  York,  November  3,  1803. 

Evert  received  an  academic  education;  read  law  with  J.  and  A.  Vanderpoel,  at 
Kinderhook;  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1827,  and  settled  at  first  in  Penn  Yan, 
Yates  county,  New  York.  The  bar  of  that  county  at  that  time  was  represented 
by  such  distinguished  members  as  John  C.  Spencer,  Mark  H.  Sibley  and  Dudley 
Marvin,  who  were  located  at  Canandaigua,  Ontario  county.  His  practice  increased 
rapidly,  and  soon  extended  into  the  neighboring  counties,  and  he  showed  himself 
the  peer  of  the  best  of  the  legal  fraternity  in  that  part  of  the  state. 

In  1836,  Mr.  Van  Buren  went  to  Buffalo,  New  York,  it  being  "flush  times," 
when  everybody  was  rich  or  becoming  so  rapidly.  He  had  or  made  influential 
friends  there,  and  soon  had  a  highly  remunerative  practice.  He  distinguished 


502  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

himself  in  the  famous  trial  of  Benjamin  Rathbun,  for  forgery,  being  one  of  the 
lawyers  employed  on  the  defense. 

At  the  earnest  solicitation  of  his  Yates  county  friends,  Mr.  Van  Buren  returned 
to  Penn  Yan  in  1840,  resuming  his  practice,  and  having  many  important  criminal 
trials,  in  connection  with  which  he  greatly  increased  his  reputation  as  a  criminal 
lawyer.  His  triumphs  were  many  and  brilliant.  But  his  practice  was  by  no 
means  confined  to  criminal  business.  His  civil  practice,  both  in  the  courts  of 
law  and  chancery,  extended  over  the  adjoining  counties,  and  first  suggested  to 
him  the  idea  of  removing  to  a  larger  field,  which  he  did  by  coming  to  Chicago. 

Mr.  Van  Buren,  then  a  very  young  man,  represented  his  congressional  district 
in  the  national  anti-masonic  convention  which  nominated  William  Wirt  for  presi- 
dent in  1833.  He  was  the  youngest  man  in  the  convention,  and  was  a  member 
of  the  committee  on  resolutions.  He  supported  Martin  Van  Buren  for  president 
in  1836  and  1840,  and  has  usually  voted  the  democratic  ticket. 

In  1856  he  moved  to  Chicago,  where  he  immediately  built  up  a  large  and 
lucrative  practice,  and  in  1862  was  elected  judge  of  the  recorder's  court,  faith- 
fully and  honorably  discharging  the  duties  of  that  office,  and  at  the  end  of  the 
term  he  returned  to  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  which  he  is  still  engaged. 
He  stands  in  the  front  rank  of  his  profession,  having  few  superiors  in  the  state. 


JOHN   M.   BEVERLY. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Virginia.  He  is  of  English  and 
Scotch  descent,  and  the  son  of  John  Randolph  and  Elizabeth  (Kemper) 
Beverly.  His  father  carried  on  the  business  of  tanning,  in  connection  with  farm- 
ing, up  to  the  time  of  his  death  in  1873.  During  his  lifetime  he  occupied  many 
important  county  offices,  including  sheriff  and  county  treasurer.  John  M. 
received  his  early  education  at  the  district  schools,  and  at  the  age  of  thirteen 
entered  Clark  County  College,  where  he  remained  two  years.  When  fifteen  years 
old  he  determined  to  earn  his  own  living,  and  accordingly  engaged  in  teaching 
with  excellent  success,  one  year.  Going  to  the  West  in  1859,  he  settled  in  the 
mines  near  Pike's  Peak,  and  while  there  was  elected  by  the  miners  to  the  several 
offices  of  recorder,  sheriff  and  justice  of  the  peace  for  the  camp,  being  at  that 
time  only  sixteen  years  of  age.  He  remained  at  that  place,  engaged  in  mining 
enterprises  until  1864.  He  then  removed  to  Denver,  Colorado,  where  he  remained 
until  1867.  He  returned  to  the  East,  and  for  some  months  was  engaged  in 
organizing  mining  companies,  among  which  were  the  Burroughs,  the  Beverly, 
the  Baltimore,  and  the  Colorado  Gold  and  Silver  Mining  Company.  In  1868  he 
settled  in  Chicago  and  engaged  in  brokerage  business.  In  1870  he  organized  the 
United  States  Pipe  Protecting  Company,  of  Chicago,  of  which  he  was  made  sec- 
retary. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  503 

In  the  great  conflagration  of  1871  Mr.  Beverly  found  himself  reduced  from 
affluence  to  poverty  in  a  few  hours.  In  1872  he  opened  a  real  estate  and  loan 
office,  by  which  means  he  supported  himself  while  studying  law.  He  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  in  1877,  and  at  once  commenced  active  practice,  doing  principally 
a  chancery  business.  In  1880  he  took  a  trip  to  Leadville,  and  there  made  several 
fortunate  speculations.  He  was  married  October  6,  1868,  to  Miss  Jennie  B.  Dor- 
sett.  They  have  one  daughter,  Birdie  Maud.  Mr.  Beverly  has  been  an  active 
Mason  for  years.  In  political  sentiments  he  is  a  democrat. 


EUGENE  C.  McCUNE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania  and  was  born  in  Cum- 
berland county,  June  15,  1839,  tne  son  °f  Robert  S.  and  Jane  S.  (McCormic) 
McCune.  Eugene  C.  was  educated  in  Jefferson  College,  Washington  county, 
Pennsylvania,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1857.  He  studied  law  with  Ingersoll 
Brothers,  at  Peoria,  Illinois,  from  1858  to  1861,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
After  being  licensed  to  practice,  he  became  associated  as  partner  with  his  former 
preceptors,  the  noted  Col.  Robert  G.  Ingersoll  and  Hon.  Eben  C.  Ingersoll,  a  law- 
yer of  profound  learning,  of  Ingersoll  Brothers  and  McCune.  The  firm  conducted 
a  flourishing  business,  and  continued  until  1873,  when  Col.  Ingersoll  removed  to 
Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  and  Mr.  McCune  took  up  his  residence  in 
Chicago.  Here  he  at  once  engaged  in  his  profession  and  devoted  himself  assidu- 
ously to  it  until  1881,  when  he  became  connected  with  the  United  States  sub- 
treasury  in  that  city.  Mr.  McCune  is  a  learned  and  able  lawyer,  an  honorable, 
high-minded  gentleman  and  a  man  of  firm  integrity.  He  posseses  personal  and 
social  qualities  of  a  high  order  and  is  held  in  esteem  by  all.  He  was  married  in 
1863  to  Miss  Sally  Parker,  a  daughter  of  B.  F.  Parker,  of  Groveland,  Tazewell 
county,  Illinois,  and  has  three  children. 


HON.    ROBERT   T.  LINCOLN. 

ROBERT  TODD  LINCOLN,  the  only  surviving  son  of  the  patriot,  states- 
man and  martyred  President,  Abraham  Lincoln,  shares  the  affections  of  the 
people  of  this  country  to  a  greater  extent  than  any  other  citizen  of  this  republic. 
The  tragic  death  of  the  father  at  the  close  of  the  rebellion  made  a  deep  impres- 
sion on  the  sensitive  hearts  of  the  American  people,  the  memory  of  which 
together  with  the  history  of  the  eventful,  honorable  and  useful  life  of  the  father, 
intensifies  their  interest  in  the  son.  The  mother  of  Robert  before  marriage  was 
Miss  Fanny  Todd,  a  native  of  Kentucky,  of  a  family  that  numbers  among  its  dif- 
ferent branches  numerous  eminent  men,  as  jurists,  lawyers  and  patrons  of  litera- 
ture, poetry  and  art.  Fanny  Todd  in  her  youth  was  highly  accomplished,  refined 


504  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

\ 

and  intelligent,  and  possessed  rare  personal  beauty,  and  while  Robert  resembles 
her  personally,  he  has  inherited  also  the  sagacity,  cool,  deliberate  judgment  and 
wisdom  of  his  father,  while  he  has  but  one  of  his  features.  He  has  the  same  sin- 
cere, mild  expression  of  the  eyes  that  all  who  knew  his  father  will  recall. 

He  was  born  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  August  i,  1843.  When  but  seven  years 
of  age  he  was  sent  to  the  academy  of  Mr.  Estabrook,  and  remained  there  three 
years,  and  then  entered  the  Illinois  State  University  at  Springfield.  In  1860  he 
entered  Phillips  Academy,  at  Exeter,  New  Hampshire.  After  passing  a  creditable 
examination  he  entered  Harvard  University,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1864. 
He  entered  Harvard  Law  School,  but  left  in  1865  to  accept  a  commission  in  the 
United  States  army  as  captain,  and  assistant  adjutant-general  on  Gen.  Grant's 
staff.  He  shortly  afterward  resigned  his  commission,  and  commenced  the  study 
of  the  law  in  Chicago,  when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1867. 

He  commenced  practice  as  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Scammon  and  Lincoln, 
but  dissolving  this  partnership  he  visited  Europe  in  1872,  and  on  his  return,  after 
a  six  months'  trip,  formed  a  partnership  with  Edward  S.  Isham,  under  the  name 
of  Isham  and  Lincoln,  to  which  firm  he  still  belongs.  In  1876  he  was  elected 
supervisor  of  the  town  of  South  Chicago,  and  in  1880  represented  Cook  county 
in  the  Illinois  state  convention  at  Springfield,  which  nominated  delegates  to  the 
national  convention  held  at  Chicago  in  1880.  He  was  one  of  the  electors  on  the 
republican  ticket  for  the  state  of  Illinois,  and  early  in  1880  was  appointed  by  the 
governor  one  of  the  trustees  of  the  Illinois  Central  railroad.  He  was  appointed 
secretary  of  war  under  President  Garfield,  and  has  performed  the  duties  of  that 
office  to  the  entire  satisfaction  of  the  whole  country. 


WADE    ABBOTT. 

WADE  ABBOTT  was  born  in  Windsor,  Berkshire  county,  Massachusetts, 
November  24,  1834,  and  is  the  son  of  Samuel  Abbott  and  Betsy  (Hubbard) 
Abbott.  His  grandfather,  John  Abbott,  served  in  the  war  of  the  revolution;  his 
father  was  a  soldier  in  the  war  of  1812,  and  he  himself  was  a  soldier  in  the  war 
of  the  rebellion.  Mr.  Abbott  was  educated  in  the  common  schools,  and  also  took 
a  classical  course  in  select  schools,  in  Massachusetts.  He  settled  in  Illinois  when 
he  was  twenty  years  old,  and  in  1861  enlisted  in  the  2d  111.  Vol.  Cav.,  and  served 
in  the  army  three  years  and  three  months.  He  was  under  Gen.  Grant  at  Paducah, 
Columbus,  Fort  Henry,  Fort  Donelson,  and  Vicksburg,  and  with  Gen.  Banks  in 
the  celebrated  Red  river  disaster.  Soon  after  being  mustered  out  of  service,  he 
returned  to  Chicago,  and  connected  himself  with  the  Chicago  "  Evening  Post," 
and  continued  with  it  twelve  years  without  interruption,  during  which  time  the 
ownership  of  that  paper  passed  through  five  different  hands.  In  his  connection 
with  the  "  Evening  Post,"  Mr.  Abbott  formed  many  valuable  acquaintances. 

He  studied  law,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1868.     He  devotes  especial 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  505 

attention  to  commercial  law  and  collections,  and  numbers  among  his  clients  many 
of  the  best  business  firms  and  largest  property  owners  in  Chicago.  He  is  a  mem- 
ber of  the  F.A.A.M.,  K.  of  P.,  and  Odd-Fellows,  and  has  been  an  enthusiastic 
temperance  man  and  worker  in  the  temperance  cause  for  the  last  five  years.  He 
was  married  in  November,  1857,  to  Miss  Cornelia  C.  Scott,  daughter  of  Ira  Scott, 
a  well  known  citizen  of  Chicago,  for  the  last  twelve  years  prominently  connected 
with  the  American  Tract  and  Bible  Society. 


CHARLES    H.    LAWRENCE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Vergennes,  Vermont,  and  was  born 
October  n,  1845,  his  father,  Henry  C.  Lawrence,  also  being  a  native  of  the 
Green  Mountain  State.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Elizabeth  Bissell, 
was  a  daughter  of  Harvey  Bissell,  of  Suffield,  Connecticut.  Charles'  early  years 
were  passed  in  New  England,  receiving  instruction  at  such  schools  as  his  native 
county  afforded.  He  removed  to  the  West  in  1863,  and  having  an  ambition  and 
taste  for  educational  pursuits,  he  commenced  a  classical  course  of  study,  entering 
Knox  College,  at  Galesburg,  Illinois,  and  graduated  in  1867,  during  the  time 
Dr.  Curtis  occupied  the  presidental  chair  of  that  institution.  During  his  colle- 
giate course,  the  great  war  of  the  rebellion  being  in  progress,  when  the  call  for 
100  days'  troops  was  issued  by  President  Lincoln,  he  responded,  enlisting  as  a 
private  in  the  137 th  regiment  111.  Vol.  Inf.,  and  was  in  the  service  about  four 
months.  Those  who  had  enlisted  in  response  to  the  call  for  100  days'  recruits 
being  mustered  out,  he  returned  to  college  and  resumed  his  course  of  study. 
During  his  college  course  he  taught  two  winter  terms  in  the  district  schools  in 
the  adjacent  county,  verifying  the  saying  that  "  he  who  instructs  others  teaches 
himself  best,"  as  the  sequel  in  this  instance  illustrated.  Upon  graduating,  Mr. 
Lawrence  was  called  to  the  responsible  position  and  taught  for  a  year  in  the 
Vermont  Episcopal  Institute,  at  the  city  of  Burlington,  Vermont,  where  he  for- 
merly had  been  a  pupil.  Upon  leaving  the  above  institution,  he  entered  the 
College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons,  in  New  York  city,  in  the  fall  of  1868,  pur- 
suing the  studies  taught  at  that  renowned  medical  university  for  one  year,  when 
he  again  set  his  face  toward  the  West,  and  in  the  fall  of  1869  he  entered  upon  the 
study  of  the  law  at  the  city  of  Ottawa,  Illinois,  in  the  office  of  Glover,  Cook  and 
Campbell.  In  1870  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  became  clerk  to  George  C. 
Campbell,  who  was  then  general  solicitor  of  the  Chicago,  Rock  Island  and  Pacific 
Railroad  Company,  still  assiduously,  the  meantime,  pursuing  the  studies  prepara- 
tory for  entering  upon  the  duties  of  his  chosen  profession,  and  on  examination  in 
1871,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  1872  Mr.  Campbell  severing  his  connection 
with  the  railroad  company,  and  entering  into  a  general  partnership  with  F.  H. 
Winston,  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Lawrence  was  taken  into  the  partnership,  comprising 
the  law  firm  of  Winston,  Campbell  and  Lawrence.  In  1873,  the  term  of  office  of 


506  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Hon.  Charles  B.  Lawrence,  the  uncle  of  our  subject,  having  expired  on  the 
supreme  bench  of  Illinois,  this  eminent  judge  and  lawyer  also  became  a  member 
of  the  firm.  In  1875,  Mr.  Winston  withdrawing  from  the  copartnership,  the  firm 
of  Lawrence,  Campbell  and  Lawrence  was  formed,  and  has  remained  unchanged 
since,  and  ranks  among  the  first  law  firms  of  Chicago. 

Mr.  Lawrence  was  appointed  master  in  chancery  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook 
county,  but  its  duties  interfering  with  those  of  his  profession,  he  resigned  in  1874. 
Devoted  to  the  law,  Mr.  Lawrence  has  never  sought  any  political  office,  but  in 
sentiment  and  in  action  is  a  pronounced  republican,  and  takes  a  lively  interest  in 
the  affairs  of  his  party. 

In  November,  1873,  Mr.  Lawrence  was  married  to  Miss  Nelly  E.,  daughter  of 
Hon.  Burton  C.  Cook,  of  Chicago,  and  has  by  said  union  two  children.  Mr. 
Lawrence,  as  a  lawyer,  is  studious,  painstaking  and  thorough.  In  court  he  is 
found  ready,  having  prepared  his  cases  outside  of  the  court-room,  and  backs  up 
his  positions  by  the  authorities  and  a  well  prepared  brief,  and  it  may  be  justly 
said  of  him  that  few  young  men  of  the  bar  show  better  judgment  in  selecting  law 
applicable  to  cases.  He  speaks  with  ease  and  fluency  in  his  arguments,  and  is 
always  courteous  to  the  court  and  opposing  counsel,  and  never  sinks  the  gentle- 
man in  the  lawyer. 

In  person  he  is  of  medium  size,  well  developed  in  physique,  a  good  citizen 
and  safe  counselor.  He  is  genial  and  affable,  and  his  friendships,  if  found  wor- 
thy, are  warm  and  enduring.  Mr.  Lawrence  is  still  young  in  years,  though  of 
comparatively  large  experience  in  his  profession,  and  may  look  hopefully  in  the 
future  to  higher  attainments  in  his  honorable  calling. 


HENRY  J.  FURBER. 

THE  New  England  States  must  be  accredited  with  having  produced  men  pos- 
sessing a  type  of  manhood  distinctively  and  peculiarly  their  own.  This  is 
largely  the  result  of  education  and  experience  and  training  in  early  life  that  tends 
to  develop  the  physical,  and  give  it  such  powers  of  endurance  that  brain  and  muscle 
shall  hold  and  maintain  an  equilibrium.  The  Granite  State  has  furnished  her 
full  quota  of  successful  men  in  the  various  callings  in  life;  and  whether  in  com- 
mercial circles  or  the  ranks  of  the  several  professions,  her  hardy  sons  stand  in  the 
advance  guard  of  an  enlightened  civilization.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  in  a 
large  degree  exemplifies  and  illustrates  the  energy  and  enterprise  of  that  marked 
New  England  type. 

Henry  J.  Furber  was  born  at  Rochester,  Strafford  county,  New  Hampshire,  on 
July  17,  1840.  His  father,  Benjamin  Furber,  and  his  mother,  Olive  (Hussey)  Fur- 
ber, were  both  natives  of  that  state.  Mr.  Furber  is  of  the  tenth  generation  in 
direct  line  from  William  Furber,  who  settled  in  New  Hampshire,  near  Ports- 
mouth, in  1630,  and  the  farm  upon  which  he  settled,  now  in  the  possession  and 


HCConp.r  Jri  Co 


£.5   W  F.  OWlIil.tr,,  t  BraNT 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  509 

ownership  of  a  cousin  of  the  ninth  generation,  has  never  been  out  of  the  Furber 
family  since  its  original  occupation. 

Mr.  Furber  fitted  for  college  at  the  high  school  at  Great  Falls,  Strafford 
county,  New  Hampshire,  and  entered  Bowdoin  College,  Brunswick,  Maine,  in  the 
fall  of  1857,  his  class  graduating  in  1861.  He  left  college  early  in  the  spring  of 
1860,  during  the  junior  year  of  his  course,  and  went  to  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin,  to 
take  charge  of  the  public  schools  of  that  city.  But  the  scholarship  and  attain- 
ments of  Mr.  Furber  in  the  alma  mater  were  held  in  such  high  esteem  that  subse- 
quently the  faculty  and  trustees  of  the  college  conferred  on  him  his  collegiate 
degree  by  unanimous  vote,  and  his  name  was  enrolled  with  the  members  of  the 
graduating  class. 

Mr.  Furber  continued  as  principal  of  the  public  schools  of  Green  Bay  from 
1860  until  the  summer  of  1862.  Having  conceived  an  ambition  and  determina- 
tion to  identify  himself  with  the  legal  profession  during  his  literary  and  scientific 
pursuits,  he  procured  the  necessary  text  books  and  devoted  his  leisure  time  to 
the  study  of  the  law.  He  applied  himself  with  characteristic  energy  and  deter- 
mination, and  while  engaged  as  principal  of  the  public  schools  he  was,  on  exam- 
ination, admitted  to  the  bar  of  Wisconsin  in  1862.  On  the  first  of  August  of 
that  year  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  E.  H.  Ellis,  an  able  lawyer  of  Green 
Bay,  and  continued  with  him  until  July,  1865. 

While  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession  at  Green  Bay,  Mr.  Furber 
became  interested  in  the  subject  of  fire  and  life  insurance,  in  which  he  has  since 
taken  so  conspicuous  a  part.  During  this  time  he  was  appointed  special  agent 
for  the  state  of  Wisconsin  for  the  Metropolitan  Fire  Insurance  Company,  and  in 
January,  1865,  general  agent  of  that  company  for  several  western  states;  also,  in 
April,  1865,  he  was  appointed  general  manager  of  that  company  for  the  western 
states,  and  removed  his  headquarters  to  Chicago  in  July,  1865.  In  October,  1865, 
Mr.  Furber  was  elected  vice-president  of  the  Universal  Life  Insurance  Company 
of  New  York,  and  went  to  that  city  to  reside,  and  remained  there  until  the  spring 
of  1879;  engaged  in  the  business  of  life  insurance  and  as  an  officer  of  various 
companies. 

In  May,  1879,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  became  associated  with  Judge  Van 
H.  Higgins  and  Judge  Cothran  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  under  the  name  of 
Higgins,  Furber  and  Cothran.  The  firm  soon  became  well  known  and  did  a  large 
and  successful  business.  Mr.  Furber  also  has  a  high  standing  in  the  order  of 
Free  and  Accepted  Masons,  having  been  a  member  of  that  fraternity  for  about 
twenty-two  years,  and  having  received  all  the  degrees  of  the  order  up  to  and 
including  the  thirty-second.  He  was  married  at  Green  Bay,  Wisconsin,  Janu- 
ary 7,  1862,  to  Miss  Elvira  Irwin,  and  by  this  union  has  had  three  sons,  all  of  whom 
are  living. 

In  character,  Mr.  Furber  is  a  bold,  clear  headed,  strong  man.  He  has  definite 
and  comprehensive  conceptions  of  every  question  under  consideration,  and  moves 
upon  it  with  a  mesmeric  force  that  carries  everything  and  everybody  before  him. 

54 


5IO  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Nature  made  him  a  leader,  and  in  all  the  walks  of  life,  from  boyhood  to  man- 
hood, he  has  stepped  into  his  natural  place  of  leadership  as  though  no  question 
ever  arose  or  could  arise  as  to  the  propriety  of  his  occupying  it. 

His  operations  in  business  are  of  the  largest  and  boldest,  his  maxim  being 
that  less  complications  arise  in  operations  of  millions  than  of  thousands.  In  his 
tastes  he  is  simply  princely,  and  has  about  him  collections  of  art  and  literature 
of  the  rarest  and  most  expensive  character  in  the  world.  Like  all  bold  men,  he 
is  generous,  the  hand  of  want  never  passing  him  unfilled.  He  is  now  in  the 
meridian  of  life,  and  the  chances  are  that  the  commercial  world  has  much  to  hear 
from  him  yet. 


JOSEPH  A.  CAVANAUGH. 

JOSEPH  A.  CAVANAUGH  was  born  July  5,  1856,  in  the  city  of  Dubuque, 
J  Iowa,  and  is  a  son  of  P.  J.  and  Zette  C.  Cavanaugh.  His  maternal  grand- 
father was  a  captain  in  the  English  army;  participated  at  the  battle  of  Waterloo, 
and  afterward  was  stationed  at  St.  Helena  during  Napoleon's  banishment  to  that 
island.  Joseph  A.  was  educated  in  the  public  schools  of  Dubuque,  and  at  St. 
Xavier's  College,  Cincinnati.  After  leaving  college  he  commenced  the  study  of 
the  law  in  the  office  of  W.  S.  Ellis,  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in 
October  1878.  He  however,  continued  his  studies  in  the  office  of  Fairchild  and 
Blackman,  of  Chicago,  until  1881,  when  he  entered  into  partnership  with  M.  I. 
Beck,  under  the  firm  name  of  Beck  and  Cavanaugh. 

He  was  married  July  i,  1880,  to  Miss  Mary  Gilfoyle,  of  Newport,  Kentucky, 
and  has  one  daughter. 

Mr.  Cavanaugh  is  a  democrat,  but  takes  no  prominent  part  in  politics. 


EZRA   BUTLER  McCAGG. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  one  of  the  leading  members  of  the  Chicago  bar, 
learned  in  the  law,  a  clear  logical  advocate,  and  a  gentleman  of  scholarly 
tastes  and  acquirements.  He  is  a  native  of  New  York,  and  was  born  at  Kinder- 
hook,  November  22,  1825.  Isaac  McCagg,  his  father,  was  a  wealthy  merchant; 
his  mother,  before  marriage,  was  Miss  Louisa  Caroline  Butler.  Ezra  B.  was  edu- 
cated at  home  under  the  care  of  a  neighboring  clergyman.  He  studied  law 
several  years  in  the  office  of  Monell,  Hogeboom  and  Monell,  of  Hudson,  New 
York,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  1847.  In  the  summer  of  that  year  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  J.  Y.  Scammon,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Scammon  and  McCagg.  Hon.  Samuel  W.  Fuller  was  admitted 
to  the  partnership  in  1849.  In  1872  Mr.  Scammon  withdrew  from  the  firm,  and 
\V.  I.  Culver  was  admitted.  With  the  exception  of  these  changes  the  original 
partnership  was  the  same  until  1873,  when  the  death  of  Mr.  Fuller  occurred, 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  511 

the  firm  now  being  McCagg  and  Culver.  During  all  these  years  the  firm  enjoyed 
a  very  extensive  and  important  practice.  Mr.  McCagg,  during  the  civil  war,  was 
an  industrious  promoter  of  the  United  States  sanitary  commission,  and  filled  the 
arduous  position  of  president  of  the  Northwestern  sanitary  commission.  He  was 
for  a  time  a  trustee  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  is  a  trustee  of  the  Chicago 
Academy  of  Sciences,  and  president  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  Eastern  Hos- 
pital for  the  Insane. 

In  the  memorable  fire  of  1871,  he  had,  beside  his  law  library,  one  of  the  largest 
miscellaneous  libraries  in  the  Northwest,  the  accumulation  of  which  had  been  the 
labor  of  many  years.  His  collection  of  writings  and  letters  of  the  early  Jesuits 
and  settlers  of  the  northwestern  states  and  territories  was  one  of  the  best  extant. 
This  library  was  wholly  destroyed,  and  much  valuable  data  of  the  opening  and 
settlement  of  the  Great  Northwest  was  lost. 

Mr.  McCagg  is  a  republican  in  political  sentiments,  but  is  not  a  politician 
according  to  the  modern  definition  of  that  term.  He  has  given  a  great  deal  of 
time  to  eleemosynary  matters,  and  is  a  worthy,  public-spirited  citizen. 


ROBERT   BECKINGTON. 

ROBERT  BECKINGTON  was  born  May  18,  1843,  at  Somersetshire,  Eng- 
land, and  is  a  son  of  Thomas  and  Sarah  (Shepherd)  Beckington.  His  father 
was  a  ship  owner  and  farmer  there,  and  also  connected  with  the  military  depart- 
ment. On  the  paternal  side  his  grand  uncle  was  for  many  years  a  member  of  parlia- 
ment. In  1848  the  family  immigrated  to  this  country,  settling  in  Boone  county,  Illi- 
nois, the  father  and  son  working  together  at  farming  until  the  breaking  out  of  the 
civil  war  in  1861.  During  these  twelve  years  Robert  had  improved  every  spare  min- 
ute by  devoting  it  to  study,  and  had  at  intervals  attended  the  district  school  there, 
and  part  of  one  term  at  the  high  school  in  Lyons.  At  the  breaking  out  of  the 
war  Robert  enlisted  for  three  years  in  the  2d  regiment  Iowa  Vol.  Inf.,  serving  as 
sergeant  under  Gens.  Curtis,  Hallert  and  Prentiss.  He  entered  at  once  into  active 
service  there,  his  regiment  being  detailed  to  guard  the  Hannibal  and  St.  Joe  rail- 
road, and  having  a  great  deal  of  warfare  with  the  guerillas.  At  one  time,  with 
twelve  men  in  his  command,  he  repulsed  over  a  hundred  of  the  enemy  under 
Capt.  Malone,  killing  him  and  several  of  his  men.  Sergt.  Beckington  also  took 
part  in  Grant's  campaign,  being  with  him  from  Donelson  and  Corinth.  At  Cor- 
inth he  was  taken  down  with  pneumonia,  and,  leaving  the  army,  returned  north. 
Having  recovered  his  health,  he  at  once  commenced  to  engage  in  active  work  for 
the  government,  recruiting  a  company,  of  which  he  was  elected  captain,  but  the 
war  having  drawn  almost  to  a  close,  they  never  went  into  active  service.  In  1865 
he  entered  the  Ann  Arbor  Law  School,  graduating  in  1867,  and  in  the  same  year 
was  admitted  to  the  bars  of  Iowa  and  Illinois.  After  practicing  in  Iowa  until 
1871,  he  removed  to  Chicago  in  the  spring  of  that  year,  but  having  all  his  posses- 


512  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

sions  swept  away  by  the  great  fire,  in  the  fall  of  1871  returned  to  Iowa  and 
accepted  the  position  of  local  editor  of  the  Clinton  "Daily  Herald."  During  the 
winter  of  1871-2  he  taught  district  school  and  practiced  law.  In  1873  he  returned 
to  Chicago,  and  has  since  that  time  been  engaged  in  his  profession,  and  has  built 
up  a  large  and  lucrative  business.  In  politics  Mr.  Beckington  is  a  republican, 
although  in  1876  he  was  a  "  Tilden  man,"  being  one  of  the  organizers  and  elected 
to  the  position  of  colonel  of  the  army  veteran  regiment  of  democrats.  Since  then 
he  has  been  one  of  the  most  ardent  members  of  the  republican  party.  Mr.  Beck- 
ington was  married  to  Miss  Jennie  A.  Scoville,  of  Aurora,  Illinois,  by  which  mar- 
riage he  has  been  blessed  with  two  children  :  Ralph  C.  and  Maud  E. 


GEORGE  C.    DANFORTH. 

GEORGE  C.  DANFORTH  is  a  young  and  active  member  of  the  Chicago 
bar,  of  good  ability,  and  possessing  firmness  and  decision  of  character.  He 
traces  his  paternal  ancestry  back  to  the  early  Puritans  of  Massachusetts,  while  in 
the  maternal  line  he  is  descended  from  the  early  English  settlers  of  Kentucky. 
His  father  is  Almond  G.  Danforth,  a  prominent  banker  of  Washington,  Illinois, 
where  his  grandfather  also  was  a  banker  up  to  the  time  of  his  death.  After  com- 
pleting his  preliminary  studies,  George  C.  graduated  from  the  Washington,  Illi- 
nois, high  school,  and  still  later  entered  the  North  Granville  Military  Academy. 
He  afterward  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  Columbia  College,  of  New  York  city, 
graduating  in  June  1879.  He  pursued  his  law  studies  in  the  law  school  of  Louis- 
ville, Kentucky,  and  later  in  the  Union  College  of  Law  at  Chicago,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  June  1882.  He  is  a  young  man  of  literary  tastes 
and  studious  habits,  and  by  devotion  to  his  profession,  with  his  varied  attain- 
ments, may  take  an  honored  position  at  the  bar. 

He  is  a  democrat,  but  takes  no  active  part  in  politics.      In  religious  faith  he  is 
a  Presbyterian. 

LYSANDER    HILL. 

E  SANDER  HILL  was  born  at  Union,  Lincoln  county,  Maine,  July  4,  1834,  the 
son  of  Isaac  Hill,  and  traces  both  his  paternal  and  maternal  ancestry  back 
through  old  Puritan  families,  who  were  among  the  earliest  settlers  of  Massachu- 
setts. He  prepared  for  college  at  Warren  Academy  in  Maine,  and  entered  Bo\v- 
doin  College  in  1854,  and  graduated  in  1858.  Shortly  afterward  he  began  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  A.  P.  Gould,  at  Thomaston,  Maine,  with  whom  he 
studied  until  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1860.  He  at  once  began  practice  in 
Thomaston,  forming  a  partnership  with  J.  P.  Cilley,  under  the  name  and  style 
of  Cilley  and  Hill,  which  connection  existed  until  1862,  when  Mr.  Hill  entered 
the  army  as  a  captain  in  the  2oth  Me.  infantry,  and  served  until  1863,  when  he 
was  discharged  on  account  of  physical  disability. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAK   Of  CHICAGO.  513 

After  leaving  the  army  he  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession,  settling  at 
Alexandria,  Virginia,  and  also  opening  an  office  at  Washington,  District  of 
Columbia.  At  Alexandria  Mr.  Hill  formed  a  connection  with  George  Tucker, 
under  the  style  of  Hill  and  Tucker.  In  1874  he  changed  his  residence  to  Wash- 
ington, District  of  Columbia,  where  he  had  connected  with  him  in  business  E.  A. 
Ellsworth,  under  the  style  of  Hill  and  Ellsworth,  which  partnership  was  dissolved 
in  1878,  Mr.  Hill  continuing  alone.  Their  practice  had  been  largely  patent  liti- 
gation, which  they  made  a  specialty,  and  in  May,  1881,  Mr.  Hill  formed  a  part- 
nership with  T.  S.  E.  Dixon,  of  Chicago,  under  the  style  of  Hill  and  Dixon,  which 
firm  still  exists.  In  Chicago  as  in -Washington,  Mr.  Hill  has  devoted  his  atten- 
tion especially  to  patent  law,  and  has  also  a  large  general  civil  practice. 

He  was  married  in  February,  1864,  to  Adelaide  R.  Cole,  of  Roxbury,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  has  three  children.  Mr.  Hill  was  register  in  bankruptcy  of  the 
eighth  judicial  district  of  Virginia,  from  1867  until  1869,  when  he  was  appointed 
judge  of  the  said  district  to  fill  an  unexpired  term,  which  office  he  held  until  the 
close  of  the  term  in  1870.  He  is  a  member  of  the  republican  party,  and  was  a 
delegate  to  the  national  republican  convention  which  nominated  Grant  in  1868, 
and  was  on  the  committee  on  platform  of  party.  He  was  also  chairman  of  the 
republican  state  central  committee  of  Virginia,  for  two  years.  Since  1869  he  has 
taken  little  active  interest  in  politics,  but  has  devoted  himself  closely  to  his  busi- 
ness, in  which  he  finds  his  chief  delight. 


HORACE    C.    BENNETT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  the  Old  Granite  State,  and  was  born 
in  Cheshire  county,  October  24,  1841,  and  is  the  son  of  Lyman  Bennett  and 
Lucinda  (Wellington)  Bennett.  He  commenced  his  education  in  the  common 
schools,  and  afterward  began  an  academic  course  of  study,  which  was  suddenly 
interrupted  by  the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion.  He  left  Appleton  Academy, 
New  Ipswich,  New  Hampshire,  in  April,  1861,  for  the  purpose  of  enlisting  in  the 
army,  but  owing  to  the  illness  of  his  mother,  and  her  earnest  persuasions,  delayed 
his  purpose  until  the  following  September,  when  he  entered  the  ist  New  Hamp- 
shire Battery,  which  was  manned  by  picked  men  from  the  city  of  Manchester. 
Mr.  Bennett  kept  himself  posted  in  all  of  the  movements  of  the  army,  and  being 
well  versed  in  general  knowledge  was  held  in  high  esteem  by  his  comrades,  and 
was  usually  chosen  arbitrator  in  disputes  between  them,  and  soon  obtained  the 
sobriquet  of  judge.  He  served  three  years  in  the  army,  and  was  in  the  battles 
of  Gettysburgh,  the  second  battle  of  Bull  Run,  Rappahannock  Station,  Antietam, 
South  Mountain,  Fredericksburgh  and  Chancellorsville.  He  was  wounded  in  the 
battle  of  the  Wilderness,  but  refused  to  be  carried  to  the  rear,  heroically  keeping  in 
charge  of  his  guns  until  the  battle  was  over.  In  the  winter  he  usually  assisted  in 
clerical  work  at  head  quarters,  and  during  the  remainder  of  each  year  was  in  the 


514  THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

field,  anxious  to  do  duty  wherever  his  country  called  him,  and  was  in  every  battle 
in  which  his  battery  was  engaged  during  his  term  of  service,  which  included  all 
of  the  battles  of  the  Potomac  army,  except  Gen.  McClellan's  Peninsular  campaign. 

Soon  after  leaving  the  army  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Hon.  Amasa  Norcross, 
of  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  now  member  of  congress,  paying  his  expenses  and 
tuition  by  teaching  public  schools  in  the  vicinity.  During  the  time  of  his  law 
studies  Mr.  Norcross  was  assessor  of  internal  revenue,  and  Mr.  Bennett  took 
nearly  the  entire  charge  of  his  law  business.  He  especially  qualified  himself  as  a 
teacher  of  penmanship,  and  also  studied  elocution  with  the  celebrated  William 
Russell  and  Stacy  Baxter  of  Boston,  both  of  which  accomplishments  served  him 
excellently  well,  when,  afterward,  he  engaged  as  general  agent  for  Ivison,  Blake- 
man,  Taylor  and  Company,  text-book  publishers  of  New  York;  his  duties  taking 
him  into  the  principal  schools  and  colleges  throughout  New  England.  He  pursued 
the  study  of  the  law  with  great  zeal  and  industry,  and  being  an  apt  student  with 
tenacious  memory,  he  rapidly  became  efficient  in  all  of  the  rudiments  of  his  pro- 
fession, and  at  the  same  time  gained  the  highest  regard  of  his  preceptor. 

After  three  years'  application  to  the  study  of  the  law,  he  passed  a  highly  cred- 
itable examination,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Massachusetts  bar  in  1869.  He 
worked  for  Ivison,  Blakeman,  Taylor  and  Company  until  1870,  when  he  decided 
to  settle  in  the  West.  During  the  same  year  he  was  married  to  Miss  Charlotte  E. 
Freeland,  daughter  of  the  late  Dr.  Freeland,  of  Fitchburg,  Massachusetts,  a  highly 
educated,  refined  lady,  who  has  among  her  many  accomplishments  a  musical  edu- 
cation, being  an  excellent  singer. 

Mr.  Bennett  removed  to  Chicago  in  1870,  without  an  acquaintance  in  the  city, 
and  invested  all  he  possessed  in  books,  all  of  which  were  burned  in  the  great  con- 
flagration of  1871,  but  undaunted  at  this  disaster,  Mr.  Bennett  applied  himself  to 
his  work  with  redoubled  energy,  and  by  faithful  attention  to  his  business  respect- 
ing whatever  was  entrusted  to  his  care,  soon  made  good  his  losses  and  established 
a  firm  and  enduring  reputation.  Promptness  is  a  ruling  passion  with  him,  and  the 
result  of  this  habit  has  been  a  steadily  increasing  practice,  until  at  the  present 
time,  1883,  he  is  conducting  a  large  and  profitable  business. 

Mr.  Bennett  is  above  the  average  in  height,  with  keen  black  eyes,  black  hair, 
and  full  black  beard  slightly  tinged  with  gray.  He  is  active  in  all  his  movements 
and  betrays  at  every  step  the  great  energy  that  has  characterized  all  of  his  under- 
takings. 

He  has  secured  a  large  clientage  in  the  eastern  cities,  including  the  Carpet 
Trade  Association,  and  Stationers'  Board  of  Trade  of  New  York,  but  not  without 
competition  from  several  first-class  firms  in  Chicago.  For  several  of  his  eastern 
clients  he  has  managed  business  matters  of  great  magnitude  with  wonderful  skill, 
and  has  gained  a  high  reputation  in  connection  with  the  same. 

Mr.  Bennett  is  a  good  trial  lawyer,  and  is  constantly  gaining  in  reputation. 
He  has  the  power  of  analysis  to  a  large  degree,  and  his  judgment  is  good  as 
applied  either  to  the  principles  of  the  law,  or  to  general  business.  By  his  enter- 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  515 

prise,  assiduity  and  integrity  he  has  succeeded  to  an  eminent  degree,  and  has 
gained  the  respect  of  the  community  where  he  lives. 

He  is  a  purely  self-made  man,  commencing  life  as  a  farmer  boy  at  twelve 
years  of  age,  at  four  dollars  per  month  and  board.  He  paid  his  own  way,  and 
acquired  the  rudiments  of  an  education;  taught  school  at  the  age  of  eighteen,  and 
never  lost  an  opportunity  to  acquire  knowledge,  which  he  deems  indispensable  to 
success  in  life.  In  political  sentiments  he  is  a  republican. 


ROBERT   L.   LYONS. 

ROBERT  LEWIS  LYONS  was  born  in  the  town  of  Oxford,  Ohio,  July  2, 
1848.  His  father,  Sylvester  Lyons,  when  a  boy  sixteen  years  of  age,  enlisted 
in  the  American  army  and  served  through  the  war  of  1812.  He  was  a  farmer 
through  life,  and  died  in  1880.  On  the  maternal  side  Robert  is  descended  from 
the  Huguenot  French,  his  ancestors  having  escaped  to  this  country  shortly  after 
the  St.  Bartholomew  massacre.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Jerusha  H. 
Butler,  was  a  granddaughter  of  Gen.  Larned,  of  the  revolution.  Robert  attended 
the  district  schools  during  his  boyhood,  but  in  1862,  upon  President  Lincoln's 
call  for  one  hundred  thousand  "hundred  day"  men,  enlisted  in  the  army  and 
entered  the  service.  He  served  his  time  principally  in  the  mountains  of  West  Vir- 
ginia, and  upon  the  expiration  of  his  term  of  enlistment  entered  the  Miami  Uni- 
versity, from  which  he  graduated  in  1868.  During  the  year  succeeding  his 
graduation  he  was  engaged  in  teaching  at  Covington,  Kentucky,  after  which  he 
entered  the  Ann  Arbor  Academy,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  October -20,  1874. 
In  the  practice  of  his  profession,  Mr.  Lyons  is  able  and  successful,  and  by  strict 
attention  and  devotion  to  his  business  has  established  a  good  professional  repu- 
tation and  a  fair  practice. 


HENRY  G.   MILLER. 

HENRY  G.  MILLER  was  born  in  Westmoreland,  New  York,  in  1824.  His 
father,  Abner  Miller,  was  descended  from  an  old  Puritan  family,  and  was 
an  old  resident  in  Oneida  county,  New  York.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  was 
graduated  at  Hamilton  College  in  1848;  studied  law  in  the  office  of  Judge  Hunt, 
of  Utica,  New  York,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  there  in  the  spring  of  1851. 
In  June  of  the  same  year  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  began  the  practice  of  his 
profession,  in  which  he  has  continued  ever  since.  He  had  associated  with  him  as 
a  partner  Alexander  Prentiss,  and  later  he  was  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Hoyne, 
Miller  and  Lewis;  then  of  Miller,  VanArman  and  Lewis,  and  also  of  that  of  Mil- 
ler and  Frost,  and  is  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the  city.  He  is  now  attorney 
for  the  Chicago  and  Atlantic  railroad.  He  is  a  man  of  marked  natural  ability 
and  strength  of  mind  and  character,  and  also  of  unquestioned  integrity.  His 


516  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

particular  strength  as  a  lawyer  lies  in  his  ability  as  an  advocate  and  counselor. 
An  important  characteristic  in  Mr.  Miller  is  his  untiring  and  unceasing  industry. 
He  is  an  excellent  scholar  and  a  profound  lawyer.  In  politics,  Mr.  Miller  is  a 
democrat,  but  now  does  not  take  any  active  part  in  political  affairs.  He  was  an  earn- 
est advocate  for  the  restoration  of  silver  to  the  currency,  and  many  of  his  articles 
upon  that  subject  were  published  in  both  the  Chicago  "  Tribune  "  and  the  Chi- 
cago "Times."  Mr.  Miller  married  a  daughter  of  the  ex-mayor  of  Chicago,  R.  B. 
Mason. 

EDMUND    B.   McCLANAHAN. 

EDMUND  BURKE  McCLANAHAN  is  a  native  of  Jackson,  Tennessee,  and 
was  born  in  the  year  1837.  His  father,  Samuel  McClanahan,  was  one  of  the 
oldest  and  most  prominent  lawyers  in  the  state  of  Tennessee,  and  his  uncle,  J.  R. 
McClanahan,  was  the  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  Memphis  "Appeal."  Edmund 
graduated  at  the  Tennessee  State  University,  and  at  the  law  department  of  the 
Cumberland  University  at  Lebanon.  He  received  his  diploma  from  the  law 
school  before  attaining  his  majority,  and  was  one  of  the  first  alumni  ever  invited 
to  make  the  annual  address  to  the  law  class,  which  he  did  in  1868.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  Tennessee  in  1859,  and  began  practice  at  once  in  Jackson, 
and  continued  there  until  April,  1861,  when  he  entered  the  confederate  army. 
He  remained  in  the  service  until  the  close  of  the  war.  After  being  wounded 
severely  several  times,  Mr.  McClanahan  served  in  the  judge-advocate-general's 
department  with  Gens.  Bragg,  Joe  Johnson  and  Hood,  and  after  the  close  of  the 
war  removed  to  Nashville,  and  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession,  remaining 
there  until  December,  1873,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  been 
practicing  law  ever  since.  In  politics  Mr.  McClanahan  is  a  democrat,  but  does 
not  aspire  to  office,  taking  only  such  interest  in  political  affairs  as  befits  every 
good  citizen. 

WILLIAM  G.   RAINEY. 

^PECIALTIES  in  the  practice  of  the  law  seem  to  be  gaining  favor  in  Chicago. 
>J  Considering  the  extent  of  the  field  opened  to  the  legal  practitioners  in  Chi- 
cago, together  with  the  multiplicity  of  the  courts,  the  lawyer  who  masters  all 
of  the  different  branches  of  practice  in  detail,  would  be  almost  superhuman.  Of 
the  able  lawyers  who  make  patent  law  a  specialty  is  William  G.  Rainey,  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch.  He  is  a  native  of  Tennessee,  and  was  born  in  Columbia,  June 
29,  1842,  and  is  the  son  of  W.  S.  Rainey,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  middle  Tennessee, 
of  forty-five  years'  practice.  The  mother  of  our  subject  is  Mary  (Minter)  Rainey. 
His  maternal  grandfather  was  from  the  Blue  Grass  region  of  Kentucky,  and  a 
remarkably  intellectual  man,  of  great  force  of  character,  and  well  known  in  that 
section.  His  paternal  grandfather  was  a  farmer  from  Virginia,  a  very  prominent 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  '  5'7 

man.  and  one  of  the  earliest  settlers  of  middle  Tennessee.  Mr.  Rainey  was  edu- 
cated at  Jackson  College,  and  at  Stewart  College,  Tennessee.  He  studied  law 
with  Hon.  Henry  G.  Smith,  who  was  afterward  on  the  supreme  bench  of  Tennes- 
see, and  after  a  thorough  preparation,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1865.  He  at 
once  entered  upon  a  very  successful  practice  of  his  profession  at  Memphis,  where 
he  continued  until  the  breaking  out  of  the  yellow  fever  in  1874,  which  interfered 
with  his  practice  to  such  an  extent  that  he  concluded  to  remove  to  St.  Louis.  Mis- 
souri, and  then  made  patent  law  a  specialty.  As  his  business  increased,  he  discov- 
ered that  he  needed  a  broader  field,  and  removed  to  Chicago  in  the  fall  of  1882, 
where  he  was  favored  with  remarkable  success,  bringing  in  the  first  two  months, 
forty-seven  suits  for  infringements  of  patents  in  the  Illinois  and  adjoining  circuits. 
During  the  year  1882  Mr.  Rainey  won  nineteen  suits  in  patent  causes,  and  lost 
none.  He  is  a  well  read  lawyer,  thoroughly  posted  in  the  statute  laws  pertaining 
to  patents,  and  the  decisions  of  the  federal  courts  bearing  upon  that  branch  of 
business.  He  is  an  eloquent  advocate  and  presents  his  cases  clearly  and  suc- 
cinctly before  both  court  and  jury.  He  has  a  fine  presence;  is  of  medium  size 
and  height,  and  well  proportioned;  has  a  high,  broad  forehead,  and  keen  dark 
gray  eyes;  is  of  a  social  turn,  and  is  a  gentleman  of  culture  and  refinement. 

He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church  since  he  was  eighteen  years 
of  age. 

WILLIAM    W.    FARWELL. 

ONE  of  the  most  prominent,  highly  honored  and  respected  members  of  the 
Chicago  bar  is  Hon.  William  Washington  Farwell,  ex-chief-justice  of  the 
circuit  court  of  Cook  county.  In  addition  to  his  legal  attainments,  he  is  a  gen- 
tleman of  strict  integrity,  with  a  keen  sense  of  justice,  which  has  characterized 
all  of  his  doings,  either  as  a  practicing  lawyer  or  a  judge  upon  the  bench.  In  the 
latter  capacity,  his  reputation  for  dealing  out  impartial  justice  is  widespread. 
He  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement,  and  manifests  courtesy  and  kindness  toward 
all.  He  was  born  January  5,  1817,  in  Morrisville,  Madison  county,  New  York, 
son  of  John  and  Almira  (Williams)  Farwell,  both  of  whom  were  natives  of  Mans- 
field, Connecticut,  and  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  Henry  and  Olive  Farwell,  who 
came  from  England  and  settled  in  Concord,  Massachusetts,  about  1635.  He 
entered  Hamilton  College,  at  Clinton,  New  York,  in  1833,  and  graduated  in  1837. 
In  1838  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Otis  P.  Granger,  of  Mor- 
risville, who  for  many  years  was  surrogate  of  Madison  county;  but  in  the  autumn 
of  1840  he  entered  the  office  of  Potter  and  Spaulding,  of  Buffalo.  This  firm  was 
doing  an  extensive  business,  and  Mr.  Farwell  remained  with  them  until  admitted 
to  practice,  in  1841,  at  the  fall  term  of  the  supreme  court,  held  in  Rochester,  New 
York.  Soon  after  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  returned  to  his  native  place  (Mor- 
risville), and  opened  an  office,  and  continued  the  practice  of  his  profession  for 
about  seven  years. 
55 


518  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  May,  1848,  he  decided  to  go  west,  and  after  visiting  several  western  towns, 
settled  at  Chicago  and  engaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  remained 
there  until  the  following  spring,  when  he  went  to  California  by  the  overland 
route.  Arriving  at  St.  Joseph,  Missouri,  he  started  from  that  place  on  the  over- 
land trip  westward,  May  8,  1849.  His  party  was  composed  of  four  persons,  hav- 
ing an  emigrant  wagon  and  four  yoke  of  oxen.  They  proceeded  by  the  usual 
route  across  the  plains,  crossing  the  river  at  Savannah,  and  striking  the  Platte 
river  opposite  Grand  Island,  and  then  going  up  the  Platte  valley  past  Fort  Lara- 
mie,  through  the  Black  Hills,  and  along  the  northern  border  of  Salt  Lake  basin, 
by  way  of  the  Sublette  cut-off,  and  by  the  Humboldt  river  and  Truckee  river 
route,  into  California,  having  been  just  five  months  on  the  journey  from  the  Mis- 
souri to  Sacramento.  On  reaching  the  headwaters  of  Bear  river,  they  found 
gold-washers  at  work,  and  halting,  allowed  their  cattle  to  rest  and  recruit,  and 
tried  their  luck  for  a  few  days  at  gold-washing. 

Mr.  Farwell  soon  after  went  on  to  San  Francisco,  where  he  remained  until 
the  summer  of  1850,  when  he  returned  to  New  York  by  way  of  Panama,  and  in 
the  autumn  following  to  Morrisville,  New  York,  and  resumed  the  practice  of 
the  law. 

February  12,  1851,  he  was  united  in  matrimony  to  Miss  Mary  E.  Granger, 
daughter  of  Otis  P.  Granger,  with  whom  he  first  studied  law. 

Morrisville  is  a  pleasant  little  village,  but  is  not  the  scene  of  much  important 
litigation.  Attorneys  residing  in  Madison  county  have  to  attend  the  terms  of  the 
supreme  court  held  in  the  neighboring  counties,  so  that  the  labor  is  unusually 
great  as  compared  with  their  business.  He  therefore  determined  to  return  to 
Chicago,  and  the  autumn  of  1854  found  him  again  settled  in  that  place,  resuming 
the  legal  business  he  had  abandoned  five  years  before.  The  following  spring  he 
became  a  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Goodrich,  Farwell  and  Scoville.  After  one 
year  Mr.  Scoville  withdrew,  and  Sidney  Smith  took  his  place.  Subsequently 
Mr.  Goodrich  was  elected  judge  of  the  superior  court,  and  retired  from  the  firm 
during  the  period  he  was  on  the  bench,  but  afterward  resumed  his  old  place. 

Mr.  Farwell  confined  himself  in  a  great  measure  to  the  chancery  business  of 
the  firm.  In  1870  he  was  elected  one  of  the  judges  of  the  circuit  court,  provided 
for  by  the  new  constitution,  and  in  July,  1873,  was  reelected  to  the  same  office 
for  a  period  of  six  years  more.  During  the  nine  years  he  held  that  office  his 
official  duties  were  mainly  in  the  chancery  department  of  the  court.  In  the  sum- 
mer of  1880  he  was  chosen  professor  of  equity  jurisprudence,  pleadings  and  prac- 
tice, in  the  Union  College  of  Law,  of  Chicago,  which  position  he  still  holds. 

He  has  been  a  member  of  the  Congregational  church  from  boyhood,  but  is 
liberal  and  independent  in  his  religious  convictions,  and  he  does  not  hesitate  to 
examine  and  decide  for  himself  questions  of  faith  and  practice.  His  father  was 
a  staunch,  old-fashioned  whig,  and  one  of  his  earliest  remembrances  is  of  his 
father's  interest  in  the  New  \rork  "  Express,"  to  which  he  was  a  subscriber,  and 
from  which  he  was  in  the  habit  of  reading  aloud  the  speeches  of  Daniel  Webster 
and  Henry  Clay. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  519 

The  anti-slavery  excitement  arose  while  Mr.  Farwell  was  a  college  boy. 
His  sympathies  were  at  once  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  abolitionists,  and  he 
attended  the  state  anti-slavery  meeting  at  Utica  in  the  summer  of  1835,  which 
was  broken  up  by  a  mob,  and  which  was  then  invited  by  Gerrit  Smith  to  adjourn 
to  Peterboro,  Madison  county.  From  that  time  forward  he  was  a  thorough- 
going abolitionist,  voting  the  anti-slavery  ticket,  and  doing  his  utmost  to  aid  the 
cause.  When  abolitionism  was  no  longer  needed,  and  the  party  had  withdrawn 
from  the  field  as  a  distinct  political  faction,  he  joined  the  republican  party,  and 
has  since  generally  acted  with  it. 


JAMES    H.    RAYMOND. 

JAMES  HENRY  RAYMOND  was  born  June  6,  1850,  at  Wilbraham,  Hampden 
county,  Massachusetts,  the  site  of  the  Wesleyan  Academy,  which  is  the  oldest 
school  under  the  auspices  of  the  Methodist  church  in  this  country,  of  which  his 
father,  Rev.  Miner  Raymond,  D.D.,  now  professor  of  systematic  divinity  at  the  Gar- 
rett  Biblical  Institute,  Evanston,  Illinois,  was  principal  for  sixteen  years.  James 
went  with  his  father  to  Evanston  in  1864;  graduated  there  from  the  Northwestern 
University  in  June,  1871,  and  in  the  following  month  was  elected  secretary  of  the 
board  of  railroad  and  warehouse  commissioners  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  this  being 
the  first  of  what  is  called  the  granger  boards  of  the  West.  He  remained  secre- 
tary of  that  commission  until  December,  1873,  being  reflected  by  the  second 
board  of  commissioners  organized  in  that  year.  In  April,  1874,  he  was  elected 
secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  Western  Railroad  Association,  which  position  he 
now  holds.  He  graduated  at  the  Union  College  of  Law,  Chicago,  and  was  imme- 
diately admitted  to  the  bar  of  this  state  and  to  the  United  States  courts  at  Chi- 
cago, and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States  in 
October,  1878.  His  practice  is  confined  to  corporation  and  patent  law,  his  time 
being  almost  exclusively  employed  in  such  matters  for  the  railroad  companies 
composing  the  association. 


HON.  WILLIAM    C.    GOUDY. 

WILLIAM  C.  GOUDY  is  one  of  the  best  known  attorneys  at  the  Chicago 
bar,  ranking  high  as  a  lawyer.  He  is  a  good  advocate,  and  a  safe  coun- 
selor. He  is  a  native  of  Indiana,  and  was  born  in  1824,  and  removed  to  Illi- 
nois when  eight  years  of  age.  He  graduated  from  Illinois  College,  at  Jackson- 
ville, in  1845  ;  read  law  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Stephen  T.  Logan,  at  Springfield, 
and  commenced  practice  in  Fulton  county,  Illinois,  in  1848,  and  made  for  himself 
an  excellent  reputation.  From  1852  to  1855  he  was  state's  attorney  for  the  tenth 
judicial  district,  and  from  1857  to  1861  inclusive,  a  member  of  the  state  senate 


CJ2O  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

from  the  counties  of  Fulton  and  McDonough.  He  received  many  votes  for 
United  States  senator  in  1863  in  the  democratic  caucus,  and  was  a  candidate  for 
the  constitutional  convention  of  1862,  and  also  a  delegate  to  the  national  conven- 
tion of  1868.  In  the  early  years  of  his  life  he  was  considered  one  of  the  most 
prominent  and  promising  leaders  of  the  Illinois  democracy,  and  was  an  adroit 
manager  in  political  affairs,  and  was  in  all  respects  a  wise  and  thoughtful  coun- 
selor when  the  public  interests  were  involved. 

As  a  legislator,  he  probably  has  not  been  surpassed  in  comprehending  the 
ends  to  be  desired,  and  the  best  method  for  their  successful  attainment.  He  was 
distinguished  as  a  state  senator  for  his  watchful  care  of  the  interests  of  his  con- 
stituents, and  of  the  state  at  large,  as  well  as  for  the  prudence  and  skill  with 
which  he  framed  all  measures  confided  to  his  charge,  and  conducted  them  to 
final  issue.  It  is  as  a  lawyer,  however,  that  he  is  chiefly  known,  and  upon  which 
his  claim  to  future  fame  is  most  securely  based. 

In  1859  he  moved  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  done  a  large  business  ever  since. 
He  is  a  thorough  gentleman,  courteous  and  obliging,  and  as  a  member  of  the  bar 
maintains  its  true  dignity,  yet  modestly  wears  the  laurels  he  has  won.  He  is  of 
medium  height  and  size,  has  grey  eyes  and  shaves  his  face  clean.  Possessing  an 
ample  fortune,  he  commands  and  and  enjoys  a  luxurious  home,  surrounded  by 
an  interesting  family.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  church. 


THOMAS    SHIRLEY. 

THOMAS  SHIRLEY  was  born  in  Charlotte  county,  Virginia,  October  22, 
1827.  His  ancestors  were  of  English  and  German  descent.  The  family 
names  of  his  grandparents  were  Shirley  and  Fleishman.  They  were  early  settlers 
in  Madison  county,  and  large  land  holders.  His  father's  name  was  Allan  Shir- 
ley;  was  born  in  Madison  county,  Virginia,  in  the  year  1800;  became  a  clergy- 
man, and  in  1820  removed  to  Charlotte,  and  married  Miss  Sarah  Anderson, 
daughter  of  Thomas  Anderson,  formerly  of  Cumberland  county,  but  then  of 
Charlotte,  Virginia.  He  was  a  planter  of  considerable  wealth,  and  took  part  in 
the  war  of  1812  ;  was  a  cavalry  officer  in  the  volunteers. 

His  father,  Allan  Shirley,  continued  to  reside  in  Charlotte,  in  the  pursuance 
of  his  ministerial  labors  in  the  Reformed  Methodist  church  until  he  died  in  1855. 
The  Shirley  family  were  of  the  old  school.  They  were  wealthy,  owned  a  great 
number  of  slaves  and  immense  tracts  of  land  in  Madison  county.  His  mother 
was  a  grandniece  of  Hon.  Creed  Taylor,  of  Virginia,  who  was  for  many  years 
chancellor,  and  widely  known  for  his  great  ability  and  learning.  He  was  a  state 
senator,  and  voted  for  the  "Virginia  resolutions"  of  1798-99.  He  resided  near 
Farmville,  in  Cumberland  county,  where  he  died  in  1835.  The  grandmother  of 
Thomas  Shirley  was  a  Miss  Taylor,  a  niece  of  Chancellor  Taylor.  She  was  a 
woman  of  great  beauty,  intelligence  and  energy.  She  married  Walthal  Hal- 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  523 

combe,  of  Charlotte  county,  a  gentleman  of  great  wealth,  influence  and  position. 

Upon  the  death  of  the  mother  of  young  Shirley,  who  was  then  only  a  child, 
his  grandmother  took  him  in  charge,  and  he  resided  with  her  up  to  the  time  of 
her  death,  which  occurred  in  1845. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  an  only  son  ;  was  educated  at  the  select  school 
of  Prof.  Page,  of  Cumberland  county,  where  he  prepared  for  college.  From  that 
school  he  went  to  Prince  Edward  Court  House,  entered  the  school  of  Prof.  Bal- 
entine,  and  thence  to  Washington  College,  Lexington,  Virginia,  in  1840.  Grad- 
uated in  1843  ;  returned  home,  continued  his  studies  until  1846,  and  then  went 
again  to  Washington  College,  and  received  his  degree  of  M.A.  He  afterward 
commenced  the  study  of  law  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  in  1848  graduated 
in  law  and  modern  languages.  While  a  student  there,  he  paid  special  attention 
to  the  practice  of  law  in  the  moot  court,  under  the  instructions  of  John  B.  Minor. 
In  1848  he  left  the  university,  returned  home,  and  remained  there  until  the  fall  of 
1849,  when  he  came  to  Chicago. 

At  the  special  suggestion  of  Prof.  McGuffee,  he  opened  an  office  and  com- 
menced the  practice  of  law  on  Clark  street,  and  one  year  later  removed  to  Ran- 
dolph street,  to  what  was  called  Warner's  Hall,  where  he  practiced  seven  years, 
having  a  steady  and  successful  business. 

In  1852  he  prosecuted  a  fugitive  slave  case,  which  excited  a  great  deal  of 
attention.  The  public  sentiment  was  much  opposed  to  the  return  of  fugitive 
slaves,  but  Mr.  Shirley  heeded  not  public  sentiment  when  he  had  a  professional 
duty  to  perform.  Since  that  time  he  has  been  engaged  in  general  practice  in  the 
state  and  federal  courts  of  Illinois,  devoting  himself  exclusively  to  his  profession. 

His  early  studies  made  him  familiar  with  the  principles  of  law,  which  has 
given  him  great  advantage  in  his  practice.  His  power  of  memory  is  very  great ; 
in  the  most  protracted  cases,  without  notes,  he  always  quotes  the  evidence  cor- 
rectly. His  perseverance  is  unceasing,  and  having  taken  a  case  in  hand,  he  fol- 
lows it  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  courts,  if  necessary,  to  obtain  justice.  His 
style  of  oratory  is  vehement  and  pathetic,  often  drawing  tears  from  the  jury  ; 
while  at  times  his  humor  is  irresistible,  convulsing  the  whole  court.  His  defense 
of  Nicholas  Staaden,  charged  with  arson,  places  Mr.  Shirley  in  the  front  rank  of 
criminal  lawyers  of  the  Northwest.  Mr.  Shirley  ever  throws  his  whole  energy 
into  the  interests  of  his  client.  He  has  a  great  power  of  oratory.  In  1873  he 
delivered  the  oration  on  the  4th  of  July  at  Naperville,  which  met  with  great  favor, 
and  manifested  a  high  order  of  eloquence. 

In  September,  1859,  Mr.  Shirley  was  married  to  Miss  Carrie  Rasbon,  of  Chi- 
cago, daughter  of  John  Rasbon,  who  was  engaged  in  the  lumber  business,  and  is 
now  deceased.  He  died  in  1869.  By  this  marriage  he  has  seven  children,  all 
residing  at  his  home  in  Lake  View. 

Mr.  Shirley's  religious  sentiments  are  those  of  the  Presbyterian  church,  in 
which  he  was  educated  and  baptized.  In  early  youth  military  tactics  formed 
part  of  his  studies,  and  in  1860  he  was  lieutenant-colonel,  commanding  the  Wash- 


524  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ington  independent  regiment,  of  Chicago,  and  as  such,  tendered  his  regiment  to 
Gov.  Yates,  at  the  beginning  of  the  war.  They  were  accepted,  but  owing  to  some 
political  manceuvering  (Shirley  being  a  democrat)  his  regiment  was  left  out.  He 
therefore  returned  from  Springfield  and  resumed  his  practice,  which  he  has  con- 
tinued to  the  present  time.  He  has  been  three  times  elected  one  of  the  board 
of  education  of  district  No.  i,  of  the  town  of  Lake  View,  is  president  of  the 
school  board  council,  and  is  now  attorney  for  the  town  of  Lake  View. 


HON.  JAMES    K.    EDSALL. 

TAMES  KIRTLAND  EDSALL  was  born  at  Windham,  Green  county,  New 
J  York,  May  10,  1831,  and  is  the  son  of  Joseph  Edsall  and  Nancy  (Kirtland) 
Edsall.  James  received  his  early  education  in  the  common  schools,  and  later 
pursued  a  course  of  study  comprising  modern  sciences,  mathematics,  languages 
and  classics,  in  the  Prattsville  Academy,  at  Prattsville,  New  York,  paying  his 
expenses  by  farm  and  other  work.  He  left  the  academy  in  1851,  and  began  the 
study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Herman  Winans,  of  Prattsville,  and  taught  during 
the  winter. 

In  the  spring  of  1852  he  took  a  clerkship  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Alexander  H. 
Bailey,  of  Catskill,  New  York,  where  he  could  pay  his  expenses,  and  at  the  same 
time  pursue  his  studies,  and  in  the  following  September  passed  examination  for 
admission  to  the  bar  at  Albany,  New  York,  before  Justices  Amasa  J.  Parker,  Ira 
L.  Harris  and  William  B.  Wright,  of  the  supreme  court. 

In  December,  1853,  he  removed  to  Milwaukee,  and  in  the  following  summer 
to  Fond  du  Lac,  Wisconsin;  thence  to  St.  Paul,  Minnesota,  and  in  the  fall  of  1854 
settled  at  Leavenworth,  Kansas.  There  he  became  a  candidate,  on  the  free-state 
ticket,  to  the  first  territorial  legislature,  and  though  he  received  a  majority  of  the 
resident  votes,  armed  bodies  of  men  came  over  from  Missouri,  and  by  fraudulent 
voting,  elected  the  slave-state  candidate. 

In  1855  he  was  elected  to  the  legislature,  which  was  organized  under  what  was 
known  as  the  Topeka  constitution.  He  participated  in  the  deliberations  of  that 
body,  and  was  a  member  of  the  special  committee  to  draft  a  code  of  laws  for  Kan- 
sas. He  was  present  as  a  member  of  the  Topeka  legislature,  July  4,  1856,  when 
it  was  broken  up  by  United  States  troops  under  orders  from  President  Pierce. 

In  August,  1856,  he  removed  to  Dixon,  Illinois,  and  resumed  the  practice  of 
his  profession.  His  name  frequently  appeared  as  counsel  in  the  reports  of  the 
supreme  court  of  the  state,  but  rarely  upon  the  losing  side.  He  continued  to 
prosper  and  grow  in  public  favor  till,  in  1863,  he  was  elected  mayor  of  his  city, 
and  in  1870  was  chosen  for  the  senate  of  the  twenty-seventh  general  assembly  of 
Illinois,  and  in  this  capacity  served  two  years.  As  chairman  of  the  committee  on 
municipalities,  he  framed  the  first  general  law  of  the  state  for  the  incorporation 
of  cities  and  villages,  which  constitutes  chapter  twenty-four  of  the  ''  Revised 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  525 

Statutes  of  Illinois."  At  the  opening  of  the  senate,  he  declined  a  position  on  the 
judiciary  committee,  but  at  the  commencement  of  the  adjourned  session  in  1872, 
by  a  resolution  introduced  by  Judge  Underwood,  he  was  added  to  that  commit- 
tee. In  1872  he  was  made  the  republican  candidate  for  attorney  general,  and  was 
elected,  and  also  reelected  to  the  same  office  in  1876.  Before  the  expiration  of 
his  second  term  as  attorney  general,  he  declined  to  be  a  candidate  for  further 
political  favors,  preferring  to  devote  himself  to  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In 
1879  he  removed  to  Chicago  for  that  purpose,  where  he  now  resides. 

In  all  his  varied  career  as  student,  lawyer,  legislator,  senator  and  attorney 
general,  Mr.  Edsall  has  shown  himself  in  every  way  worthy  of  the  important 
trusts  imposed  upon  him.  Prompt  in  all  his  actions,  decided  in  his  opinions,  and 
independent  in  thought,  he  has  never  deviated  from  the  course  which  duty  has 
marked  out,  and  has  always  acted  without  regard  to  popular  favor. 


HON.  WILLIAM   K.    McALLISTER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  profound  lawyer,  and  able  jurist;  a  native  of 
Salem,  Washington  county,  New  York.  He  was  born  in  1818.  He  labored  , 
on  his  father's  farm  until  eighteen  years  of  age,  and  then  entered  college.  He 
commenced  the  study  of  the  law  at  the  age  of  twenty-one  years,  with  a  Mr.  Henry, 
in  Wayne  county,  and  afterward  completed  his  legal  course  in  Yates  county, 
thence  he  removed  to  Albion,  where  he  remained  in  the  successful  practice  of  the 
law  ten  years,  and  gained  a  high  reputation  as  a  lawyer,  and  was  acknowledged 
the  peer  of  some  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  state  of  New  York.  In  1854  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  since  resided,  practicing  law,  until  his  eleva- 
tion to  the  bench.  He  was  a  candidate  for  judge  of  the  superior  court  against 
Judge  Jameson  in  1866,  and  was  defeated.  In  1868  he  was  elected  judge  of  the 
recorder's  court  by  a  large  vote.  In  1870  he  was  elected  to  the  supreme  court; 
resigned  in  1873.  Later  he  was  elected  to  the  circuit  bench  of  Cook  county, 
and  still  later,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  appellate  court  for  the  northern  district, 
a  position  which  he  still  holds  to  the  utmost  satisfaction  of  all.  His  examina- 
tion of  a  subject  is  very  exhaustive  and  thorough,  the  authorities  are  weighed  and 
compared,  and  principles  are  traced  to  their  source.  His  power  of  analysis  is  very 
threat,  bsing  one  of  the  few  men  who  are  able  to  select  leading  cases  almost  intui- 
tively. Although  he  gives  due  credit  to  adjudicated  cases,  he  has  a  broad  philos- 
ophy and  power  of  comprehension,  and  a  refinement  in  his  perceptions  that  enables 
him  to  go  deeper  than  any  other  has  ventured,  into  the  mysteries  of  legal  science, 
and  bring  to  light  new  truths  and  establish  principles  not  before  illuminated,  hav- 
ing the  faculty  of  exploring  new  ground  in  the  field  of  jurisprudence,  without 
departing  from  well  authenticated  rules  and  maxims. 

His  motives  are  never  questioned,  and  all  confide  in  his  judgment.     Chief- 
Justice  John  Marshall  in  his  best  days  was  never  more  revered  and  admired  by 


526  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

all  who  knew  him  than  Judge  McAllister  is  to-day  by  his  associates  on  the  bench, 
the  members  of  the  bar  who  appear  before  him,  and  the  public  whose  servant  he 
is,  and  whose  interest  he  never  forgets.  He  modestly  wears  the  laurels  he  has 
won,  is  never  austere  or  unapproachable;  while  he  observes  and  maintains  proper 
dignity,  he  at  once  puts  at  ease  the  humblest  individual  who  comes  before  him. 
In  general  appearance  Judge  McAllister  is  very  prepossessing.  He  is  of 
medium  height,  and  well  proportioned,  has  a  high,  broad  forehead,  large  blue 
eyes,  a  small  and  sensitive  mouth,  lighted  by  expression  of  kindness  and  benevo- 
lence. As  a  lawyer  he  was  noted  for  his  industry,  great  knowledge  of  the  law, 
and  accuracy,  a  logician  of  the  highest  order,  extremely  conscientious,  with  the 
utmost  candor,  his  power  before  a  court  or  jury,  was  almost  unlimited,  always 
conforming  to  a  high  standard  of  professional  ethics.  His  sincerity,  kindness  and 
honesty  have  become  proverbial,  and  so  high  is  his  moral  character  that  no  man 
dare  attack  it.  He  unbends  himself  from  official  strain  with  great  facility  and 
elasticity.  He  is  a  lover  of  music,  poetry,  and  fine  arts,  and  is  well  versed  in  gen- 
eral literature.  Aside  from  his  seen  qualifications  professionally,  he  is  a  profound 
scholar.  No  man  is  loved  more,  or  more  highly  respected  than  Judge  McAllister 
in  the  community  where  he  moves. 


HON.  ROLLIN  S.  WILLIAMSON. 

ROLLIN  SAMUEL  WILLIAMSON,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior  court 
of  Cook  county,  is  a  son  of  Samuel  and  Sybil  (Delong)  Williamson,  and  was 
born  at  Cornwall,  Addison  county,  Vermont,  May  23,  1839.  Both  parents  were 
natives  of  that  state,  and  his  grandfather,  Abraham  Williamson,  was  from  Con- 
necticut. The  family  belong  to  the  agricultural  class,  both  father  and  grand- 
father developing  their  virtues  while  turning  the  rocky  New  England  soil.  Rol- 
lin  worked  on  the  farm  and  attended  a  district  school,  and  later  a  high  school, 
until  fourteen  years  of  age,  then  learned  the  business  of  a  telegrapher,  and  in 
1856  came  west,  and  the  next  year  settled  at  Palatine,  Cook  county,  where  he  yet 
resides.  While  still  a  mere  boy,  he  took  his  books  with  him  to  the  telegraph 
office,  and  gave  all  the  leisure  time  at  his  command  to  scientific  studies,  thus 
acquiring  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  rudimentary  and  some  of  the  higher  English 
branches.  Before  leaving  the  telegraph  office  he  also  commenced  the  study  of 
law,  continued  his  studies  in  private,  was  examined  before  Judge  Porter,  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1870,  and  continued  in  practice  until  he  was  elected  to  the  bench  of 
Cook  county,  in  November  1880. 

While  practicing  at  the  bar,  Judge  Williamson  showed  himself  to  be  well  read 
in  his  profession,  painstaking;  and  at  all  times  prepared  and  ready  to  try  his  cases, 
both  in  presenting  to  the  court  the  law,  and  to  the  jury  the  facts  of  his  case.  He 
was  faithful,  assiduous  and  earnest,  and  was  generally  successful.  These  quali- 
ties made  him  a  good  advocate,  and  gave  evidence  of  such  proficiency  in  law,  as 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  527 

to  recommend  him  to  the  people  as  one,  who,  because  of  his  ability,  honesty  and 
industry,  would  make  a  good  judge. 

Judge  Williamson  was  a  member  of  the  Illinois  house  of  representatives  in 
1870,  and  of  the  state  senate  in  1872  and  1873.  While  a  member  of  the  latter 
body  he  was  chairman  of  the  warehouse  committee,  a  committee  of  great  impor- 
tance to  the  citizens  of  Chicago.  Its  duties  he  discharged  with  unqualified  satis- 
faction to  the  public,  and  received  the  commendations  of  the  press  without  regard 
to  political  bias. 

Judge  Williamson  is  a  Royal  Arch  Mason,  and  has  held  repeatedly  the  office  of 
Master  of  Palatine  Lodge,  No.  314,  and  in  many  ways  has  made,  and  is  making 
himself  a  very  useful  citizen.  He  is  a  trustee  and  steward  of  the  Methodist 
church,  and  superintendent  of  its  Sunday  school. 

Judge  Williamson  was  married  at  Cornwall,  Vermont,  September  4,  1859,  to 
Emma  V.  Squire,  daughter  of  Russell  Squire,  of  Hopkinton,  St.  Lawrence  county, 
New  York,  and  they  have  one  daughter. 


GEN.   J.    BLACKBURN    JONES. 

JOSEPH  BLACKBURN  JONES  was  born  September  7,  1842,  and  came  to 
northern  Illinois  in  1846.  There  was  his  home  until  the  commencement  of 
the  war  of  the  rebellion,  although  a  considerable  portion  of  the  time  was  spent 
in  travel.  He  attended  school  at  the  Rock  River  Seminary,  at  Mount  Morris,  in 
Ogle  county,  when  that  was  one  of  the  foremost  institutions  of  learning  in  the 
Northwest.  Afterward  he  attended  the  Northwestern  University  at  Evanston,  and 
in  the  spring  of  1861  was  a  member  of  the  senior  class  of  the  Chicago  Law  School, 
which  he  left  in  April  of  that  year,  to  enter  the  army  as  captain  of  Co.  I,  15th 
111.  Inf.  During  his  service  in  the  army  he  was  several  times  wounded,  and 
well  earned  his  title.  Next  to  Ransom,  he  was  the  youngest  general  in  the 
army.  His  last  assignment  was  to  the  department  of  west  Louisiana,  in  August, 
1865,  but  he  suffered  so  severely  from  wounds  received  at  the  capture  of  Fort 
Blakely,  one  of  the  defenses  of  Mobile,  that  he  resigned  his  commission  October 
19,  1865,  returned  to  the  North,  and  in  the  spring  of  1866  commenced  the  prac- 
tice of  law  at  Sparta,  Randolph  county,  Illinois,  but  later  moved  to  Saint  Louis, 
where  he  practiced  his  profession,  in  partnership  with  ex-Gov.  Thomas  C.  Fletcher. 
From  1866  to  1876  he  was  employed  in  nearly  every  important  criminal  case  tried 
in  southern  Illinois,  and  a  number  in  Missouri,  Kentucky  and  Tennessee,  and  for 
eight  years  was  attorney  for  the  St.  Louis,  Alton  and  Terre  Haute  Railway  Com- 
pany. 

In  1877  he  moved  to  Chicago,  and  for  four  years  was  in  partnership  with 
Henry  T.  Steele,  and  in  the  general  practice  the  firm  of  Steele  and  Jones  became 
well  known. 

56 


528  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  is  now  the  western  representative  of  a  prominent  New  York  bank,  general 
solicitor  of  one  southern  railway  company,  and  land  commissioner  of  another, 
and  his  attention  is  given  largely  to  the  management  of  the  affairs  of  private 
corporations,  although  he  still  practices  generally,  and  as  a  jury  lawyer  stands 
well,  and  has  a  fine  clientage. 


HON.   GEORGE    E.   ADAMS. 

EORGE  EVERETT  ADAMS,  member  of  congress  from  the  fourth  district, 
is  a  native  of  the  Granite  State,  being  born  in  Keene,  Cheshire  county,  June 
18,  1840.  His  father,  Benjamin  F.  Adams,  a  farmer,  and  later  in  life  a  manu- 
facturer, was  born  in  New  Ipswich,  same  state,  and  married  Louisa  R.  Redington. 
Mr.  Adams  was  educated  at  Exeter  Academy,  Harvard  University  and  the  Dane 
Law  School,  Cambridge,  and  commenced  practice  in  Chicago  in  1867.  His  thor- 
ough legal  attainments,  fine  talents  and  close  attention  to  business  soon  brought 
him  a  remunerative  practice,  and  gave  him  a  highly  creditable  standing  at  the 
Chicago  bar. 

Mr.  Adams  was  elected  to  the  state  senate  in  1880  from  the  eighth  district, 
and  served  until  March,  1883,  when  he  resigned  on  account  of  having  been 
elected  by  the  republicans  of  the  fourth  district  to  represent  that  constituency  in 
the  forty-eighth  congress.  Mr.  Adams  was  married,  in  1871.  to  Miss  Adele  Fos- 
ter, daughter  of  John  H.  Foster,  of  Chicago,  and  they  have  three  children. 


WILLIAM    H.    HARPER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  man  of  excellent  business  capacity,  endowed 
with  uncommon  shrewdness,  and  possesses  a  versatility  of  talents  seldom 
equaled.  He  manifests  an  aptness  for  whatever  he  undertakes,  and  being  of 
pleasing  address,  affable  and  courteous,  he  is,  in  the  truest  sense,  a  polished  gen- 
tleman. He  is  a  native  of  Illinois,  and  was  born  at  Carthage,  May  20,  1844,  and 
is  the  son  of  Joseph  Harper  and  Matilda  G.  (De  Mount)  Harper.  His  mother  is  a 
native  of  Paris,  France,  and  has  a  brother  in  the  celebrated  firm  of  De  Mount  and 
Auzrais,  known  as  the  Auzrais  House.  His  paternal  ancestors  came  from  Glas- 
gow, Scotland,  and  are  all  preachers  except  his  father.  His  great  uncle,  Rev. 
Jas.  Harper,  now  eighty-six  years  of  age,  at  one  time  built  his  own  church  with 
his  own  means,  and  preached  from  its  pulpit  for  several  successive  years.  Mr. 
Harper  was  educated  at  Michigan  University,  and  graduated  from  that  institu- 
tion with  honors  in  1872.  While  there  he  was  under  the  instruction  of  Profs. 
Campbell,  Walker  and  Kent,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Lansing,  Michigan, 
in  1873.  He  attended  medical  lectures  for  one  year.  On  January  9,  1875,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  Illinois,  and  since  that  time  has  been  admitted  to  practice 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  529 

in  the  United  States  district  and  circuit  courts.  In  his  law  practice  Mr.  Harper 
has  devoted  special  attention  to  mining  law,  but  being  also  largely  engaged  in 
mercantile  law  and  collections  he  is  frequently  called  to  do  business  in  many  of  the 
western  states  and  territories,  and  as  a  matter  of  convenience,  and  to  facilitate  his 
business,  he  has  been  admitted  to  practice  in  Nebraska,  Utah,  Nevada,  California, 
New  Mexico  and  Arizona. 

Mr.  Harper  is  a   republican  in   political   belief,  and   in   the  fall  of   1882  was 
elected  to  the  Illinois  state  legislature. 


CHARLES  W.   PIPER. 

C"  HARLES  W.  PIPER  is  a  native  of  Chicago,  and  was  born  June  12,  1857, 
the  son  of  Otis  and  Margaret  (MacGrory)  Piper.  Of  his  family,  several 
uncles  are  noted  for  remarkable  business  capacity  and  extraordinary  success  in 
their  various  vocations.  The  celebrated  Dr.  Guthrie,  who  invented  the  use  of 
chloroform  as  an  anaesthetic,  is  paternal  grand  uncle  to  our  subject.  His  father 
is  one  of  the  oldest  and  most  highly  respected  citizens  of  Chicago.  Charles  W. 
graduated  from  the  high  school,  and  afterward  entered  the  Northwestern  Uni- 
versity, at  Evanston,  Illinois.  He  was  three  years  and  a  half  in  the  United 
States  life  saving  service,  and  was  promoted  to  first  position  for  heroic  efforts  and 
meritorious  conduct  during  his  last  two  years  in  college.  He  kept  up  his  work  at 
the  life  saving  station,  published  the  college  paper,  and  maintained  a  high  stand- 
ard of  scholarship,  and  in  1882  graduated  with  honors. 

He  has  pursued  a  thorough  legal  course,  and  is  at  present  supervisor  of  the 
South  Town.  This  is  his  first  political  office,  and  as  indicating  the  estimation  in 
which  he  is  held  in  his  community,  it  may  be  said  that  he  was  the  only  republican 
elected  on  the  ticket. 


EDWARD    H.   MORRIS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  a  slave,  at  Flemingsburgh,  Kentucky, 
May  30,  1858.  He  is  a  son  of  Hezekiah  and  Elizabeth  Morris.  His  father 
died  in  1861.  His  mother,  having  been  at  the  time  of  her  marriage  a  free  colored 
woman,  was,  by  operation  of  law,  upon  the  death  of  her  husband,  together  with 
her  children,  declared  free,  it  being  a  well  settled  principle  under  the  slave  code, 
that  the  children  took  upon  themselves  the  condition  of  the  mother.  In  1864 
Edward  H.,  in  company  with  his  mother,  brother  and  three  sisters,  moved  to  New 
Richmond,  Ohio.  He  worked  on  a  farm  during  his  boyhood,  and  obtained 
means  with  which  he  kept  himself  at  school.  He  attended  the  common  schools 
in  Ohio  about  three  years.  He  then  attended  St.  Ann's  Catholic  School  in  Cin- 
cinnati until  1871,  when  he  removed  with  his  mother's  family  to  Chicago,  and 
was  there  burned  out  in  the  great  conflagration  of  that  year.  He  afterward 


530  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

entered  St.  Patrick's  College,  and  remained  there  until  he  graduated  in  1877. 
Having  decided  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he  soon  after  graduating  com- 
menced reading  law  in  the  office  of  Edward  A.  Fisher,  and  continued  there  until 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1879. 

Mr.  Morris  is  a  clear-headed  and  successful  lawyer,  and  has  been  favored  with 
a  good  business,  which  under  his  careful  and  skillful  management,  is  constantly 
growing  in  importance  and  extent.  Although  a  young  man,  he  has  been  engaged 
in  several  noted  murder  trials,  and  has  conducted  other  trials  of  importance.  He 
is  an  Odd-Fellow,  and  has  several  times  been  chosen  grand  representative  to 
B.M.C.  In  politics  he  is  a  republican,  and  in  religion  independent  in  his  views. 


OTTO  E.   LEGRO. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  the  Austrian  Empire,  and  was  born 
October  8,  1858.  He  is  of  French  descent  and  is  the  son  of  Florian  V.  and 
Margaret  (Hubner)  Legro.  His  grandfather  fought  under  Napoleon,  and  after 
his  defeat  at  Waterloo  settled  on  one  of  the  manors  of  the  Prince  of  Schwarzen- 
berg,  and  afterward  became  his  chamberlain.  The  father  of  our  subject  was  an 
officer  in  the  Austrian  army,  and  after  serving  in  the  army  several  years,  held  sev- 
eral responsible  positions  in  Prague,  from  which  country  he  immigrated  to  the 
United  States  in  1867,  settling  in  Chicago.  He  then,  in  1871,  founded  the  Bohe- 
mian Savings  Institution  in  Chicago,  and  was  president  of  the  same  several  years, 
and  at  a  later  period  its  treasurer.  Otto  E.  attended  the  common  schools,  and 
later  the  University  of  Chicago,  after  which  he  studied  law  five  years  with  Adolph 
Moses,  prior  to  pursuing  a  course  of  study  in  the  Union  College  of  Law,  under 
Judge  Henry  Booth,  who  was  dean  of  that  institution.  He  graduated  June  14, 
1881,  since  which  time  he  has  successfully  followed  his  profession,  and  conducted 
a  somewhat  extensive  business  in  real  estate  litigation.  He  is  a  diligent  student, 
enterprising,  persevering  and  honorable,  and  needs  only  to  be  true  to  himself  to 
attain  to  a  first  rank  in  his  profession. 


HON.  CORYDON    BECKWITH. 

CORYDON  BECKWITH  is  one  of  the  most  brilliant  legal  lights  in  the  North- 
west. He  is  a  very  able  man  in  every  department  of  the  profession,  but  his 
finest  faculties  are  his  power  of  analysis  and  condensation.  He  is  exceedingly 
reticent,  fertile  in  resources,  prompt  in  action  and  energetic  in  the  execution  of 
his  plans,  which  are  always  carefully  prepared.  He  has  a  legal  mind  of  high 
order,  original  in  its  methods,  powerful  in  its  grasp,  comprehensive  and  thorough. 
Few  attain  to  so  high  rank.  He  has  profound  learning  and  is  master  of  all  the 
subtleties  of  his  profession.  He  is  celebrated  for  his  perseverance,  learning  in  the 
law,  profound  wisdom  and  adroit  management.  He  is  a  formidable  opponent. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  531 

A  native  of  the  Green  Mountain  State,  he  was  born  in  1823,  and  commenced 
his  education  in  the  common  schools,  where  he  made  great  proficiency.  He  after- 
ward pursued  a  scientific  and  classical  course  in  Providence,  Rhode  Island,  and  in 
Wrentham,  Massachusetts.  In  his  early  life  he  was  fond  of  athletic  sports,  and 
was  early  distinguished  as  a  forcible  and  logical  debater.  He  studied  law  in 
Saint  Albans,  Vermont,  and  after  a  three  years'  course  of  assiduous  application 
to  the  study  of  the  rudiments  of  his  profession  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  that 
place.  He  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  in  his  native  state,  where  he  met 
with  good  success,  and  continued  two  years.  In  1846  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
of  Maryland.  In  1847  he  commenced  practice  in  Saint  Albans,  Vermont,  and 
remained  there  until  1853,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  his  present  home. 

He  occupied  the  bench  of  the  supreme  court  for  a  short  time  during  Gov. 
Yates'  administration,  and  for  several  years  has  been  the  general  solicitor  of  the 
Chicago,  Alton  and  Saint  Louis  railway. 

Judge  Beckwith  is  of  medium  height  and  well  proportioned.  His  forehead  is 
broad  rather  than  high;  his  hair  is  black,  and  his  eyes  are  large,  black,  sharp  and 
expressive,  and  set  wide  apart.  He  seems  to  read  a  stranger  at  a  glance,  and  is 
said  to  be  very  correct  in  his  estimate  of  character.  He  is  a  kind,  generous  man, 
and  is  gratefully  remembered  by  young  lawyers  who  are  indebted  to  him  for 
assistance. 


HON.  WM.  J.   HYNES. 

WILLIAM  J.  HYNES  was  born  March  31,  1843,  at  Kilkee,  County  Clare, 
Ireland.  His  father,  Thomas  Hynes,  was  architect  and  builder;  was  super- 
intendent of  public  works  in  1847  when  public  improvements  were  instituted  for 
the  relief  of  the  famine  period.  He  died  in  1848.  His  mother,  whose  maiden 
name  was  Catherine  O'Shea,  and  the  family,  subsequently  came  to  the  United 
States,  the  subject  of  our  sketch  arriving  in  New  York,  November  29,  1853.  He 
settled  in  Springfield,  Massachusetts.  In  1855  young  Hynes  was  compelled  to 
leave  school  to  support  his  mother,  who  became  an  invalid.  He  went  into  the 
Springfield  "  Republican "  office,  then  under  the  control  of  the  late  Samuel 
Bowles  and  Dr.  John  G.  Holland,  late  editor  of  Scribner's  Magaxine.  While 
learning  the  printing  business  he  pursued  his  studies  in  the  evening  schools  of 
Springfield,  besides  taking  private  instruction  from  the  teachers,  so  that  he  was 
even  up  with  the  class  which  he  left,  by  the  tijne  they  graduated  in  the  high  school, 
although  working  ten  hours  a  day  at  his  trade.  He  filled  every  position  in  the 
printing  business,  from  ''printer's  devil  "  to  editor,  before  he  was  twenty-five  years 
old.  His  mother  died  in  1864.  He  was  an  ardent  Irish  nationalist,  and  at  that 
early  stage  of  his  manhood  he  took  a  warm  interest  in  the  Fenian  movement,  and 
notwithstanding  his  youth,  was  selected  to  organize  New  England,  making 
speeches  in  every  considerable  town  and  city  in  furtherance  of  that  cause.  In 
1866  he  began  the  study  of  law,  and  went  into  partnership  with  the  late  Gen. 


; : :  THE  BEXCB  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO. 

John  O'Neill,  in  Nashville.  Tennessee,  in  the  prosecution  of  claims  against  the 
government.  In  1867  he  went  to  Washington.  District  of  Columbia,  to  complete 
his  law  studies  in  the  Columbia  Law  University,  in  Georgetown.  While  there  he 
met  his  wife,  the  daughter  of  Judge  George  B.  Way,  of  Ohio,  whom  he  married 
in  September  1871. 

In  1870,  having  completed  his  law  studies,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  and 
proceeded  immediately  to  settle  and  practice  in  Little  Rock,  Arkansas.  His  first 
case  of  any  consequence  was  a  contested  election  case  before  the  legislature  in 
the  winter  of  1870-71.  involving  the  seats  of  three  members,  the  seating  of  which 
involved  also  a  change  in  the  political  complexion  of  the  majority.  His  clients 
were  independents.  After  the  most  memorable  contest  of  the  kind,  lasting  for 
weeks,  he  seated  his  clients  on  a  report  prepared  by  himself  and  reported  by  a 
minority  of  one  from  the  committee  on  elections.  He  practiced  his  profession, 
and  besides  that  received  a  salary  of  $3,000  a  year  for  writing  two  columns  daily 
for  the  "State  Journal."  which  did  not  interfere  with  his  practice  at  alL  His 
articles  and  speeches  producing  agitation,  he  was  unanimously  nominated  for 
congressman  at  large  for  the  state  by  the  reform  republicans,  liberal  republicans 
and  democrats.  He  tendered  his  declination  of  the  nomination  to  all  of  them, 
but  they  as  unanimously  declined  to  receive  it_  He  was  elected  on  the  Greeley 
ticket  congressman  at  large  to  the  forty-third  congress,  making  the  remarkable 
record  of  leading  his  ticket  in  evenr  countv  in  the  state.  He  made  two  hundred 
and  sixteen  speeches  during  the  canvass.  He  was  recognized  as  one  of  the  few 
debaters  in  the  house  while  he  was  a  member.  He  was  again  elected  in  1874, 
when  he  ran  on  the  Brooks  issue,  when  the  contest  was  between  the  Brooks  and 
Baxter  governments,  be  supporting  Brooks,  who  had  been  declared  by  the  courts 
to  have  been  elected  on  the  Greeley  ticket  in  1872.  In  the  meantime  the  state 
was  revolutionized  by  the  constitutional  convention  called  by  Baxter's  machine. 
This  convention  undertook  to  abolish  constitutional  offices,  redistrict  the  state  for 
congress,  and  Judge  Wilshire  was  elected  in  the  district  thus  created.  The 
machine  refusing  to  recognize  or  even  return  the  votes  for  Hynes  cast  outside  of 
those  lines,  and  as  a  contest  would  involve  the  proof  of  several  thousand  individ- 
ual rotes,  he  abandoned  the  idea  of  contest.  Then  resolving  to  devote  himself 
entirely  to  his  profession,  he  concluded  to  locate  in  some  large  city.  He  was 
invited  to  Chicago  to  deliver  the  oration  at  Calvary  on  decoration  day  in  1875, 
and  was  urged  to  adopt  Chicago.  He  did  so.  moving  here  in  September.  1875, 
where  he  has  since  resided  and  practiced  his  profession  with  marked  success.  He 
first  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  Walter  B.  Scales,  and  later  organized  the 
firm  of  Hynes.  English  and  Dunne,  which  now  exists,  and  is  doing  a  lucrative 
and  successful  business  of  the  first  class.  Mr.  Hynes  is  an  able  and  brilliant 
advocate.  As  such  he  has  few  peers  at  this  bar.  He  rises  to  the  full  dignity  of  an 
accomplished  orator,  either  addressing  a  jury  or  on  the  platform,  always  courteous, 
magnanimous  and  forcible.  He  arrays  evidence  logically  and  draws  conclusions 
convincingly-  He  is  graceful  in  gesture,  earnest,  rhetorical  and  vivid  in  deliver)-. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAK  OF  CHICAGO.  533 

His  success  as  an  advocate  and  lawyer  is  noteworthy.  He  has  many  friends,  and 
is  a  gentleman  of  many  princely  qualities  in  all  the  relations  of  life.  He  is  a  true 
Irish  patriot  and  a  leader  of  the  national  Irish  party  in  this  country. 


ALFRED    X.  TAGERT. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  young  lawyer  of  much  promise  who  has 
worked  his  way  up  to  his  present  position  by  great  energy  and  untiring 
industry,  and  who  has  accomplished  what  to  many  of  lesser  endowments  would 
have  seemed  impossible.  He  was  of  Scotch  and  English  descent,  and  was  born 
September  5.  1851.  in  Chittenden  county.  Vermont,  the  son  of  Hugh  and  Lucy  A. 
(Hickok)  Tagert.  He  received  his  earlier  education  in  the  common  schools,  and 
later  entered  the  University  of  Vermont,  at  Burlington,  where  he  completed  the 
full  course  of  study,  and  from  which  he  graduated  with  highest  honors  in  1875, 
and  received  the  degree  of  A.B.  Still  later  he  became  vice-principal  of  Hopkins 
Institute,  in  which  capacity  he  served,  giving  universal  satisfaction,  for  one  year. 

Removing  to  the  West  in  1876, he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law  at  Chi- 
cago, and  graduated  therefrom  in  1878,  after  which  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar 
and  entered  at  once  upon  the  successful  practice  of  his  profession  in  the  office  of 
Judge  Williamson.  He  was  in  business  alone  until  the  fall  of  1880,  when  he  asso- 
ciated himself  with  C.  S.  Cutting  under  the  present  firm  name  of  Tagert  and 
Cutting.  The  business  of  the  firm  is  principally  in  the  civil  branch  of  the  law. 

Mr.  Tagert  is  a  gentleman  of  refinement  and  culture,  well  read  in  legal  lore, 
especially  in  the  statute  law  and  the  decisions  of  the  state  and  federal  courts,  and 
is  thoroughly  familiar  with  the  general  rules  of  practice.  He  is  a  good  trial 
lawyer  and  a  safe  counselor,  and  bears  the  reputation  of  being  a  man  of  untar- 
nished integrity,  in  whom  all  have  the  utmost  confidence. 


HON.  J.  P.  CARUTHERS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Tennessee,  and  was  born  in  Lincoln 
county,  July  9,  1818.  He  was  brought  up  to  work  on  a  farm,  and  in  early 
life  attended  Fayetteville  Academy,  and  afterward  entered  the  Nashville  Univer- 
sity, under  the  tuition  and  training  of  Prof.  Halsey,  now  professor  in  the  theo- 
logical seminary  at  Lake  View.  Illinois.  In  1856  he  served  as  a  private  in  the 
Florida  war.  When  quite  young  he  went  to  Memphis,  Tennessee,  a  stranger  and 
without  a  dollar.  He  arrived  there  on  a  Saturday,  and  on  the  following  Monday 
rented  an  office  for  the  purpose  of  practicing  law.  He  informed  his  landlord  that 
he  was  without  means,  and  that  he  did  not  wish  him  to  trust  him  if  he  was  not 
inclined  so  to  do;  the  landlord  replied  that  he  was  welcome  to  board  with  him  as 
long  as  he  pleased  and  he  would  not  charge  him  anything  for  it;  but  at  the  end 


534  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

of  six  months  the  young  lawyer  had  earned  enough  in  his  profession  to  pay  all 
he  owed,  and  had  money  to  spare.  In  1840  he  was  elected  attorney  general  for 
the  Memphis  district,  composed  of  five  counties,  and  at  the  expiration  of  his  term 
of  office  in  1842,  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  William  T.  Brown  and  Gen. 
Levin  H.  Cole,  which  continued  until  1854.  He  was  elected  by  the  people  judge 
of  the  court  of  common  law  and  chancery,  having  jurisdiction  throughout  the 
county  of  Shelby,  of  which  Memphis  is  the  county  seat,  concurrent  with  the 
supreme  court  of  Tennessee,  for  the  term  of  six  years,  but  resigned  before  the 
expiration  of  his  term  on  account  of  the  breaking  out  of  the  war,  and  took  up  his 
residence  in  Chicago,  and  has  been  in  the  successful  practice  of  the  law  ever 
since. 

Judge  Caruthers  in  political  sentiments  was  formerly  a  whig,  and  voted  for 
Bell  and  Everett  in  1860,  but  is  now  a  democrat. 

He  has  been  married  twice,  first  in  1846,  to  Miss  Elizabeth  McNeil,  daughter 
of  Maj.  Malcom  McNeil,  of  Christian  county,  Kentucky,  and  had  by  her  one  son, 
Malcom  Caruthers,  who  is  now  a  well  known  lawyer  in  Chicago.  After  the  death 
of  his  wife  Judge  Caruthers  was  married  to  Miss  Florence  McNeil,  and  has  had 
by  her  three  sons  and  one  daughter,  the  sons  all  being  engaged  in  mercantile 
business  in  Chicago. 

As  a  judge  Mr.  Caruthers  sustained  a  high  reputation  and  character  for  legal 
ability,  uprightness,  fairness  and  impartiality,  and  as  a  lawyer  is  well  read,  care- 
ful, conscientious  and  prompt,  and  holds  an  honorable  position  at  the  bar. 


HON.   T.   LYLE    DICKEY. 

TLYLE  DICKEY  is  a  native  of  Bourbon  county,  Kentucky,  and  was  born 
.  October  2,  1811.  He  entered  the  Ohio  University  in  the  fall  of  1826,  and 
continued  there  four  years,  and  then  entered  the  senior  class  of  Miami  University, 
and  was  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1831.  December  6,  of  that  year, 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Juliet  Evans.  He  taught  school  in  Ohio  and  Kentucky 
with  marked  success.  He  removed  to  McDonough  county,  Illinois,  in  the  winter 
of  1834,  when  he  met  Hon.  Cyrus  H.  Walker,  who  persuaded  him  to  study  law. 
He  commenced  the  practice  of  the  law  at  Macomb  before  he  was  admitted  to  the 
bar,  with  good  success,  and  was  admitted  to  the  Illinois  bar  in  1835  at  the  age  of 
twenty-three  years.  He  removed  to  Rushville,  Illinois,  in  1836,  and  while  prac- 
ticing law,  edited  a  whig  paper  at  that  place.  He  engaged  in  real  estate  specu- 
lations, and  the  crash  of  1837  rendered  it  impossible  for  him  to  meet  his  obliga- 
tions for  a  period  of  twenty-one  years,  the  most  of  his  notes  bearing  interest  at 
twelve  per  cent.  In  1839  he  removed  to  Ottawa,  and  continued  his  practice.  In 
1846  the  Mexican  war  broke  out,  and  he  raised  a  fine  company  of  men,  of  which 
he  was  appointed  captain,  and  joined  the  ist  regiment  of  111.  Vols.  After  con- 
siderable service  he  resigned  on  account  of  ill  health,  and  returned  home  and 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  535 

resumed  his  practice.  In  1848  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  circuit,  comprising 
twelve  counties,  which  position  he  filled  four  years,  and  then  resigned  and  resumed 
practice.  In  1854  he  opened  an  office  in  Chicago,  still  residing  in  Ottawa.  His 
wife  died  December  31,  1855.  He  practiced  law  four  years,  and  was  then  enabled 
to  pay  all  his  indebtedness,  principal  and  interest,  and  in  1858  returned  to  Ottawa, 
prepared  to  live  easier.  In  that  year,  though  a  whig  so  long  as  that  party  lasted, 
Judge  Dickey  espoused  the  cause  of  Douglas,  in  his  famous  contest  with  Lincoln, 
and  gave  him  effective  support  in  public  addresses  in  many  parts  of  the  state. 

He  formed  a  partnership  with  W.  H.  L.  Wallace  and  his  son,  Cyrus  E.  Dickey, 
and  practiced  law  until  the  war  broke  out  in  1861,  when  he  raised  a  regiment,  the 
4th  111.  Cav.,  and  was  appointed  its  colonel.  He  was  with  Gen.  Grant  at  the  cap- 
ture of  Fort  Henry,  led  the  advance  at  Fort  Donelson,  participated  in  the  battle 
of  Shiloh  with  both  his  sons,  and  his  son-in-law,  Gen.  Wallace,  who  was  killed. 
In  the  year  1862  he  was  appointed  chief  of  cavalry  on  Gen.  Grant's  staff,  and  sent 
to  Memphis  in  command  of  that  post.  He  was  in  the  battle  of  luka.  He  was 
placed  in  command  of  all  of  the  cavalry  in  Gen.  Grant's  army,  comprising  four 
brigades.  He  fought  Gen.  Pemberton  far  in  advance  of  his  supports  four  days, 
on  his  retreat  from  Tallahassee.  He  took  six  hundred  selected  men,  and  made 
the  first  extensive  raid  into  the  enemy's  country  through  a  region  filled  with 
rebels,  and  returned  without  the  loss  of  any  men.  It  was  he  who  suggested  and 
organized  the  celebrated  raid  of  Grierson,  destroying  the  railroads  about  Jackson, 
Mississippi,  in  1863. 

He  resigned  in  1863,  returned  home  and  formed  a  partnership  with  John  B. 
Rice.  In  1866  he  was  democratic  candidate  for  congress  for  the  state  at  large. 
In  1868  he  was  appointed  assistant  attorney-general  of  the  United  States,  and 
had  charge  of  all  government  suits  in  the  court  of  claims,  and  in  that  branch  of 
litigation  in  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,  which  duties  he  performed  with 
fidelity  and  great  ability.  He  received  high  encomiums  from  the  judges  of  that 
high  court  for  the  prompt  and  thorough  manner  in  which  he  performed  his 
duties.  One  of  the  most  important  cases  ever  tried  in  that  court  was  that  of  the 
Floyd  acceptance  case,  where  Judge  Dickey  contended  successfully  against  Judges 
Curtis  and  Jerry  Black,  the  opposing  counsel,  and  was  sustained  by  the  court. 
This  position  he  held  about  two  years,  and  then  resigned  and  spent  the  winter  in 
Florida. 

In  the  summer  of  1870  he  married  Mrs.  Hirst,  of  Prince  Ann,  Maryland.  He 
then  returned  to  Ottawa,  and  practiced  law.  He  removed  to  Chicago  in  Decem- 
ber 1873.  He  was  elected  judge  of  the  supreme  court  in  December,  1875,  to  fill 
a  vacancy,  and  was  reflected  in  1879  as  an  independent  candidate,  over  Thomas 
Dent,  a  very  worthy  gentleman,  the  regular  nominee,  but  Judge  Dickey's  per- 
sonal popularity  secured  his  election,  although  Mr.  Dent's  party  was  in  the 
ascendancy.  He  has  since  remained  upon  the  bench  of  the  supreme  court  of 
Illinois,  which  position  he  fills  to  the  utmost  satisfaction  of  all. 

Judge  Dickey  has  a  very  retentive  memory,  with  great  power  of  analysis,  and 


536  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

has  judgment  of  a  high  order.  As  a  lawyer  he  was  a  brilliant  advocate,  lucid 
and  logical,  with  an  aptness  in  illustration  and  power  of  repartee  that  few  pos- 
sess. He  is  a  gentleman  who  is  highly  prized  for  his  social  qualities,  and  is 
regarded  as  an  excellent  citizen.  Few  men  have  as  many  warm  personal  friends 
as  Judge  Dickey. 

WICK  MATTHEWS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  November  14,  1855,  in  Clinton  county, 
Ohio,  and  is  the  son  of  William  Matthews,  a  well  known  clergyman  of  the 
Christian  persuasion,  and  brother  of  the  eloquent  David  Matthews.  He  has  also 
another  brother  who  is  a  preacher,  and  three  sisters  who  married  ministers.  Wick 
commenced  his  education  in  the  common  schools,  and  later  attended  the  high 
school  at  Indianapolis  for  a  considerable  length  of  time.  At  the  age  of  nineteen 
Mr.  Matthews  was  for  one  year  editor  of  the  Plain  City  "  Press,"  at  Plain  City, 
Madison  county,  Ohio,  in  which  capacity  he  displayed  good  ability  as  a  writer, 
and  materially  increased  the  subscription  list  of  that  paper  by  his  energetic  man- 
agement. He  studied  law  with  Wright  and  Wright,  prominent  attorneys  at  Shel- 
byville,  Indiana,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Fort  Wayne,  Indiana,  in  1878. 
Entering  at  once  upon  his  profession  he  practiced  three  years  with  good  success, 
doing  a  large  business,  and  giving  his  attention  principally  to  criminal  law.  He 
removed  to  Chicago  in  1881,  and  immediately  resumed  his  practice,  opening  an 
office  alone.  In  the  spring  of  1882  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Charles  R.  Jud- 
son,  his  present  partner.  They  are  doing  a  good  business,  and  have  been  retained 
in  several  important  civil  suits.  Mr.  Matthews  is  an  eloquent  speaker,  and  is  very 
effective  before  a  jury.  He  prepares  his  cases  well,  is  a  good  trial  lawyer,  and  is 
one  of  the  most  promising  young  men  of  the  Chicago  bar. 


EUGENE  J.   FELLOWS. 

EUGENE  J.  FELLOWS  holds  a  rank  among  the  more  prominent  of  the 
younger  class  of  lawyers  practicing  at  the  Chicago  bar.  He  is  able  and 
energetic,  painstaking  and  conscientious  in  his  practice.  He  is  a  son  of  Thomas 
and  Celestine  Fellows,  of  New  Orleans,  where  his  father  is  a  banker.  Eugene 
received  his  early  education  in  his  native  city,  which  received  a  rude  shock  by 
the  breaking  out  of  the  rebellion  in  1861.  Although  only  a  boy  of  about  fifteen 
he  was  obliged  to  shoulder  a  musket  and  aid  in  the  defense  and  engagements 
which  culminated  in  the  capture  of  New  Orleans.  At  the  close  of  the  war  he 
resumed  his  studies,  entered  the  New  Orleans  Law  College,  and  graduated  from 
that  institution  in  1870. 

He  then  entered  the  office  of  his  brother,  who  is  now  judge  of  the  third  dis- 
trict court  of  Louisiana,  and  in  connection  with  him  practiced  law  until  1874.     In 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  .  537 

the  fall  of  that  year  Mr.  Fellows  removed  to  Chicago,  and  has  been  engaged  in 
active  practice  ever  since.  He  gives  his  attention  entirely  to  civil  practice,  his 
business  partaking  largely  of  real  estate  matters  and  cases.  As  a  lawyer  in  Chi- 
cago, his  course  has  been  marked  by  the  most  persevering  industry,  which  has 
resulted  in  the  establishment  of  an  extensive  and  profitable  practice,  to  which  he 
devotes  his  entire  attention. 

In  1874  he  was  married  to  Miss  Georgiana  Randall,  of  New  Orleans,  daughter 
of  George  Wilkins  Randall,  founder,  editor  and  proprietor  of  the  New  Orleans 
•'Picayune,"  and  by  that  marriage  has  had  one  son:  Randall  Fellows.  Mr.  Fel- 
lows has  resided  several  years  in  the  Town  of  Lake,  in  which  place  he  takes  an 
active  interest  in  politics.  In  political  sentiments  he  is  a  democrat.  He  has  held 
the  position  of  clerk  in  St.  Bartholomew's  Episcopalian  Church  for  several  years. 


JONATHAN  Y.  SCAMMON. 

JONATHAN  YOUNG  SCAMMON,  a  native  of  Whitefield,  Lincoln  county, 
Maine,  was  born  July  27,  1812,  the  son  of  Hon.  Eliakim  Scammon,  and  Joanna 
(Young)  Scammon.  His  father,  a  man  of  known  ability  and  integrity,  for  many 
years  represented  the  town  of  Pittston  in  the  house  of  representatives,  and  Ken- 
nebec  county  in  the  senate  of  the  Maine  legislature.  His  maternal  grandfather, 
David  Young,  a  pioneer,  represented  his  district  in  the  general  court  of  Massachu- 
setts, and  served  with  honor  during  the  revolutionary  war.  Mr.  Scammon 
received  his  early  education  at  the  Maine  Wesleyan  Seminary,  the  Lincoln 
Academy  and  Waterville  College,  now  called  Colby  University,  by  the  last  of 
which  the  degree  of  LL.D.  was  conferred  upon  him.  He  afterward  studied  law, 
and  having  been  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Kennebec  county,  in  September,  1835, 
removed  to  Chicago,  Illinois.  He  accepted  the  position  of  assistant  to  Col.  R.  J. 
Hamilton,  clerk  of  the  courts  of  Cook  county,  and  subsequently  became  his 
deputy.  After  a  year  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  B.  S.  Morris,  and  later 
with  Hon.  N.  B.  Judd,  which  continued  until  1847,  when  he  became  interested  in 
running  the  work  on  the  Galena  and  Chicago  railroad,  and  to  him,  more  than  any 
other  person,  the  late  Hon.  William  B.  Ogden  excepted,  is  due  the  building  of 
the  Galena  railroad,  the  first  really  successful  undertaking  of  the  kind  west  of 
Lake  Michigan,  and  the  father  of  railroad  enterprise  in  Illinois  and  the  country 
west  and  northwest  of  Chicago.  When  the  credit  of  the  company  failed,  he 
obtained  money  upon  his  private  responsibility,  and  saved  the  enterprise  from 
failure. 

In  1837  Mr.  Scammon  was  appointed  attorney  of  the  state  bank  of  Illinois,  and 
in  1839  reporter  of  the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  which  latter  position  he  held 
until  1845.  He  has  represented  his  county  in  the  state  legislature.  He  early 
manifested  an  interest  in  the  schools  of  the  city,  one  of  the  city  schools  now 
bearing  his  name.  In  1849  he  was  elected  president  of  the  Chicago  Marine  Fire 


538  ,  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Insurance  Company,  which  has  banking  privileges,  and  became  the  largest  finan- 
cial institution  in  Chicago,  when  it  was  ruined  by  its  cashier,  during  Mr.  Scam- 
mon's  absence  in  Europe.  He  has  always  been  connected  with  the  press,  having 
aided  in  the  establishment  and  maintainance  of  the  "Journal"  and  "Tribune," 
and  after  the  great  fire,  constructed  a  building  in  the  rear  of  his  residence,  and 
supplied  the  necessary  fixtures,  engaged  an  editorial  corps,  and  March  25,  1872, 
issued  the  first  number  of  the  "Inter  Ocean,"  of  which  he  was  sole  proprietor 
and  controlling  editor.  In  the  public  institutions  of  the  city  he  has  always 
taken  an  active  part.  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Chicago  Academy 
of  Sciences,  of  the  Historical  Society,  and  of  the  Chicago  Astronomical  Society. 
He  was  the  first  of  the  Swedenborgians,  or  New  church  men  in  Chicago,  and 
one  of  the  original  founders  of  the  Illinois  Association  of  that  church.  He 
also  organized  the  Church  of  the  New  Jerusalem  in  Chicago.  He  was  the  first 
layman  of  prominence  to  favor  homoeopathy  in  the  city,  and  built  and  conveyed 
free  to  the  Hahnemann  Homoeopathy  Society  a  commodious  and  elegant  hospital. 
The  Dearborn  Observatory,  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  in  which  is  placed  the 
largest  refracting  telescope  then  in  the  world,  was  built  at  his  expense  and  the 
salary  of  its  director  paid  by  him  till  the  fire  of  1871.  In  1860  he  was  elected 
one  of  the  trustees  of  the  university,  and  for  many  years  was  vice-president  of  the 
board  of  trustees  and  acting  president  of  the  same.  He  is  a  man  of  large  lit- 
erary and  general  culture,  and  as  a  lawyer,  a  banker  and  an  editor  has  shown 
eminent  ability.  His  personal  character  has  been  one  of  moral  and  religious 
worth,  and  he  is  held  in  highest  esteem  for  his  many  true,  manly  qualities. 


NATHAN   M.   PLOTKE. 

NATHAN  M.  PLOTKE  was  born  in  Germany,  January  i,  1841.  His  parents 
were  natives  of  the  same  place,  and  were  highly  respected  people.  The 
subject  of  our  sketch  received  his  early  education  from  the  public  schools  of  his 
native  land  until  the  age  of  sixteen,  when  he  left  school  and  his  country,  and 
started  out  into  the  world  to  make  his  fortune.  Turning  his  course  to  the  New 
World,  he  came  to  America  and  landed  in  New  York.  His  first  situation  after 
coming  to  this  country  was  in  a  cigar  store,  where  he  remained  two  years,  and 
obtained  a  good  knowledge  of  the  cigar  business,  and  then  removed  to  Chicago. 
Mr.  Plotke  after  settling  in  Chicago  started  the  cigar  business  on  his  own  respon- 
sibility, and  met  with  very  good  success;  but  at  the  close  of  the  war,  having 
decided  to  become  a  lawyer,  he  pursued  a  course  of  study  in  the  law  office  of 
Charles  C.  Cooper,  of  Chicago,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1871. 

Mr.  Plotke  being  a  hard  worker,  soon  obtained  a  good  practice  and  wide  pop- 
ularity. In  1880  he  was  elected  member  of  the  legislature,  which  position  he 
now  holds,  and  he  was  also  elected  prosecuting  attorney  for  the  lower  courts  of 
Cook  county,  in  the  spring  of  1882. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  539 

Mr.  Plotke  is  a  member  of  the  Sharpshooter  Society,  and  was  elected  president 
of  the  same  in  January,  1882,  and  is  a  member  of  the  Knights  of  Pythias,  of  which 
he  has  been  a  past  grand  officer;  and  he  was  also  one  of  the  charter  members  and 
a  director  of  the  Prisoner's  Aid  Association.  Mr.  Plotke  is  a  young  attorney  who 
has  brought  himself  into  considerable  prominence  in  the  last  few  years,  and  is  an 
energetic  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  well  deserving  the  honors  that  have  been 
conferred  upon  him. 


HENRY    McCLORY. 

HENRY  McCLORY  was  born  in  Belfast,  Ireland,  in  the  year  1832,  and  was 
the  son  of  Henry  McClory,  a  prominent  business  man  and  contractor  of 
that  city.  Having  received  his  earlier  education  in  Ireland,  Mr.  McClory  at  the 
age  of  sixteen  emigrated  to  this  country,  and  shortly  thereafter  entered  Trinity 
College,  Hartford,  where  he  graduated.  Though  leaning  strongly  toward  the 
legal  profession,  he  was  persuaded  to  prepare  himself  for  the  church,  and 
although  he  had  enrolled  himself  at  Harvard  Law  School,  he  entered  the  Berke- 
ley Divinity  School,  and  after  graduating  there  was  ordained  a  deacon,  and  later 
a  priest  of  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church.  Shortly  after  his  ordination,  he 
married  a  daughter  of  Mr.  Persse,  of  the  firm  of  Persse  and  Brooks,  the  cele- 
brated paper  manufacturers.  He  was  for  five  years  rector  of  a  parish  in  Boston 
whence  he  removed  to  Plattsburgh,  New  York,  becoming  rector  of  that  parish. 
In  the  year  1870,  during  his  residence  in  Plattsburgh,  Mrs.  McClory  died,  leaving 
two  boys.  This  bereavement  told  very  much  on  Mr.  McClory,  and  retiring  from 
the  clerical  profession,  he  soon  afterward  began  the  study,  of  law  and  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  of  Michigan  in  1871.  Shortly  thereafter  he  settled  in  Three  Rivers, 
Michigan,  and  began  to  practice  his  profession,  and  was  very  successful,  but 
seeking  a  larger  field  he  at  the  expiration  of  three  years  removed  to  Chicago, 
where  he  has  since  been  in  continuous  and  successful  practice,  strict  devotion  to 
his  profession  having  been  amply  rewarded.  He  is  now  married  to  a  sister  of 
his  first  wife. 

WILLIAM    L.    O'CALLAGHAN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Retchcormac,  in  the  county  of  Cork, 
Ireland,  and  is  the  son  of  John  O'Callaghan  and  Honora  (Lloyd)  O'Calla- 
ghan.  He  commenced  his  education  in  the  schools  of  his  native  village,  and 
afterward  attended  the  academy  at  Fermoy  several  years,  and  graduated  there- 
from with  honor.  After  graduating,  he  was  for  some  years  professor  of  mathe- 
matics and  the  higher  English  branches  in  Knocktopher  College,  in  the  county 
of  Kilkenney,  and  two  years  after,  closing  his  labors  in  that  college,  in  1862 
sailed  for  America.  He  taught  school  in  Illinois  and  Wisconsin  about  three 
years,  and  is  reputed  to  be  one  of  the  best  English  and  mathematical  scholars 


540  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

in  the  profession  in  the  city.  Having  decided  to  fit  himself  for  the  practice  of 
law,  he  pursued  a  thorough  course  of  study,  and  in  1872  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Illinois,  and  settled  down  to  his  profession  in  Chicago.  A  man  of  kind 
impulses,  generous  hearted  and  benevolent,  he  has  during  his  professional  career 
been  a  friend  to  the  poor,  and  rendered  to  them  much  valuable  service  without 
remuneration. 

Mr.  O'Callaghan  settled  in  Chicago  about  the  time  of  the  Fenian  demonstra- 
tions, and  during  those  times  was  in  constant  demand  to  address  his  countrymen. 
He  was  a  stirring  speaker,  but  through  a  bronchial  affection,  and  partial  loss  of 
his  voice,  was  compelled,  after  a  time,  to  forego  to  a  great  extent  public  speaking. 

Seeing  how  important  a  factor  strong  drink  is,  as  a  cause  of  crime,  Mr.  O'Cal- 
laghan,  from  being  an  occasional  imbiber  himself,  has  become  a  teetotaler,  and 
is  now  an  enthusiastic  advocate  of  temperance,  and  an  earnest  worker  in  the 
temperance  cause,  especially  among  his  own  countrymen,  being  convinced  that 
they  seldom  commit  a  crime  except  when  under  the  influence  of  liquor. 


EZRA    G.   VALENTINE. 

/"T~>HE  parents  of  Ezra  G.  Valentine  were  among  the  pioneer  settlers  of  Erie 
_l  county,  New  York.  They  subsequently  moved  to  Wyoming  county,  near 
Attica,  in  the  beautiful  Tonawanda  valley,  where  Ezra  was  born.  He  has  two 
brothers  and  three  sisters  living.  The  eldest,  Judge  C.  B.  Valentine,  resides  in 
Dakota.  The  next,  Prof.  W.  H.  H.  Valentine,  is  proprietor  of  the  Davenport 
Commercial  College.  His  eldest  sister  is  the  wife  of  Judge  Lyman  B.  Everdellf, 
of  Minnesota;  the  next  is  the  wife  of  James  M.  Beach,  general  manager  of  the 
Wheeler  and  Wilson  Manufacturing  Company,  at  Milwaukee,  Wisconsin,  and  the 
youngest  is  the  wife  of  Emmett  A.  King,  of  Wausau,  Wisconsin.  His  father  died 
several  years  ago,  and  his  mother  is  still  living.  Ezra  was  born  in  .1847.  He  left 
the  place  of  his  nativity  at  nine  years  of  age,  and  went  with  his  parents  to  Green 
Lake  county,  Wisconsin;  thence  to  Ripon,  where  he  commenced  preparation  for 
a  collegiate  course,  under  President  Merrill.  He  then  entered  Beloit  College, 
in  the  preparatory  department,  where  he  remained  one  year.  He  then  entered 
upon  a  classical  course,  and  graduated  in  1869.  He  paid  his  own  way  in  college  by 
teaching.  After  graduating,  he  taught  fora  number  of  years  in  the  state  institution 
in  Delavan,  Wisconsin.  He  was  too  young  to  enter  the  army,  but  served  a  short 
time  in  a  clerical  capacity.  He  went  to  Indianapolis,  Indiana,  and  taught  school 
and  read  law,  having  access  to  the  library  of  Gen.  Benjamin  Harrison.  His 
course  of  study  was  thorough,  and  in  1875  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar,  and  commenced  practice  in  1877,  and  has  since  been  em- 
ployed in  several  important  cases,  in  which  he  has  shown  marked  ability.  Mr. 
Valentine  stands  high,  for  a  man  of  his  age,  at  the  Chicago  bar,  and  has  quite  an 
extensive  clientage.  He  is  a  self-made  man,  of  extraordinary  energy,  and  may 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  541 

reasonably  hope  to  realize  his  fondest  anticipations.  He  is  a  man  of  unspotted 
character,  and  an  honored  member  of  the  Masonic  and  Odd -Fellow  orders.  In 
politics  he  is  a  republican. 

He  was  married  in  June,  1879,  to  Miss  Bertha  M.  Alden,  daughter  of  James  F. 
Alden,  who  was  for  many  years  connected  with  the  house  of  A.  T.  Stewart  and 
Company  as  manager  of  the  credit  department.  They  have  two  children. 


GRAHAM    H.    HARRIS. 

RAHAM  H.  HARRIS  was  born  in  Virginia,  October  n,  1857,  and  is  the 
son  of  Hon.  John  T.  Harris,  the  present  representative  in  congress  from  the 
seventh  district  of  that  state,  an  office  with  which  he  has  been  honored  several 
different  times  during  the  last  twenty  years.  The  mother  of  our  subject  before 
marriage  was  Miss  Virginia  M.  Miller.  His  paternal  grandfather,  Nathan  Harris, 
was  a  wealthy  planter,  who  was  highly  educated,  and  a  gentleman  of  prominence 
and  great  influence.  His  maternal  grandfather  was  Dr.  William  Miller,  of  Bal- 
timore, a  prominent  physician,  who  removed  to  Virginia  in  the  latter  part  of  his  life. 

Graham  H.  was  educated  at  the  Virginia  Military  Institute  and  in  the  Univer- 
sity of  Virginia,  at  Charlottesville,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  June,  1878.  He 
studied  law  in  the  University  of  Virginia,  and  afterward  in  his  father's  office; 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  the  fall  of  1878,  and  commenced  practice  in  Harrison- 
burgh,  Virginia,  where  he  continued  until  May  of  the  same  year,  when  he  removed 
to  Chicago,  and  went  into  the  office  of  Dexter,  Herrick  and  Allen,  where  he 
remained  about  five  months.  He  was  then  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  and 
commenced  business  for  himself,  and  has  been  engaged  in  a  successful  general 
law  practice  ever  since. 

As  a  speaker  he  is  fluent  and  effective,  and  excels  in  the  trial  of  cases.  He  is 
tall  and  commanding  in  stature,  graceful,  affable  and  courteous,  and  sustains  an 
unblemished  character  for  honesty,  manliness  and  fair  dealing. 


ALEXANDER  J.  WALKER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Pennsylvania,  and  was  born  in 
Youngstown,  Westmoreland  county,  December  6,  1844.  His  father,  John 
Sharp  Walker,  is  of  Scotch-Irish  descent  on  his  father's  side,  and  his  mother, 
Mary  Walker,  is  of  German  descent  on  her  mother's  side.  Until  about  twenty- 
one  years  of  age,  Alexander  J.  spent  most  of  his  time  at  school,  having  excellent 
educational  advantages.  He  attended  Sewickley  Academy,  Pennsylvania,  and  later 
pursued  a  four  years'  course  at  the  Westmoreland  College,  after  leaving  which  he 
went  to  St.  Vincent's  College,  near  Latrobe,  Pennsylvania,  and  there  finished  his 
collegiate  education.  On  leaving  college  he  went  to  Greensburgh,  Pennsylvania, 


542  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

where  he  read  law  for  four  years  with  Edward  J.  Keenan,  and  August  15,  1866, 
was  admitted  to  the  bar.  After  practicing  his  profession  for  a  short  time,  he  in 
1871  removed  to  the  city  of  Leavenworth,  Kansas,  where  he  remained  about  five 
years. 

Mr.  Walker  in  1870  connected  himself  in  the  capacity  of  professor  with  the 
State  Normal  School  of  Kansas.  He  resigned  his  professorship  in  1873,  and 
accepted  a  position  as  general  western  agent  for  Cowperthwait  and  Company, 
educational  publishers  of  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania. 

In  1874  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  the  law  office  of  Hon.  Emery  A. 
Storrs,  where  he  remained  about  one  year.  In  1875  he  opened  an  office  of  his 
own,  and  since  that  time  has  had  a  good  practice.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  ability, 
and  has  a  bright  future  before  him,  and  if  he  continues  true  to  himself  must  reach 
a  high  eminence  in  his  profession.  Mr.  Walker  has  already  conducted  success- 
fully several  important  cases  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


CHARLES   A.    DUPEE. 

THE  personal  history  of  the  gentleman  whose  name  and  portrait  are  herewith 
presented  is  worthy  of  record,  and  a  fixed  place  in  the  annals  of  the  earlier 
days  of  Chicago.  Charles  A.  Dupee  was  a  native  of  Massachusetts;  born  at  West 
Brookfield,  May  22,  1831.  His  parents  were  Jacob  Dupee  and  Lydia  A.  (Weath- 
erbee)  Dupee,  his  father  being  a  descendant  from  a  French  Huguenot,  who  emi- 
grated to  Boston  in  the]  year  1685.  His  early  education  was  commenced  at  an 
academy  in  the  town  of  Monson,  and  subsequently  continued  at  the  Williston 
Seminary,  at  East  Hampton,  Massachusetts.  In  1850  he  entered  Yale  College, 
graduating  from  that  institution  in  1854,  with  the  degree  of  A.B.  In  November 
of  the  same  year  he  came  to  Chicago,  where  he  became  principal  of  Edwards 
Academy,  remaining  in  this  position  for  six  months,  after  which  he  spent  some 
time  in  traveling.  In  the  autumn  of  1855  he  returned  to  Chicago,  and  was 
appointed  principal  of  one  of  the  public  schools,  which  position  he  held  for  one 
year. 

About  this  time  the  Chicago  high  school  was  organized,  and  Mr.  Dupee  was 
selected  for  its  principal,  and  the  task  of  creating  and  developing  the  system  of 
this  school  must  be  largely  accredited  to  him.  The  impress  given  by  him  to  that 
institution  still  remains,  and  its  system  and  workings  have  been  extensively 
adopted  by  other  high  schools  of  the  West.  While  principal  of  this  school  he 
was  also  editor  of  the  "  Illinois  Teacher,"  a  monthly  periodical  published  in  Chi- 
cago, principally  for  the  use  of  teachers.  While  engaged  in  teaching  others,  our 
subject  illustrates  the  saying  that  "he  who  teaches  others,  teaches  himself  best," 
for  he  not  only  gave  the  necessary  time  and  attention  to  his  duties  as  an  instructor 
in  that  institution,  but  at  the  same  time  spent  a  portion  of  his  leisure  hours  in 
the  study  of  the  law.  Resigning  his  position  of  principal  of  the  high  school,  in 


a/. 


l-a  t>-H  iWlll,...  « 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  545 

1860  he  began  a  systematic  course  of  the  study  of  law,  first  in  the  law  school  at 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  and  afterward  in  the  office  of  Gallup  and  Hitchcock, 
in  Chicago.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  in  1861. 
About  this  time  he  was  offered  the  presidency  of  the  State  Normal  School  of  Illi- 
nois, and  also  the  Latin  professorship  in  the  Chicago  University,  both  of  which 
proposals  he  declined. 

After  admission  to  the  bar,  he  commenced  the  practice  of  the  profession  in 
Chicago  under  his  own  name,  and  continued  so  for  about  one  year,  when  he 
entered  into  copartnership  with  Jacob  A.  Cram,  under  the  style  of  Dupee  and 
Cram. 

In  1863  Mr.  Dupee  was  married  to  Miss  Jennie  Wells,  daughter  of  Henry  G. 
Wells,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of  Chicago.  In  1864  the  firm  of  Dupee  and  Cram 
was  dissolved,  and  Mr.  Dupee  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Hitchcock,  Dupee 
and  Evarts,  which  continued  until  1872,  when,  by  the  retirement  of  Mr.  Evarts, 
the  firm  became  Hitchcock  and  Dupee.  In  1876  the  firm  of  Hitchcock,  Dupee 
and  Judah  was  organized,  by  the  admission  of  Noble  B.  Judah.  January  22,  1881, 
Mr.  Dupee  was  bereft  of  his  wife,  and  later,  May  6,  1882,  of  his  friend  and  part- 
ner, Mr.  Hitchcock,  who  had  for  so  many  years  been  associated  with  him.  Upon 
the  death  of  Mr.  Hitchcock,  the  firm  of  Dupee  and  Judah  was  organized,  to  which 
M.  L.  Willard  was  admitted  as  a  partner  in  1882. 

Mr.  Dupee  was  married  March  27,  1883,  to  Miss  Bessie  B.  Nash,  of  Mac-o- 
cheek,  Ohio.  Mr.  Dupee  is  a  man  of  marked  ability,  and  his  success  is  the  result 
of  steady  application  to  his  profession,  and  of  unswerving  integrity.  As  a  lawyer 
Mr.  Dupee  is  recognized  and  assigned  as  one  of  the  most  trusted  and  ablest  at 
the  bar.  His  methods  of  habit  and  process  of  action  in  the  pursuit  of  his  chosen 
profession  result  not  only  from  disposition,  but  temperament  as  well.  While  the 
blood  in  the  heart  is  warm  and  sympathetic  to  a  degree,  that  in  the  brain  is  cool 
and  full  of  the  currents  of  cynicism  for  aught  else  than  genuine,  uncolored  facts, 
and  a  clear  legal  maxim  in  its  application  to  those  facts.  He  is  prone  to  rely  less 
upon  the  accredited  potency  of  utterance,  which  so  frequently  obtains  with  juries, 
but  he  tenaciously  lays  hold  of  and  unfolds  those  principles  of  law  which  serve  to 
unerringly  pilot  the  facts  in  a  given  case  to  a  harbor  of  perfect  justice.  His 
reliance  in  every  jury  cause  is  especially  upon  the  law  applicable  to  the  actual 
facts  in  evidence,  and  he  trusts  finally  and  largely  to  a  confidence  in  the  con- 
science and  wisdom  of  courts  of  last  resort.  He  is  ever  ready  and  willing  to 
ascertain  his  results  through  a  purely  judicial  rather  than  a  jury  decision.  The 
latter  frequently  is  the  outcome  of  emotion,  prejudice  or  ignorance;  the  former 
the  yellow  grain  of  a  full  harvest  of  deliberation,  learning  and  experience.  This 
tendency  of  mind  has  so  imbued  itself  into  the  professional  feeling  of  Mr.  Dupee 
that  he  has  ripened,  as'  to  style,  expression,  arrangement  of  fact  and  thought,  into 
the  lawyer's  ideal, —  that  of  being  able,  in  written  argument  and  brief,  to  win  the 
most  lasting  triumphs  from  courts  whose  decisions  are  irreversible,  and  which 
become  precedents  and  principles.  Not  only  do  the  facts,  under  the  magic  of  his 
58 


546  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

pen,  marshal  themselves  with  the  attacking  force  of  an  army,  but  each  fact  is  so 
entrenched  in  law  and  precedent,  and  so  armored  in  reason  and  logic,  as  to 
become  and  be  irresistible.  All  the  while  these  facts  and  this  law  are  clothed  in 
diction  which  lends  a  charm  to  those  distinctions  so  uninteresting  and  dry  to  the 
layman, —  a  diction  which  suggests  the  smoothness  of  Macaulay,  the  clearness  of 
Addison,  the  strength,  feeling  and  power  of  Junius. 

In  personnel,  Mr.  Dupee  is  above  the  average  height,  and  of  commanding 
presence.  His  bearing  is  unaffectedly  a  blending  of  gentleness,  which  inspires 
affection,  and  of  natural  dignity,  which  wins  respect.  His  manner  toward  the 
court  and  counsel  is  uniformly  courteous  and  affable.  He  never  regards  it  neces- 
sary to  cease  to  be  a  gentleman  in  order  to  be  a  lawyer.  In  his  professional  life 
he  has  largely  been  engaged  in  the  services  of  railroad,  banking  and  insurance 
corporations,  and  his  ripe  experience  in  such  cases  has  caused  his  opinions  to  be 
regarded  as  especially  valuable.  He  is  wholly  devoted  to  his  profession.  The 
legal  firms  with  which  he  has  for  more  than  twenty  years  been  connected  in  this 
city  have  been  of  the  highest  standing,  and  have  had  the  confidence  of  the  courts 
and  the  public  to  an  unusual  extent.  Few  lawyers  now  engaged  in  Chicago,  in 
professional  life,  have  been  concerned  in  so  extensive  affairs,  or  accomplished  an 
equal  amount  of  successful  labor,  or  been  equally  rewarded.  This  confidence  is 
the  result  of  ripe  learning,  a  life  of  industry  and  experience,  based  upon  a  very 
extensive  practice,  and  a  personal  and  professional  honor  of  the  highest  character. 


HON.    LYMAN    TRUMBULL. 

NATURE  is  sometimes  generous,  but  never  prodigal  of  her  resources.  Not- 
withstanding its  general  intelligence,  its  intense  mental  activities,  its 
scientific,  artistic  and  literary  development,  our  country  has  produced  few  men 
worthy  to  be  called  statesmen,  and  still  fewer  profound  constitutional  lawyers. 
Of  these,  however,  Illinois  is  conceded  to  have  given  the  nation  one,  Hon.  Lyman 
Trumbull. 

He  was  born  in  Colchester,  Connecticut,  October  12,  1813,  and  received  his 
early  education  at  Bacon  Academy,  in  his  native  town.  At  the  age  of  sixteen 
years  he  commenced  teaching  school,  and  at  twenty  assumed  charge  of  an  acad- 
emy at  Greenville,  Georgia.  In  addition  to  the  onerous  duties  of  teacher,  Mr. 
Trumbull  now  devoted  his  leisure  hours  to  the  study  of  law,  and  in  1837  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  Georgia.  Sagaciously  perceiving  the  Mississippi  valley 
was  destined  to  become  the  seat  of  mighty  states,  he  immediately  removed  to 
Illinois,  and  settled  at  Belleville,  in  St.  Clair  county,  and  commenced  the  practice 
of  law.  This,  however,  was  soon  interrupted,  for  in  1840  he  was  a  representative 
to  the  legislature  of  Illinois,  and  before  the  expiration  of  his  term  was  appointed 
secretary  of  state,  which  position  he  filled  for  two  years.  Returning  to  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession,  he  devoted  himself  so  zealously  and  assiduously  thereto 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  547 

that  in  a  few  years  he  became  the  peer  of  the  most  eminent  and  experienced  law- 
yers in  the  state.  In  recognition  of  his  peculiar  fitness  for  the  position,  he  was, 
in  1848,  elected  one  of  the  justices  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  in  1852 
was  reflected  for  nine  years.  In  1853  he  resigned  from  the  supreme  bench,  and 
in  the  following  year  was  chosen  to  represent  his  district  in  congress.  Before  he 
had  taken  his  seat,  the  legislature  elected  him  senator  for  six  years,  from  March, 
1855.  In  1861  he  was  reelected  senator,  and  again  in  1867.  After  eighteen  con- 
secutive years'  service  as  senator  from  Illinois,  he  returned  to  the  state  he  had 
served  so  long  and  faithfully,  and  resumed  the  practice  in  Chicago,  where  he 
still  resides. 

His  ability  and  eminence  as  a  statesman  and  constitutional  lawyer  have 
received  fitting  and  graceful  recognition  from  McKendree  and  Yale  Colleges,  both 
of  which  have  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary  degree  of  LL.D.  Unlike  too 
many  of  our  public  men,  Judge  Trumbull's  private  life  has  been  pure,  unsullied 
and  upright,  as  his  public  career  has  been  brilliant,  honorable  and  successful. 


J.  HENRY  WESTOVER. 

""  I  "'HE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  New  York,  and  was  born  in  Onon- 
A  daga  county,  in  the  old  village  of  Manlius,  December  23,  1846,  and  is  the 
son  of  Frederick  Westover,  and  Phebe  (Miller)  Westover.  His  father,  a  cotton 
manufacturer,  was  a  prominent  business  man  of  that  place,  and  had  a  family  of 
twelve  children,  ten  of  whom  are  yet  living.  When  Henry  was  an  infant,  his 
father  removed  with  his  eldest  daughter  to  Wisconsin,  and  purchased  a  piece  of 
land  near  the  then  village  of  Milwaukee.  There  Deacon  Westover,  as  he  was 
always  called,  was  one  of  the  founders  of  Spring  Street  Free  Congregational 
Church,  which  was  noted  for  the  similarity  of  its  members'  views  on  the  anti- 
slavery  question.  Deacon  Westover  was  quite  an  orator,  and  was  an  industrious 
anti-slavery  agitator  and  temperance  orator.  He  also  devoted  considerable  time 
to  Sabbath-schools,  and  the  interest  of  the  church.  He  afterward  removed  to 
Summit,  Wabasha  county,  Wisconsin,  and  purchased  two  farms,  one  in  Summit 
and  one  near  Waukesha,  where  our  subject  spent  a  portion  of  his  early  life.  He 
attended  school  at  Racine  and  Milwaukee,  and  finished  his  education  at  Racine 
College  in  1869,  and  then  entered  the  office  of  his  brother,  £teorge  F.  Westover, 
at  Oconomowoc,  where  he  pursued  the  study  of  the  law  with  great  diligence,  at 
the  same  time  participated  to  some  extent  with  his  brother  in  practice,  and  after 
a  very  thorough  preparation,  in  October,  1873,  was  examined  by  a  committee, 
appointed  by  the  court,  consisting  of  Judges  Hubbell,  Hooker  and  E.  P.  Smith. 
In  moving  for  the  admission  of  Mr.  Westover  to  the  bar,  Mr.  Smith  remarked 
that  he  passed  the  best  examination  of  any  student  he  ever  examined  or  ever  saw 
examined. 

After  his  admission  to  the  bar,  he  continued  to  assist  his  brother  in  his  law 
office  until   1874,  and  was  actively  engaged  in  a  large  business.     In  April,  1874, 


548  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO. 

George  F.  Westover  removed  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  firm  of  Shufeldt,  Ball 
and  Westover,  and  J.  Henry  remained  at  Oconomowoc,  where  he  succeeded  to  all 
of  the  business  of  the  office  occupied  by  his  brother  and  himself,  doing  what  is 
seldom  accomplished  by  a  junior  member  of  a  firm  on  the  retirement  of  the 
senior  partner,  viz.,  retained  all  of  their  old  clients,  and  acquired  many  new  ones. 
He  remained  there  until  August,  1877,  and  then  removed  to  Chicago,  and  joined 
the  firm  of  Shufeldt  and  Westover,  where  he  has  remained  ever  since.  This  firm 
has  done  a  very  extensive  commercial  business,  and  at  one  time  their  trial  docket 
exhibited  six  hundred  pending  cases. 

Mr.  Westover  has  a  ready  command  of  language,  is  a  successful  trial  lawyer 
and  an  effective  advocate.  He  was  married  in  1872  to  a  Miss  Stewart  of  Ocono- 
mowoc, Wisconsin.  In  national  politics  Mr.  Westover  is  a  republican,  but  in 
local  matters  is  independent,  supporting  for  office  the  man  whom  he  regards 
most  worthy. 

THOMAS    H.    HOOD. 

THOMAS  H.  HOOD  was  born  in  Chicago,  April  5,  1856,  and  received  his 
primary  education  at  the  Chicago  high  school,  which  he  left  in  1874.  He 
engaged  in  clerking  in  a  hardware  store  for  about  a  year,  when  he  went  to  Beloit 
College,  Wisconsin.  In  1876  he  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  the  Northwestern 
University,  and  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1879.  In  September  of  the 
same  year  he  entered  the  office  of  Wallace  and  Mason,  and  commenced  the  study 
of  law,  and  two  years  later,  in  1881,  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He,  however,  con- 
tinued his  studies  with  Wallace  and  Mason  until  May,  1882,  when  he  began  prac- 
ticing alone.  Mr.  Hood  also  graduated,  in  1881,  from  the  Union  College  of  Law 
of  Chicago.  He  is  a  young  man  of  fine  abilities,  and  a  careful  student,  and  being 
thoroughly  imbued  with  a  love  of  his  profession,  gives  every  promise  of  a  success- 
ful career. 

COL.  ARNO  VOSS. 

ARNO  VOSS  is  one  of  the  oldest  members  of  the  Chicago  bar.  He  removed 
to  Chicago  in  the  year  1849  from  Ohio,  where,  a  few  years  previously,  he  had 
been  admitted  to  the  bar.  A  native  of  Prussia,  he  was  born  on  April  16,  1821. 
In  1852,  he  was  elected  city  attorney,  an  office  which  he  held  until  1854,  having 
been  reflected  in  1853.  At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  he  was 
engaged  in  a  large  and  lucrative  practice  of  his  profession,  which  he  left  to  fight 
for  the  union.  As  colonel  of  the  izth  regiment  111.  Cavalry,  he  went  with  his 
command  to  Virginia,  where  the  same  was  engaged  in  some  very  severe  fighting. 
In  the  month  of  September  1862,  Col.  Voss,  at  the  head  of  the  cavalry  forces  at 
Harper's  Ferry,  about  two  thousand  strong,  cut  his  way  out  of  that  place  through 
the  army  corps  of  Gen.  Longstreet,  besieging  Harper's  Ferry  from  the  Maryland 
side,  while  Gen.  Stonewall  Jackson  had  invested  it  from  the  Virginia  side,  and 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR  OF  CHICAGO.  549 

arrived  with  his  command  at  Greencastle,  in  Pennsylvania,  with  a  loss  of  only 
one  hundred  and  seventy-eight  men.  Leaving  the  service  on  account  of  ill-health 
in  the  beginning  of  1864,  he  resided  for  a  few  years  on  his  farm  in  Will  county, 
Illinois,  and  returned  to  Chicago  in  the  year  1869  to  resume  the  practice  of  the 
law.  In  the  fall  of  1876,  he  was  elected  a  member  of  the  legislature  from  the 
sixth  senatorial  district  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  for  which  office  he  declined  a 
renomination  in  1878.  In  politics,  Col.  Voss  is  known  as  a  Jeffersonian  democrat 
of  very  decided  principles.  He  is  now  occupying  the  honorable  position  of  one 
of  the  masters  in  chancery  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  to  which  he  was 
appointed  on  December  i,  1880. 


LYNN   HELM. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  October  29,  1857,  and  is  the  son  of  H.  T. 
Helm,  a  prominent  attorney  of  Chicago.  After  closing  his  preliminary 
studies  at  Lake  Forest,  he,  in  1875,  entered  Princeton  College,  and  four  years 
later  graduated  with  honor  from  that  institution.  Having  decided  to  devote  him- 
self to  the  legal  profession,  he  pursued  a  thorough  course  of  law  studies,  and 
was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  and  immediately  thereafter  became  associ- 
ated in  business  with  his  father,  under  the  firm  name  of  H.  T.  and  L.  Helm.  Mr. 
Helm  is  a  young  man  of  good  abilities,  studious,  persevering  and  energetic,  with 
a  clear,  comprehensive  mind,  and,  if  true  to  himself,  may  take  a  first  rank  in  his 
chosen  profession.  In  religious  belief,  Mr.  Helm  is  a  Presbyterian.  He  does  not 
take  any  active  part  in  political  affairs,  but  in  his  principles  and  sentiments  is  a 
democrat. 

T.    HOLMES    NORTH. 

THE  gentleman  whose  sketch  we  here  present  was  born  at  Marcellus,  Onon- 
daga  county,  New  York,  March  19,  1823.  His  parents,  Nathan  North  and 
Mary  Ann  (Holmes)  North,  followed  agricultural  pursuits,  and  young  North,  in 
the  first  instance,  received  his  education  at  the  plough,  in  the  spring-time,  with  the 
farming  routine,  until  winter,  when  he  attended  the  district  school,  until  he  was 
sixteen  years  of  age.  Failing  in  health,  he  was  sent  to  the  seminary  at  Cazeno- 
via,  New  York  (since  endowed  as  a  college),  and  educated  for  the  ministry. 

He  taught  school  winters  six  years  to  pay  expenses  of  educating  himself.  In 
1847  he  commenced  his  career  as  a  Methodist  minister,  and  preached  some  four- 
teen years,  and,  a  change  of  belief  having  developed  in  his  mind,  he  imbibing 
the  doctrine  of  universal  salvation  of  mankind,  ceased  preaching  and  commenced 
mercantile  pursuits,  which  he  followed  for  five  years. 

Having  during  his  clerical  labors,  and  while  in  mercantile  business,  studied 
law,  he  in  1868,  while  at  Freeport,  Illinois,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  the  state 
to  practice  law,  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois,  and  subsequently  admitted  to 


550  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States,  at  Washington,  District  of 
Columbia. 

In  1860,  Mr.  North  removed  to  Texas,  where  he  remained,  following  merchan- 
dising, until  the  last  year  of  the  war,  and  going  from  Galveston  to  Brenham,  and 
from  there  to  San  Antonio,  the  climate  of  the  Lone  Star  State  became  too  warm 
for  the  peaceful  residence  of  a  northern  man,  and  he  took  refuge  with  his  family 
at  Matamoras,  Mexico,  where  he  remained  until  June  17,  1865,  when,  with  his 
family,  he  took  a  government  transport  to  New  Orleans,  by  way  of  the  Gulf  of 
Mexico.  Sending  his  family  north,  he  returned  to  Texas  to  look  after  his  mer- 
cantile interest,  and  gathering  up  what  fragments  he  could  of  debts  after  the 
war,  he  came  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  since  followed  the  routine  of  his  profes- 
sion. 

Mr.  North  was  a  republican  in  politics  until  1858,  when,  during  the  campaign 
between  S.  A.  Douglas  and  A.  Lincoln,  he  became  a  Douglas  democrat,  and  has 
since  identified  himself  with  that  party. 

In  1843,  Mr.  North  married  Miss  Mary  J.  Hall,  in  Jordan,  Onondaga  county, 
New  York,  a  niece  of  Judge  Hall,  of  Syracuse,  and  by  the  union  has  had  eight 
children,  four  boys  and  four  girls,  four  of  whom  are  living.  Mr.  North  is  a  forci- 
ble speaker,  a  careful,  painstaking  lawyer,  and  a  good  citizen.  Mr.  North  has 
written  a  work,  doubtless  suggested  by  his  experience  in  the  South  during  the 
rebellion,  entitled  "  Five  Years  in  Texas." 


ABRAM    M.    PENCE. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  an  able  lawyer  of  over  twenty  years  of  success- 
ful practice.  He  was  born  March  26,  1838,  in  Urbana,  Ohio,  and  is  the  son 
of  David  Pence.  Abram  M.  spent  the  early  part  of  his  life  on  a  farm,  where  he 
attained  habits  of  industry,  and  imbibed  the  principles  of  strict  integrity  and 
manly  uprightness,  which  have  been  his  leading  characteristics  throughout  all  of 
his  transactions,  either  in  connection  with  his  profession,  or  in  other  matters  of 
business.  Being  an  apt  scholar,  he  readily  attained  the  rudiments  of  an  educa- 
tion; entered  Miami  University,  at  Oxford,  Ohio,  and  graduated  from  that  insti- 
tution in  1860,  at  the  age  of  twenty-two,  at  the  head  of  his  class.  He  then  entered 
Cincinnati  Law  School,  where  he  made  great  proficiency  in  the  law,  and  received 
the  compliment  of  the  professors  of  being  one  of  the  most  promising  students 
that  ever  attended  that  celebrated  school.  He  graduated  from  that  institution 
in  1862. 

At  the  age  of  twenty-six,  Mr.  Pence  was  married  to  a  very  refined  lady,  highly 
educated  and  accomplished,  in  the  person  of  Miss  Mary  Wheeler,  of  Findlay,  Ohio. 

In  1880  Mr.  Pence,  with  his  family,  traveled  over  Europe.  He  is  a  gentleman 
of  fine  presence,  having  a  robust  constitution,  standing  erect,  having  a  high, 
broad  forehead.  He  is  dignified,  but  not  reserved.  He  is  learned  in  his  pro- 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  551 

fession,  and  especially  in  real  estate  and  chancery  law  has  a  very  high  reputation. 
No  one  of  his  age  in  the  state  has  appeared  more  frequently  before  the  supreme 
court  of  the  state,  and  with  the  greatest  success,  as  the  reports  of  that  court  will 
show.  A  difficult  case  but  increases  his  appetite  for  labor.  Mr.  Pence  is  now 
the  president  of  the  Chicago  Law  Institute,  an  association  of  the  leading  lawyers 
of  the  city,  and  who  own  one  of  the  finest  law  libraries  in  the  world.  Mr.  Pence 
is  always  affable  and  courteous,  but  firm  as  a  rock  in  all  his  convictions.  He  has 
always  stood  fast  by  his  profession,  constantly  refusing  to  step  aside  into  any 
other  vocation,  even  for  the  shortest  time.  He  is  recognized  as  standing  among 
the  leaders  of  the  bar.  As  an  advocate  he  has  a  happy  faculty  of  presenting  his 
thoughts  clearly  and  forcibly  to  both  court  and  jury.  As  a  citizen  he  possesses 
the  confidence  of  all  who  know  him,  and  is  highly  esteemed  by  those  who  appre- 
ciate a  gentleman  of  intelligence  and  culture. 


BENJAMIN    F.  AVER. 

BENJAMIN  F.  AVER  was  born  at  Kingston,  Rockingham  county,  New 
Hampshire,  April  22,  1825;  being  the  eighth  in  line  of  descent  from  John 
Ayer,  who  emigrated  from  England  in  1637,  and  settled  at  Haverhill,  Massachu- 
setts in  1645.  His  father  was  a  merchant  noted  for  his  business  sagacity  and 
enterprise,  who  died  in  May,  1875,  near  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  at  the 
advanced  age  of  eighty-three  years.  Benjamin  F.  was  fitted  for  college  at  the 
Albany  Academy,  Albany,  New  York,  and  having  afterward  pursued  the  regular 
course  of  study  at  Dartmouth  College,  graduated  from  that  institution  in  1846. 
Upon  leaving  Dartmouth  he  studied  law  at  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  for  two 
years,  and  passed  one  year  at  the  Harvard  Law  School.  Having  completed  his 
preparatory  legal  studies,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  July,  1849,  and  immedi- 
ately afterward  opened  an  office  at  Manchester,  New  Hampshire,  where  he 
obtained  a  large  and  profitable  patronage. 

He  was  elected  to  a  seat  in  the  state  legislature  in  1853,  and  was  subsequently 
appointed  prosecuting  attorney  for  Hillsborough  county,  an  office  which  he  held 
with  distinction  for  three  years.  In  1857  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  from  1861 
to  1865  held  the  office  of  corporation  counsel.  While  acting  in  this  capacity  he 
prepared  the  revised  charter  of  that  city,  which  was  adopted  in  1863.  Since  1865 
he  has  been  persistent  in  his  refusals  of  public  office,  though  often  solicited  to 
accept.  He  is  possessed  of  rare  legal  ability,  has  a  thorough  acquaintance  with 
the  science  of  law  in  all  its  branches,  and  the  power  of  presenting  his  ideas  in  a 
clear,  terse  and  convincing  manner.  His  reputation  is  that  of  a  thorough  and 
well  read  lawyer,  a  courteous  gentleman,  and  a  substantial  citizen. 

In  1876  he  accepted  the  office  of  general  solicitor  of  the  Illinois  Central  Rail- 
road Company,  a  corporation  closely  identified  with  the  growth,  interests,  and 
prosperity  of  the  state.  As  manager  of  the  legal  relations  of  this  company  with 


552  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  public,  he  has  earned  a  high  reputation  for  fairness  and  just  dealing,  and  no 
member  of  the  bar  enjoys  more  than  he  the  confidence  of  his  brethren  in  the  pro- 
fession, or  a  greater  influence  with  the  court.  He  is  a  man  of  fine  perception,  and 
is  possessed  of  a  retentive  memory,  a  logical  mind,  and  a  sound  and  mature 
judgment.  These  gifts  are  united  to  habits  of  close  application  and  great  indus- 
try. He  is  in  all  things  cool,  keen  and  conscientious,  and  an  honor  to  the  profes- 
sion in  every  way. 

Mr.  Ayer  was  married  in  1868,  to  Miss  Jennie  A.  Hopkins,  daughter  of  Hon. 
James  C.  Hopkins,  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court,  of  Madison,  Wiscon- 
sin. 

DANIEL    MORAN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  of  Irish  descent,  and  was  born  March  4,  1845,  at 
Ballinafadd,  County  Roscommon,  Ireland;  the  son  of  John  Moran  and  Sarah 
(Crogan)  Moran.  He  was  educated  in  Ohio  and  Indiana,  and  studied  law  with 
D.  W.  Ayres,  of  Sheldon,  Illinois.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Springfield, 
Illinois,  January  4,  1878,  and  is  also  a  member  of  the  bar  of  the  state  of  Indiana. 
He  served  as  a  scout  on  the  plains  during  1878  and  1879,  and  has  been  in  several 
engagements,  among  the  most  memorable  of  which  was  that  of  the  massacre  of 
the  settlers  of  Salt  river,  Kansas;  at  the  massacre  of  railroad  laborers  at  Fossil 
creek  and  Norfolk,  Kansas. 

Mr.  Moran  is  a  lawyer  of  good  ability,  energetic,  upright  and  persevering,  and 
destined  to  make  his  mark  in  the  profession. 


HUGH    CUNNING. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography,  a  son  of  Patrick  Cunning  and  Elizabeth 
(Nowry)  Cunning,  was  born  March  22,  1824,  at  Pittsburgh,  Pennsylvania. 
His  father  was  a  native  of  Coldrain,  on  the  river  Ban  North,  of  Ireland,  whence 
he  emigrated  to'America  in  1822,  settling  first  at  Baltimore,  Maryland,  but  shortly 
afterward  removing  to  Pittsburgh.  The  mother  of  our  subject  was  of  Scotch 
descent. 

The  boy  first  began  attending  school  when  he  was  five  years  old,  in  his  native 
city;  but  two  years  later,  his  father,  being  unsuccessful  in  business  in  the  city, 
leased  a  farm,  and  removed  his  family  thither.  The  soil  was  poor,  and  it  was 
only  by  dint  of  hard  work  that  he  could  gain  a  livelihood,  and  give  his  boy  the 
education  which  he  desired.  At  that  day  the  log  school-house,  with  its  huge 
fire-place,  was  to  be  seen  in  every  district,  and  people  were  strangers  to  all  those 
improved  methods  of  instruction  and  educational  appliances  which  characterize 
the  public  schools  of  to-day.  Yet  the  society  was  good,  and  the  farmers  in  their 
primitive  and  simple  homes  were  happy  and  contented. 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  553 

Our  subject  early  developed  a  fondness  for  study  and  self-culture,  and  so 
applied  himself  to  his  studies,  together  with  general  and  useful  reading,  that 
when  sixteen  years  of  age  he  was  well  fitted  for  teaching.  After  teaching  two 
terms,  he  took  a  trip  through  the  states  of  Illinois,  Wisconsin  and  Iowa,  and  was 
so  much  pleased  with  the  country  and  the  enterprise  which  he  everywhere  saw 
exhibited,  that  he  resolved  to  induce  his  father  to  remove  to  the  West.  In  this, 
however,  he  was  unsuccessful,  since  the  old  gentleman  was  firm  in  his  determi- 
nation not  to  "go  out  among  the  Indians."  Nevertheless,  he  did  induce  his  father 
to  leave  the  place  in  which  he  was  then  living,  and  purchase  a  large  farm  near 
Beaver,  twenty-eight  miles  from  Pittsburgh.  Here  he  employed  his  time  man- 
aging the  farm  during  summers,  and  through  the  winter  months  pursued  his 
studies,  often  poring  over  his  books  until  the  hour  of  midnight.  Thus  he  con- 
tinued to  work  and  study  until  1850,  when,  all  incumbrances  being  removed  from 
the  homestead,  and  feeling  that  he  could  be  spared  by  his  father,  he  began  study- 
ing for  the  profession  which  he  had  long  desired  to  enter,  and  which  he  has  since 
honored. 

Entering  the  office  of  Hon.  S.  B.  Wilson,  an  eminent  lawyer  of  Beaver,  he 
applied  himself  assiduously  for  two  years,  at  the  end  of  which  time  he  passed  an 
examination  before  the  authorized  examining  committee,  and  received  his  license 
admitting  him  to  practice.  Immediately  thereafter,  he  removed  to  Port  Wash- 
ington, Wisconsin,  and  opening  an  office,  began  the  work  of  building  up  a  busi- 
ness, and  making  for  himself  a  name.  He  remained  at  Port  Washington  until 
1869,  and  became  widely  known  throughout  the  state  of  Wisconsin,  being  asso- 
ciated in  many  cases  with  Hon.  Matt  H.  Carpenter,  and  Hon.  Edward  G.  Ryan, 
late  chief-justice  of  the  supreme  court  of  that  state.  Mr.  Cunning  was  attorney 
in  many  important  cases,  one  especially  deserving  of  mention  being  reported  in 
the  sixteenth  volume,  "  Wisconsin  Reports."  It  was  a  case  growing  out  of  a 
resistance  of  the  draft  during  the  war,  the  Germans  who  were  drafted  charging 
fraud  upon  the  officials.  Being  infuriated  at  what  they  regarded  unfair  treatment, 
it  became  necessary  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  United  States  troops,  and  one  hundred 
and  thirty  of  them  were  placed  under  arrest.  Assisted  by  E.  G.  Ryan,  Mr.  Cunning 
applied  for  writs  of  habeas  corpus,  which  were  granted  by  the  supreme  court  of  the 
state,  and  when  the  matter  was  presented  before  that  tribunal,  the  parties  were  re- 
leased. From  the  exciting  causes  leading  to  the  trouble,  and  the  large  number  of 
persons  interested  in  the  issue,  the  case  probably  created  more  attention  than  any 
other  case  that  ever  came  before  the  courts  of  that  state,  and  out  of  it  grew  a  num- 
ber of  very  important  cases,  in  which  Mr.  Cunning  was  employed  as  attorney. 
During  his  residence  at  Port  Washington,  he  became  known  not  only  as  an  able 
lawyer  and  advocate,  but  also  as  an  enterprising  and  public-spirited  citizen.  In 
1859  he  was  honored  with  the  appointment  of  collector  of  customs,  but  declined  the 
office.  In  the  following  year,  1860,  he  was  elected  to  the  state  senate,  and  during 
the  term  of  his  office,  two  years,  represented  his  district  with  distinguished  ability. 
Among  his  services  may  be  mentioned  the  securing  of  a  grant  of  land  for  a  col- 
59 


554  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ony  in  San  Salvador,  Central  America,  with  free  transportation  by  the  government 
of  San  Salvador.  The  favorite  scheme  was,  however,  rendered  impracticable,  and 
abandoned,  by  reason  of  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion. 

After  leaving  Wisconsin,  in  1869,  Mr.  Cunning  settled  in  Chicago  and  resumed 
the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  until  his  health  became  impaired,  in  1879,  was 
constantly  and  actively  employed.  As  a  lawyer,  he  is  careful  and  conscientious, 
thoroughly  investigating  the  law  of  his  cases,  while  as  an  advocate,  though  sin- 
gularly unostentatious,  his  arguments  are  strong  and  effective. 

His  religious  training  was  under  Roman  Catholic  influences.  In  political 
sentiment  he  is  a  democrat,  but  since  settling  in  Chicago  he  has  given  little 
attention  to  politics  more  than  to  perform  his  duties  as  a  citizen. 

Mr.  Cunning  was  married,  in  1857,  to  Catharine  Kenna,  a  niece  of  N.  Kenna,  a 
merchant  of  Fort  Washington,  Wisconsin. 

Mr.  Cunning's  disease,  epilepsy,  being  pronounced  incurable  by  his  physi- 
cians, the  pathology  of  the  disease  remaining  unknown  to  the  profession,  he  went 
to  work  with  a  will  to  study  the  disease,  in  which,  after  several  years,  he  has  been 
entirely  successful,  and  is  now  preparing  a  work  on  the  pathological  anatomy  of 
the  disease,  which  he  hopes  will  not  only  render  the  prevention  and  cure  of  this 
and  kindred  diseases  possible,  but  sure  and  simple.  After  the  completion  of  this 
work,  he  will  again  resume  the  practice  of  his  profession. 


JAMES  M.  FLOWER. 

JAMES  MONROE  FLOWER  hails  from  the  Empire  State,  dating  his  birth  at 
Hannibal,  Oswego  county,  March  10,  1835.  Both  parents,  Calvin  and  Hannah 
(Phillips)  Flower,  were  natives  of  Ashfield,  Massachusetts,  and  descendants  of 
early  settlers  in  that  state.  In  1844,  when  James  was  only  nine  years  old,  the 
family  came  west,  settling  on  a  farm  at  Sun  Prairie,  Wisconsin,  where  the  father 
still  lives,  losing  his  wife  in  the  summer  of  1881.  Our  subject  was  educated  at 
the  University  of  Wisconsin,  teaching  two  winters  while  in  college,  and  graduat- 
ing in  the  class  of  1856.  He  read  law  at  Madison,  Wisconsin,  filling,  meanwhile, 
from  the  autumn  of  1856  to  the  autumn  of  1857,  the  office  of  deputy  clerk  of  the 
supreme  court.  The  next  year  he  was  clerk  of  the  commissioners  appointed  to 
revise  the  statutes  of  the  state,  and  went  to  Hartford,  Connecticut,  to  assist  in 
their  publication,  going  thence  to  the  Albany  Law  School,  graduating  in  May  1859. 

Mr.  Flower  returned  to  Wisconsin,  opened  an  office  at  Madison  in  the  spring 
of  1860,  and  there  practiced  until  the  close  of  1872.  While  in  that  city  he  held 
the  office  of  police  justice  two  years  during  the  civil  war,  and  after  its  close  was 
deputy  collector  of  internal  revenue. 

On  January  i,  1873,  Mr.  Flower  opened  an  office  in  Chicago,  and  soon  built  up 
a  good  practice  in  the  several  courts,  making  a  specialty  of  commercial  law.  He 
is  receiver  for  the  German  National  Bank  of  Chicago.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  well 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  555 

educated,  able,  accurate  and  painstaking,  and  faithful  in  the  cause  of  his  clients. 
His  standing  at  the  bar  is  excellent. 

Mr.  Flower  is  a  decided  republican  in  politics,  yet  we  cannot  learn  that  he 
devotes  much  time  to  such  matters  except  to  vote,  his  professional  studies  and 
practice  taking  the  precedence  over  everything  else.  Evidently  his  ambition  is  to 
excel  in  his  chosen  field  of  intellectual  labor,  and  he  is  taking  the  right  course. 

His  wife  was  Lucy  L.  Cones,  of  Washington,  D.C.,  they  being  married  in 
September,  1862,  and  having  three  children. 


HON.  WILLIAM  ERNEST  MASON. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Franklinville,  Cattaraugus  county, 
New  York,  and  was  born  July  7,  1850,  the  son  of  Lewis  J.  and  Nancy  (Wins- 
low)  Mason.  His  father,  who  was  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits,  was  an  enter- 
prising, energetic  man  of  marked  character,  and  highly  respected  by  all  who 
knew  him.  He  was  an  earnest  abolitionist  and  an  active  politician,  and  supported 
John  C.  Fremont  for  the  presidency.  Removing  to  Bentonsport,Van  Buren  county, 
Iowa,  with  his  family  in  1858  he  lived  there  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in 
1865.  The  mother  survived  the  father  ten  years,  and  died  in  1875.  William  being 
thus  early  thrown  upon  his  own  resources,  developed  an  independence  of  character 
which  has  marked  all  his  doings,  and  he  may  truly  be  called  the  "architect  of 
his  own  fortune."  He  gained  his  early  education  in  the  public  schools  of  his 
native  village,  and  later  at  Bentonsport,  Iowa.  At  the  age  of  thirteen  he  entered 
Birmingham  College,  in  Van  Buren  county,  Iowa,  and  studied  there  two  years.  He 
afterward  taught  during  two  winters  in  district  schools,  and  in  1868,  going  to 
Des  Moines,  Iowa,  was  there  employed  during  the  next  two  years,  in  teaching. 

Having  determined  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  he,  in  1870,  began  his  law 
studies  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Thomas  F.  Withrow,  at  Des  Moines.  Mr.  Withrow 
was  soon  afterward  appointed  general  solicitor  of  the  Rock  Island  Railroad  Com- 
pany, and  removed  to  Chicago,  whither  Mr.  Mason  accompanied  him,  and 
remained  in  his  office  about  one  year.  At  the  expiration  of  that  time,  he  entered 
the  office  of  Hon.  John  N.  Jewett,  one  of  Chicago's  most  eminent  lawyers,  and 
there  continued  his  studies  and  practice  for  five  years.  Having  now  familiarized 
himself  with  the  principles  and  practice  of  his  profession,  and  feeling  himself 
thoroughly  qualified  for  its  duties,  he  began  business  on  his  own  account,  form- 
ing a  partnership  with  Judge  M.  R.  M.  Wallace.  This  was  in  1877.  Since  that 
time  the  business  of  the  firm  has  been  greatly  extended,  and  every  year  widens 
its  scope  and  influence.  As  an  advocate  Mr.  Mason  is  noted  for  his  superior 
qualities,  being  counted  among  the  first  jury  lawyers  of  Chicago,  and  his  talents 
in  this  direction  having  called  him  into  many  of  the  most  important  cases  that 
have  come  before  the  courts. 

In  political  sentiment  Mr.  Mason  is  a  firm  and  earnest  republican.     He  has 


556  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

taken  an  active  part  in  many  political  campaigns,  advocating  and  defending,  in 
face  of  the  strongest  opposition,  the  principles  of  the  party,  and  by  fearlessly  and 
enthusiastically  upholding  the  cause  which  he  has  espoused,  won  to  himself  many 
friends  and  admirers.  Mr.  Mason  was  a  member  of  the  thirty-first  general  assem- 
bly from  the  old  fifth  district,  and  in  November,  1882,  was  elected  to  the  state 
senate  from  the  new  ninth  district,  which  embraces  the  northwestern  part  of  the 
city  of  Chicago.  He  is  chairman  of  the  committee  on  warehouses,  and  on  the 
committee  on  judiciary,  judicial  department,  corporations,  insurance,  military 
affairs  and  miscellany. 

Mr.  Mason  possesses  personal  and  social  qualities  of  a  high  order — open 
hearted  and  generous,  he  has  attracted  to  himself  many  friends,  who  know  him 
as  a  genial  companion  and  true  friend.  He  was  married  in  1873  to  Miss  Julia 
Edith  White,  daughter  of  George  White,  a  wholesale  merchant  of  Des  Moines, 
Iowa.  Although  a  young  man,  Mr.  Mason  has  achieved  an  enviable  success  in 
his  profession,  and  with  his  fair  record,  may  confidently  look  forward  to  the  ful- 
fillment of  his  best  hopes  and  highest  ambitions. 


JOHN  VAN  ARMAN. 

THE  gentleman  whose  name  we  have  placed  at  the  head  of  this  sketch  enjoys 
a  deservedly  high  reputation  as  a  criminal  lawyer,  yet  probably  nine-tenths 
of  his  legal  business  is  in  the  civil  courts.  He  has,  however,  in  the  last  thirty 
years  been  engaged  in  a  large  number  of  important  criminal  cases,  which  have 
attracted  much  attention,  and  in  which  he  gained  great  distinction  as  an  advo- 
cate. Mr.  Van  Arman  was  born  at  Plattsburgh,  Clinton  county,  New  York,  March 
3,  1820,  his  parents  being  John  and  Tamar(Dewey)  Van  Arman.  He  is  of  Holland 
descent  on  his  father's  side,  and  French  on  his  mother's.  His  paternal  grand- 
father, John  Van  Arman,  came  from  the  old  country  before  the  American  revo- 
lution: settled  in  the  Mohawk  Valley,  and  lived  to  be  a  hundred  years  old.  The 
father  of  our  subject  was  for  nearly  fifty  years  a  lumberman  on  Lake  Champlain, 
and  the  St.  Lawrence  and  Sorel  rivers,  and  died  from  the  effects  of  an  accident, 
at  ninety-seven  years  of  age.  He  was  at  the  battle  of  Bennington,  being  in  his 
sixteenth  year.  The  maternal  grandfather  of  our  subject  was  a  soldier  in  France 
and  the  West  Indies,  and  a  son  of  his  fought  under  Gen.  Scott  at  Lundy's  Lane. 
John  Van  Arman  was  the  youngest  child  in  a  family  of  fourteen  children,  and 
losing  his  mother  when  five  years  old,  the  family  became  scattered,  and  John  went 
to  live  with  a  farmer,  named  Luther  Stearns.  The  two  did  not  get  along  very  ami- 
cably together,  and  before  John  had  reached  his  twelfth  year,  without  the  consent 
of  anybody  but  himself,  he  suddenly  dissolved  the  partnership.  He  continued  to 
work  by  the  month  or  day  at  anything  which  turned  up,  until  fifteen  years  of  age, 
when,  by  dint  of  self-instruction,  he  had  prepared  himself  to  teach  a  district 
school.  The  vocation  of  a  teacher  he  followed  during  the  winter  season,  until 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  559 

eighteen  years  of  age.  Meantime,  by  the  aid  of  a  classical  teacher,  he  acquired 
at  Plattsburgh  and  Chazy  Village,  a  good  knowledge  of  the  Latin  and  some 
knowledge  of  the  Greek  languages.  Mr.  Van  Arman  commenced  the  study  of 
law  at  Plattsburgh,  under  William  Swetland,  and  finished  at  Troy,  under  George 
Gould,  afterward  judge  of  the  court  of  appeals.  He  went  to  New  York  city,  was 
admitted  to  the  bar,  and  immediately  came  westward,  as  far  as  Michigan,  and 
settled  in  Marshall.  There  he  practiced  until  1858,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago. 

Mr.  Van  Arman  was  first  brought  prominently  into  public  notice  as  a  lawyer 
in  1851,  when  he  was  employed  by  the  Michigan  Central  Railroad  Company  in 
the  great  railroad  conspiracy  case,  as  it  was  called,  when  forty  men  were  tried  for 
repeatedly  throwing  the  cars  off  the  track,  burning  depots,  etc.  James  A.  Van 
Dyke  and  Mr.  Van  Arman  had  control  of  the  case  for  the  prosecution,  with 
several  other  lawyers  as  assistants,  and  Hon.  William  H.  Seward,  and  perhaps  a 
dozen  others  for  defendants.  The  trial  lasted  four  months;  twelve  persons  were 
convicted  and  sent  to  the  penitentiary,  and  three  others,  under  trial,  died  before 
it  ended.  It  was  a  severe  test  of  physical  endurance,  and  Mr.  Van  Dyke  died 
only  a  short  time  afterward,  and  it  was  believed  by  some  of  his  associates  in  the 
trial,  that  his  death  was  caused  by  over  exertion  on  that  memorable  occasion.  Mr. 
Van  Arman  stood  up  heroically  through  it  all,  and  his  two  days'  speech  made  on 
that  occasion,  may  be  found  in  the  history  of  that  trial,  which  made  a  volume  of 
seven  hundred  or  eight  hundred  pages. 

In  1858  Mr.  Van  Arman  settled  in  Chicago,  and  was  of  the  firm  of  Walker, 
Van  Arman  and  Dexter,  until  1862,  when  he  raised  a  regiment  of  infantry,  the 
i27th  Illinois,  went  into  the  field,  and  remained  about  a  year,  when  his  health 
having  failed,  he  resigned.  He  traveled  a  while  for  his  benefit,  and  in  the  course 
of  a  year  and  a  half  or  two  years,  he  resumed  his  practice  in  this  city.  He  is  of 
the  firm  of  Van  Arman  and  Gordon,  his  partner  being  A.  H.  Gordon. 

Since  becoming  a  resident  of  Chicago,  Mr.  Van  Arman  has  been  engaged  in 
several  noted  criminal  trials,  but  we  shall  mention  only  three  or  four.  One  of 
them  was  that  of  Jamperts,  accused  of  murdering  his  mistress,  and  known  as  the 
barrel  case,  because  the  remains  of  the  woman  were  packed  in  a  barrel.  Mr.  Van 
Arman  was  counsel  for  the  defense  and  cleared  Jamperts  on  the  second  trial. 
Another  was  the  Burch  divorce  case,  in  which  our  subject  was  attorney  for  the 
plaintiff,  and  which  case  he  ultimately  won.  Still  another  was  the  case  of  Van- 
derpool,  tried  for  the  murder  of  Field.  Mr.  Vanderpool  had  been  tried  and  con- 
victed in  Michigan,  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment  for  life,  but  on  a  second  trial 
the  jury  could  not  agree,  and  on  a  third  he  was  acquitted.  At  the  close  of  the 
second  trial,  it  was  so  plain  to  Mr.  Van  Arman  what  the  result  would  be  that  he 
took  no  part  in  it. 

Our  subject  has  been  employed  in  many  other  criminal  trials,  in  which  he  has 
acquitted  himself  with  great  honor,  and  which  have  extended  his  reputation  as  an 
attorney  and  advocate.  Many  of  the  speeches  made  by  Mr.  Van  Arman  before  a 
jury  have  been  published,  and  most  of  them  are  marked  by  great  strength  of  logic. 


560  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Van  Arman  was  attorney  for  four  years,  for  the  Chicago,  Burlington  and 
Quincy  Railroad  Company,  but  has  never,  we  believe,  held  a  political  office  of 
any  kind.  In  the  days  when  Michigan  was  a  democratic  state,  he  was  repeatedly 
urged  to  accept  a  nomination  for  congress,  but  he  steadfastly  refused  to  comply 
with  the  wishes  of  his  then  political  confreres.  He  left  the  democratic  party  on 
the  breaking  out  of  the  civil  war. 

Mr.  Van  Arman  was  joined  in  wedlock  in  March,  1841,  with  Miss  Amanda  Con- 
vis,  daughter  of  Gen.  Ezra  Convis,  speaker  of  the  Michigan  house  of  representa- 
tives at  the  time  of  his  death,  in  1837,  and  they  have  had  three  children,  only  one 
of  them,  Helen  Z.,  the  wife  of  James  Bradish  of  Colorado,  now  living.  Mrs.  Van 
Arman  has  a  good  deal  of  artistic  taste,  and  amuses  herself  more  or  less  in  land- 
scape and  other  painting.  Her  work  shows  decided  talent  in  that  direction. 


SAMUEL  APPLETON. 

SAMUEL  APPLETON  was  born  at  Boston,  Massachusetts,  November  25,  1842, 
and  is  a  son  of  Samuel  A.  Appleton,  a  well  known  and  prominent  merchant 
of  that  city.  His  mother  was  Julia  (Webster)  Appleton,  a  daughter  of  Daniel 
Webster.  He  was  educated  primarily  in  the  Boston  schools,  and  graduated  from 
Yale  College.  He  was  in  college  when  the  late  war  broke  out,  and  left  to  join 
the  I2th  Mass.  Inf.,  in  the  summer  of  1861.  That  regiment  was  commanded  by 
his  uncle,  Col.  Fletcher  Webster.  During  his  first  year  of  service  he  was  advanced 
to  the  rank  of  lieutenant,  which  position  he  retained  until  he  was  mustered  out 
on  account  of  his  ill  health,  when  he  returned  to  Yale  College,  completed  his 
course,  and  graduated  in  1863,  when  he  entered  the  Harvard  Law  School,  where 
he  graduated,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1870,  since  which  time  he  has  been 
practicing  in  Chicago,  doing  a  general  business. 

In  1872  he  married  Anna  M.  Jones,  of  Boston,  and  by  her  has  two  sons  and 
two  daughters. 

HORATIO  L.  WAIT. 

HORATIO  LOOMIS  WAIT,  master  in  chancery  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook 
county,  is  a  native  of  the  city  of  New  York,  dating  his  birth  August  8, 
1836.  His  father,  Joseph  Wait,  was  a  merchant  in  that  city.  His  grandfather, 
Marmaduke  Wait,  served  in  the  second  war  with  England,  and  his  great-grand- 
father, Joseph  Wait,  of  Vermont,  was  a  colonel  in  the  first  war  serving  under  Gen. 
Ethan  Allen.  The  mother  of  Horatio  was  Harriet  Heileman  Whitney,  a  native 
of  Boston,  Massachusetts.  She  is  still  living.  Her  husband  died  years  ago  at 
Jersey  City,  New  Jersey. 

Mr.  Wait  was  educated  at  Columbia  College  grammar  school;    came  to  Chi- 
cago in   1856;    read  law  with  Joseph  N.  Barker,  but  before  being  admitted    to 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  561 

practice,  civil  war  having  broken  out,  he  entered  the  navy,  and  remained  there  for 
nine  years,  joining  the  European  squadron  after  peace  was  declared. 

Mr.  Wait  left  the  navy  in  1870,  and  in  the  same  year  was  admitted  to  the  bar, 
and  opened  an  office  in  Chicago,  soon  finding  a  good  business  on  his  hands.  In 
1876  he  was  appointed  master  in  chancery,  and  since  that  date  has  made  a  spe- 
cialty of  chancery  practice.  He  ignores  politics  almost  entirely,  and  attends  exclu- 
sively to  the  study  and  duties  of  his  profession.  A  gentleman  who  knows  Mr. 
Wait  well,  thus  writes  to  the  editor  of  this  work:  Mr.  H.  L.  Wait  is  a  polished 
gentleman,  a  scholar  of  unusual  attainments,  and  a  conversationalist  of  marked 
ability.  He  has  also  been  an  extensive  traveler.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  well  read,  of 
excellent  judgment,  and  of  unimpeachable  integrity.  He  has  for  some  years 
occupied  the  position  of  master  in  chancery  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county, 
by  the  appointment  of  the  judges  of  that  court. 

Mr.  Wait  is  a  vestryman  of  St.  Paul's  Episcopal  Church,  Hyde  Park,  and  a  man 
of  high  standing  in  the  community. 

In  1860  he  was  joined  in  marriage  with  Chara  Conant  Long,  daughter  of 
James  Long  of  Chicago,  and  they  have  two  children,  both  sons. 


EDWARD    L.    BARBER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  native  of  Rhode  Island,  and  was  born  in 
Hopkinton,  May  20,  1843.  His  father  was  Lillibridge  Barber,  a  cotton 
manufacturer  and  a  leading  citizen  of  Hopkinton.  His  grandfather  was  Col. 
Edward  Barber,  a  well  known  politician  and  office-holder.  His  mother  was 
Thankful  (Lillibridge)  Barber,  a  daughter  of  Amos  Lillibridge,  a  prominent  and 
wealthy  citizen  of  Richmond,  Rhode  Island.  Edward's  parents  settled  at  Dela- 
van,  Wisconsin,  in  1854,  whence  his  father  went  to  Edgerton,  Rock  county,  Wis- 
consin, and  purchased  a  large  part  of  the  town  site,  and  to  him  is  largely  due 
the  beauty  of  that  place.  He  was  extensively  engaged  in  farming  and  brick 
making,  and  Edward  L.  was  kept  in  charge  of  the  brick-yard. 

In  1863,  Edward  engaged  in  the  recruiting  service,  and  in  the  following  year 
enlisted  in  the  4oth  Wis.  Vol.  Inf.  He  had  charge  of  the  Rollo  Road  picket  line, 
under  Gen.  C.  C.  Washburn,  and  was  afterward  in  charge  of  the  Memphis  and 
Charleston  railroad  line. 

He  graduated  from  Milton  College,  Wisconsin,  in  1865,  and  was  honored  by 
being  chosen  to  deliver  the  valedictory  address.  He  studied  law  with  Carter, 
Pitkin  and  Davis.  Mr.  Carter,  at  the  present  time,  is  the  law  partner  of  ex-Gov. 
Chamberlain,  in  New  York  city,  and  during  the  war  was  at  the  head  of  the 
Christian  commission  in  the  army.  Mr.  Pitkin  is  the  present  governor  of  Colo- 
rado. Mr.  Barber  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Wisconsin,  May  16,  1866,  before 
Hon.  Arthur  McArthur,  the  circuit  judge  at  Milwaukee.  He  immediately  began 
to  practice  in  Milwaukee,  and  continued  there  about  one  year.  He  then  spent 


562  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

two  years  traveling  through  the  various  states  and  territories  of  the  Union,  after 
which  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  entered  upon  the  practice  of  his  profession  in 
the  office  of  Bates  and  Tousley.  Mr.  Bates  was  afterward  United  States  attorney 
for  the  territory  of  Utah.  He  was  afterward  in  business  with  Garrison,  Anderson 
and  Eastman,  up  to  the  time  of  the  great  fire  of  1871,  when  he  was  burned  out, 
suffering  the  loss,  among  other  things,  of  a  valuable  library.  Since  that  time  he 
has  been  in  business  for  himself,  with  good  success.  He  is  attorney  for  several 
corporations,  and  also  has  a  large  chancery  practice.  Mr.  Barber  is  a  gentleman 
of  fine  personal  appearance,  sociability  and  courtesy,  and  attracts  to  himself  many 
friends.  He  was  married  October  24,  1872,  to  Miss  Annie  Shaw,  of  Bangor, 
Maine,  an  estimable  and  highly  educated  and  refined  lady. 


GEORGE  SCOVILLE. 

DURING  the  celebrated  trial  of  Charles  J.  Guiteau  for  the  assassination  of 
James  A.  Garfield,  President  of  the  United  States,  the  name  of  George  Sco- 
ville  became  familiar  to  the  English-reading  public.  He  is  a  native  of  New  York 
state,  and  was  born  October  10,  1824,  and  is  now  fifty-eight  years  of  age,  and  a 
man  of  medium  size  and  height.  His  head  is  bald,  and  exposes  clearly  to  view 
his  phrenological  developments.  His  perceptive  faculties  are  fairly  developed, 
while  his  forehead  recedes  as  it  extends  upward  from  the  eyes.  He  has  very 
large  firmness,  a  fair  amount  of  combativeness  and  secretiveness,  large  amative- 
ness,  philoprogenitiveness  and  continuity,  with  small  veneration  and  full  eventu- 
ality and  acquisitiveness.  He  is  a  quiet,  unpretending  person,  but  not  reticent. 
His  eyes  are  small,  jet  black  and  penetrating.  He  is  courteous  and  extremely 
easy  in  his  manners,  and  a  stranger  could  hardly  realize,  while  in  his  presence, 
that  he  is  the  resolute  man  who  fought  so  many  days,  in  the  face  of  a  multitude 
of  obstacles,  in  the  defense  of  his  notorious  client,  Guiteau. 

When  twelve  years  old,  Mr.  Scoville  moved  from  New  York  to  Ohio,  and,  to 
use  his  own  expression,  "  roved  around  there  in  the  woods  until  eighteen  years 
of  age."  He  then  pursued  an  academic  course  of  study  preparatory  to  entering 
college,  defraying  his  expenses  by  working,  and  in  1846  entered  Yale  College  in 
a  class  of  fifty  members.  At  the  end  of  the  second  term,  his  means  having 
become  exhausted,  he  was  compelled  to  forego  his  purpose  of  pursuing  a  colle- 
giate course,  and  turned  his  attention  to  the  study  of  law,  and  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  at  Albany,  New  York,  in  the  summer  of  1848.  During  the  next  three 
years  he  traveled  about  in  various  portions  of  the  West,  and  finally,  in  April, 
1851,  settled  in  Chicago,  where  he  has  since  remained  in  the  uninterrupted  prac- 
tice of  the  law. 

Respecting  Mr.  Scoville's  connection  with  the  defense  of  President  Garfield's 
assassin,  it  is  but  just  and  due  to  state  that  it  was  not  of  his  own  seeking.  He 
was  in  Washington  two  days  after  the  tragedy,  but  not  wishing  to  be  involved  in 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  563 

the  defense  of  Guiteau,  avoided  all  reference  to  the  subject,  hoping  that  an  attor- 
ney would  be  assigned.  After  returning  to  Chicago,  he  received  a  telegram  from 
Col.  Corkhill,  district  attorney  at  Washington,  requesting  him  to  conduct  the 
defense;  but  so  reluctant  was  he  to  do  so,  that  he  waited  three  days  before  reply- 
ing, and  consented  only  at  the  earnest  entreaty  and  solicitation  of  his  wife.  The 
ability  and  skill  displayed  in  the  defense  of  this  celebrated  case  are  too  familiar 
to  require  comment.  As  a  lawyer,  Mr.  Scoville  ranks  high,  and  honors  his  pro- 
fession; while  as  a  social  and  genial  gentleman  and  companion,  he  is  esteemed 
and  respected  by  all  who  know  him. 


JOHN  C.  BARKER. 

JOHN  CLARKE  BARKER  was  born  March  i,  1833,  at  Windsor,  Kennebec 
county,  Maine,  the  son  of  Oliver  C.  and  Caroline  L.  Barker,  both  of  whom  were 
natives  of  the  state  of  Maine,  where  they  resided,  engaged  in  active  agricultural, 
industrial  and  mercantile  pursuits  until  the  fall  of  1844,  when  they,  with  the  sub- 
ject of  this  sketch,  as  their  eldest  child,  and  his  two  brothers  and  two  sisters, 
removed  to  Illinois,  passing  through  Chicago,  then  a  city  of  less  than  ten  thou- 
sand inhabitants,  to  Lee  Center,  Lee  county,  where  a  farm  was  purchased,  and 
on  which  our  subject  learned  to  be  a  good  farmer.  His  father  died  at  Chicago 
in  1881.  His  mother,  a  brother  and  two  sisters,  with  families,  all  reside  in  Chi- 
cago, and  are  all  desirably  connected  in  church,  social  and  business  circles.  The 
family  comprises  seven  children  in  all,  one  brother  and  one  sister  having  been 
born  in  Illinois. 

John  C.  was  educated  at  Rock  River  Seminary,  Rockford  Commercial  Col- 
lege and  the  Chicago  Law  College.  He  was  a  teacher  in  district,  select  and 
graded  schools  for  a  few  years,  and  obtained  his  education  chiefly  by  his  indi- 
vidual efforts  and  under  many  difficulties.  His  tastes  inclined  him  to  the  profes- 
sion of  the  law  or  medicine,  while  the  desire  of  his  parents,  especially  his  mother, 
was  that  he  should  enter  the  ministry.  He  read  the  different  systems  of  medi- 
cal science  for  a  year,  and  was  impressed  that  there  was  much  of  humbug 
and  less  of  science  in  it.  He  read  the  elementary  authors  in  law,  and  became  an 
admirer  and  student.  After  thorough  reading,  while  a  teacher,  and  subsequent 
practical  experience  in  diffarent  law  offices,  and  a  course  of  one  year  at  the  Chi- 
cago Law  School,  he  passed  a  highly  creditable  examination  before  the  state 
board  of  examination  in  August,  1865,  at  Chicago,  where  he  commenced  practice, 
and  has  been  in  active  practice  ever  since  as  a  general  practitioner.  He  has 
been  a  member  of  the  Law  Institute  and  of  the  Bar  Association  for  many  years, 
and  prepares  his  cases  in  the  courts  with  much  care  and  ability.  He  is  a  good 
pleader  and  a  good  advocate,  and  secures  the  attention,  respect  and  confidence 
of  both  court  and  jury.  His  record  and  standing  as  a  lawyer  during  the  last 
eighteen  years  in  Chicago  is  unimpeached  and  unimpeachable.  He  has  the 
respect  and  confidence  of  the  entire  bench,  the  bar  and  the  public. 
58 


564  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

He  was  a  lieutenant  in  the  military  service  of  his  country  in  the  last  war  and 
served  faithfully  as  a  soldier.  He  represented  North  Chicago  as  a  legislator  in  the 
twenty-ninth  general  assembly  with  credit  and  honor  to  himself  and  his  constitu- 
ents. Speaking  of  his  services  as  a  legislator,  the  Chicago  "  Evening  Journal  "  of 
that  date  says:  "He  believes  in  work,  and  may  be  regarded  as  a  working  mem- 
ber in  the  legislature.  In  the  discussion  of  a  question  he  ranks  among  the  ablest 
debaters  on  the  floor.  He  is  logical,  clear  and  forcible  in  debate,  and  uses  the 
choicest  language  in  the  expression  of  his  thoughts."  Also  the  "  Inland  Maga- 
zine," published  at  Chicago  and  St.  Louis,  says:  "During  his  term  of  service  he 
proved  himself  a  ready  debater,  and,  better  than  all,  a  painstaking  worker  in 
committees.  He  introduced  many  bills  having  reference  to  the  practice  in  courts 
and  to  the  jurisprudence  of  the  state,  and  is  classed  among  those  to  whom  the 
house  delights  to  listen,  because  he  never  speaks  without  having  something  to 
say,  and  never  takes  his  seat  without  having  instructed  his  auditors.  He  is  emi- 
nently a  progressive  man,  of  fine  personal  appearance,  and  polished  address." 
Mr.  Barker  has  served  two  years  as  worshipful  master  of  Waubansia  Lodge,  No. 
1 60,  A.F.  and  A.M.,  and  has  served  one  year  as  dictator  of  Lincoln  Park  Lodge, 
No.  2,620,  Knights  of  Honor.  He  is  a  member,  and  for  many  years  has  been  an 
officer,  and  is  now  the  president  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  Grant  Place  Metho- 
dist Episcopal  Church.  In  politics  he  has  always  been  a  republican,  and  when 
a  boy  was  a  "whig,  like  his  father." 

He  married  Miss  Elizabeth  E.  Vaughn,  in  Chicago,  in  1869,  and  has  two  chil- 
dren: John  V.,  eleven,  and  Sarah  L.,  nine  years  of  age,  attending  the  Lincoln 
school.  During  the  past  year  (1882)  Mr.  Barker  has  been  a  great  sufferer  from 
sciatica,  and  his  physicians  advise  that  he  abandon  his  professional  practice  for  a 
few  years,  and  he  has  with  reluctance  consented,  and  has  been  recommended 
by  the  judges  of  Cook  county,  nominated  by  the  governor,  and  confirmed  by  the 
senate  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  and  for  North  Chicago. 


GEORGE  A.   FOLLANSBEE. 

EORGE  A.  FOLLANSBEE,  of  the  firm  of  Schuyler  and  Follansbee,  was 
vJT  born  in  Cook  county,  Illinois,  near  Chicago,  February  26,  1843.  His 
father,  Horatio  N.  Follansbee,  a  farmer,  was  a  native  of  Uxbridge,  Massachu- 
setts, and  came  to  Cook  county  in  1835.  His  mother  was  Emeline  Sherman,  who 
came  from  Whitesboro,  Oneida  county,  New  York,  to  Cook  county,  this  state,  in 
1833,  the  year  after  the  Black  Hawk  war,  and  when  Chicago  had  less  than  one 
thousand  inhabitants. 

Mr.  Follansbee  finished  his  literary  education  at  Lawrence  University,  Apple- 
ton,  Wisconsin,  being  of  the  class  of  1865;  took  his  course  of  legal  studies  at 
Harvard  Law  School,  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  whence  he  was  graduated  in 
February,  1867,  and  commenced  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago  on  the  seventeenth 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  565 

day  of  the  following  month.  He  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Schuyler  and 
Follansbee  on  the  withdrawal  of  Hon.  George  Gardner  from  the  firm  of  Gardner 
and  Schuyler,  Mr.  Gardner  having  been  elected  judge  of  the  superior  court  of 
Cook  county.  The  firm  of  Schuyler  and  Follansbee  practices  law  in  all  its 
branches,  and  probably  there  is  no  firm  of  two  members  in  Chicago  doing  a 
larger  business  than  it. 

The  residence  of  Mr.  Follansbee  is  on  Indiana  avenue,  just  beyond  the  city 
limits,  in  the  township  of  Hyde  Park,  and  he  has  held  several  important  offices 
in  that  village.  He  is  also  at  present  a  trustee  of  the  Illinois  Industrial  Univer- 
sity, at  Champaign.  In  politics  he  is  a  republican;  in  religious  belief  a  Unitarian, 
and  attends  the  Church  of  the  Messiah. 

On  April  14,  1869,  Mr.  Follansbee  married  Susie  D.,  daughter  of  Dr.  M.  M. 
Davis,  of  Baraboo,  Wisconsin,  and  they  have  six  children. 


NOBLE   B.  JUDAH. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Indiana,  and  was  born  at  Vin- 
cennes,  September  7,  1851.  His  father,  Samuel  Judah,  of  the  same  city,  was 
a  prominent  lawyer  at  the  bar  of  Indiana,  having  been  one  of  the  pioneers  of  the 
state,  and  at  one  time  United  States  district  attorney.  On  the  maternal  side  our 
subject  is  the  grandson  of  Armstrong  Brandon,  one  of  the  early  settlers  of 
Indiana.  Young  Judah  took  his  preparatory  course  for  college  at  the  Indiana 
State  University  at  Bloomington,  and  subsequently  entered  Brown  University  at 
Providence,  from  which  he  graduated  in  September  1872. 

Mr.  Judah's  early  life  was  passed  partly  in  the  law  office  of  his  father,  but 
mostly  on  the  old  homestead  farm  adjoining  Vincennes,  belonging  to  his  mother, 
preferring  out  of  door  life,  it  being  more  congenial  to  his  tastes,  than  the  confine- 
ment incident  to  a  professional  career,  until  maturer  age  brought  an  ambition  to 
follow  in  the  footsteps  of  his  father.  Immediately  after  leaving  Brown  University 
he  went  to  study  law  in  the  law  office  of  his  brother,  John  M.  Judah,  at  Indianap- 
olis. But  seeing  the  opportunities  for  the  young  and  enterprising  in  the  great 
metropolis  of  the  Northwest,  he  was  inclined  to  remove  to  Chicago,  and  accord- 
ingly did  so,  though  he  was  at  that  time  acquainted  with  but  two  persons  in  the 
city,  but  he  fortunately  obtained  a  place  to  study  his  profession,  in  the  office  of 
Hitchcock  and  Dupee,  one  of  the  ablest  firms  of  lawyers  practicing  in  Chicago. 
He  spent  the  following  two  years  studying  in  their  law  office  with  the  exception  of 
one  term  spent  at  the  law  department  of  Michigan  University,  and  at  the  end  of 
the  two  years  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois.  Soon 
afterward  he  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Hitchcock  and  Dupee,  under  style 
of  Hitchcock,  Dupee  and  Judah.  By  the  death  of  Mr.  Hitchcock,  in  1881,  the 
firm  became,  and  still  is,  Dupee  and  Judah. 

In  politics  Mr.  Judah  is,  and  has  always  been  a  pronounced  republican,  his 


566  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

father,  and  especially  his  mother  before  him,  having  been  most  earnest  abolition- 
ists, at  a  time  when  to  hold  or  express  their  views  on  the  subject  of  slavery  in 
southern  Indiana  was  far  from  being  popular. 

In  1878  Mr.  Judah  married  the  youngest  daughter  of  Benjamin  P.  Hutchinson, 
of  Chicago,  an  old  and  well  known  citizen  of  the  city,  having  been  one  of  the 
largest  and  most  successful  operators  upon  the  board  of  trade.  Mr.  Judah  is  a 
young  man  of  many  social  qualities,  and  possesses  business  qualifications  of  a  high 
order,  being  honorable  and  upright  in  all  his  relations  in  society.  He  is  an  easy 
and  fluent  speaker,  and  a  good  advocate,  a  safe  counselor  and  able  lawyer,  and  a 
good  citizen,  and  being  young  in  years  has  before  him  personally  and  profession- 
ally a  bright  future. 

JUDGE    LUCIUS    B.  OTIS. 

ECIUS  BOLLES  OTIS,  a  native  of  Montville,  New  London  county,  Connect- 
icut, was  born  March  12,  1820,  and  is  the  son  of  Joseph  Otis,  and  Nancy 
(Billings)  Otis.  Lucius  was  two  years  old  when  his  parents  removed  to  Berlin, 
Ohio,  and  he  there  attended  the  district  school,  dividing  his  time  between  study 
and  farm  work  till  eighteen  years  of  age,  when  he  attended  the  Huron  Institute 
at  Milan,  Ohio,  later  the  Norwalk,  Ohio,  Institute  and  Granville  College,  and 
afterward  began  the  study  of  law  with  Sturgis  and  Whitbeck,  of  Norwalk,  Ohio. 
During  the  winter  of  1840-41  he  attended  the  law  school  at  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  and 
upon  his  return  to  Norwalk  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court.  Soon 
after  he  established  himself  in  Lower  Sandusky,  now  Fremont,  Sandusky  county, 
Ohio,  and  began  the  practice  of  his  profession,  meeting  with  good  success.  He 
was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  in  October,  1842,  and  served  in  that  capacity 
till  1850,  being  reflected  every  two  years.  In  1851,  upon  the  adoption  of  the  new 
constitution  of  Ohio,  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  court  of  common  pleas,  his  cir- 
cuit comprising  the  counties  of  Huron,  Erie,  Sandusky,  Ottawa  and  Lucas.  Dur- 
ing his  term  of  office  he  did  a  vast  amount  of  work,  often  holding  court  ten 
months  of  the  year,  and  besides,  sat  as  one  of  the  judges  of  the  district  court. 
In  1850,  in  connection  with  Sardis  Birchard,  he  established  the  banking  house  of 
Birchard  and  Otis,  at  Fremont,  Ohio.  The  enterprise  proved  successful,  and  in 
1864  developed  into  the  First  National  Bank  of  Fremont,  Ohio.  At  the  expira- 
tion of  his  judgeship,  in  1856,  Mr.  Otis,  having  accumulated  considerable  means, 
and  believing  that  Chicago  was  destined  to  become  the  great  city  of  the  West, 
removed  thither,  arriving  December  9.  He  at  once  began  operating  in  real 
estate,  buying,  building  and  renting,  and  exercising  that  tact,  judgment  and 
sagacity  that  had  always  marked  his  course,  met  with  remarkable  success,  and  is 
now  among  the  large  real  estate  owners  of  the  city.  As  a  real  estate  dealer  his 
ability  and  judgment  are  universally  acknowledged.  He  was  chosen  president 
of  the  company  that  constructed  the  Grand  Pacific  Hotel,  and  after  its  destruc- 
tion personally  attended  to  its  financial  interests,  and  had  a  general  oversight  in 
its  rebuilding. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  567 

As  a  citizen  Judge  Otis  takes  a  prominent  and  leading  stand,  while  his  fine 
and  varied  literary  attainments  and  refined  social  qualities  make  him  a  most 
agreeable  companion.  He  has  been  for  many  years  a  prominent  layman  in  the 
Episcopal  church,  and  is  held  among  the  ablest  canon  lawyers,  having  devoted 
much  time  to  the  study  of  that  subject.  His  early  political  views,  like  those  of 
his  father,  were  democratic.  His  business,  however,  was  of  such  a  nature  as  to 
preclude  him  from  taking  an  active  part  in  political  matters.  In  1860  he  became 
a  supporter  of  Abraham  Lincoln,  and  was  deeply  interested  in  the  Union  cause 
during  the  civil  war.  In  1872  he  allowed  his  name  to  be  used  upon  the  liberal 
ticket,  as  candidate  for  congress  in  opposition  to  the  regular  republican  candi- 
date, John  B.  Rice.  Though  not  elected,  he  ran  four  hundred  votes  ahead  of  his 
ticket.  He  has  since  continued  to  act  with  the  democratic  party. 

September  18,  1877,  Judge  Otis  was  appointed  by  the  circuit  court  of  Cook 
county,  Illinois,  receiver  of  The  State  Savings  Institution,  which  had  recently 
failed,  owing  about  $3,000,000  to  thirteen  thousand  depositors.  His  bond  as 
receiver  was  fixed-  by  the  court  at  $2,000,000,  and  ten  bondsmen  came  into  court 
and  signed  the  bond  on  the  day  of  his  appointment.  After  five  and  a  half  years 
of  continuous  hard  labor  in  this  work,  Judge  Otis  succeeded  in  repaying  to  the 
depositors  about  fifty  per  cent  of  this  large  indebtedness,  and  honorably  closed 
the  receivership,  when  at  the  time  the  institution  failed  it  was  not  believed  by 
competent  business  men  in  Chicago  that  over  fifteen  or  twenty  per  cent  could  be 
realized. 

Judge  Otis  was  married,  in  1844,  to  Miss  Lydia  Ann  Arnold,  of  East  Green- 
wich, Rhode  Island,  daughter  of  Nathan  Allen  Arnold,  of  North  Kingston,  Rhode 
Island.  They  have  had  eight  children,  seven  of  whom  are  now  living.  The 
oldest  son,  George  L.  Otis,  a  prominent  business  man,  is  at  present  vice-president 
of  the  Commercial  National  Bank  of  Chicago.  Xavier  L.  Otis,  the  second  son, 
is  a  young  man  of  marked  ability  and  promise. 


THOMAS   G.  WINDES. 

THOMAS  GUILFORD  WINDES  is  a  native  of  Morgan  county,  Alabama, 
dating  his  birth  January  19,  1848.  His  father  was  Rev.  Enoch  Windes,  a 
Baptist  minister,  of  Scotch  extraction,  the  progenitor  of  the  family  in  this  country 
coming  over  prior  to  the  revolution.  His  mother,  before  her  marriage  was  Mary 
Ann  Ryan,  who  was  of  Irish  descent,  and  whose  family  was  among  the  pioneers 
in  settling  Kentucky.  Members  of  both  families  fought  for  the  independence  of 
the  colonies.  Thomas  received  an  academic  education  at  Huntsville,  Alabama, 
and  was  engaged  in  farming  until  sixteen  years  of  age,  when  he  joined  a  cavalry 
regiment  in  the  confederate  army  under  Gen.  Forrest,  serving  till  near  the  close 
of  the  war.  Mr.  Windes  read  law  at  Huntsville,  with  Beirne  and  Gordon;  attended 
the  law  school  at  the  University  of  Virginia,  in  1867  and  1868,  after  which  he 


568  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

taught  school  until  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Jasper,  Tennessee,  in  1870, 
but  before  commencing  to  practice  was  engaged  for  two  years  in  the  mer- 
cantile business  and  the  management  of  a  farm  in  the  state  last  mentioned.  In 
June,  1872,  his  knee  was  broken  by  a  fall  from  a  horse,  and  expecting  to  be  a 
cripple  for  life,  in  September,  1872,  he  came  to  Chicago,  for  one  year  was  in  divers 
employments,  and  from  September  1873  was  a  law  clerk,  to  the  summer  of  1875, 
when  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Illinois,  and  entered  upon  the  active  practice 
of  his  profession  in  this  city,  and  is  doing  business  in  the  several  courts  of  the 
state.  He  is  of  the  firm  of  Windes  and  Sullivan,  his  partner  being  Alexander 
Sullivan.  In  November,  1880,  Mr.  Windes  was  appointed  master  in  chancery  of 
the  circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  and  still  holds  that  position. 

In  politics,  though  a  democrat,  he  takes  no  part,  but  gives  his  time  very  assid- 
uously to  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  his  duties  as  master  in  chancery.  He  holds 
his  religious  connection  with  the  Western  Avenue  Baptist  Church,  Chicago,  his 
residence,  however,  being  at  Winnetka. 

Mr.  Windes  married  in  1868  Sallie  C.,  daughter  of  B.  P.  Humphrey,  a  widely 
known  planter,  of  Madison  county,  Alabama,  and  they  have  five  children. 


SYLVESTER  R.    KEOGH. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  a  native  of  Ireland,  was  born  in  the  village  of 
Carrick,  in  County  Wexford,  the  son  of  Patrick  Keogh  and  Catherine 
(Welsh)  Keogh.  His  paternal  ancestors,  back  through  many  generations,  figured 
successively  in  the  various  uprisings  of  the  Irish  people  for  liberty,  his  grand- 
father being  an  active  participant,  while  his  father  acted  with  the  O'Brien  party 
in  the  rebellion  of  1848.  The  mother  of  our  subject  was  descended  on  her 
mother's  side,  from  English  and  French  families,  the  Brighams  and  Revels,  who 
settled  in  Dublin  soon  after  the  revolution  of  1798.  They,  too,  were  liberty- 
loving  people,  and  among  them  were  many  who  were  prominent  in  Ireland's 
revolts  against  English  rule  and  oppression. 

Patrick  Keogh,  who  in  his  own  country  conducted  a  general  manufacturing 
business,  immigrated  with  his  family  to  America  in  1851,  and  settled  at  Toronto 
in  the  province  of  Ontario,  where  for  several  years  he  was  engaged  in  a  success- 
ful boot  and  shoe  and  dry-goods  trade.  He  afterward  removed  to  New  York  city, 
and  engaged  in  the  same  line  of  business,  and  besides  in  the  retail  trade,  which 
under  the  name  of  Keogh  and  Sons,  grew  to  large  proportions.  Mr.  Keogh  con- 
tinued in  active  business  until  about  1873,  when  he  retired  from  the  firm.  He 
was  a  man  of  true  merit,  courteous  and  affable  in  manner,  upright,  prompt  and 
honorable  in  his  dealings,  firm  in  his  adherence  to  principle,  and  true  in  his 
friendships,  a  fair  type  of  the  Irish  gentleman.  He  continued  active  until  shortly 
before  his  death,  which  occurred  January  30,  1881,  and  so  well  and  favorably  was 
he  known,  that  all  the  leading  papers  in  New  York  paid  him  befitting  obituary 
tributes,  as  a  just  and  upright  citizen,  a  kind  parent  and  an  honest  man. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  569 

His  wife,  who  had  been  his  confiding  and  loving  companion  for  nearly  forty 
years,  survived  him  but  six  months,  never  rallying  from  the  shock  caused  by 
his  death.  She  died  September  i,  1881.  Both  belonged  to  the  old  Roman  Cath- 
olic families,  and  through  their  long  lives  were  firm  and  consistent  believers  in 
the  faith  and  doctrines  of  that  church. 

Mr.  Keogh  has  four  brothers,  all  of  whom  are  prominent  business  men  in  New 
York  city,  where  they  are  esteemed  for  their  upright  and  manly  dealing.  One  of 
them,  John  W.  Keogh,  was,  in  1882,  appointed  by  Gov.  Cornell,  librarian  of  the 
New  York  senate,  and  confirmed  by  the  unanimous  vote  of  that  body. 

Mr.  Keogh  received  his  early  education  at  Toronto,  Canada,  under  the  train- 
ing of  the  Christian  Brothers,  in  a  select  school,  known  as  St.  Peter's  Parochial 
College,  from  which  he  graduated  after  an  attendance  of  about  ten  years.  After 
closing  his  studies,  being  then  sixteen  years  of  age,  he  was  engaged  in  business 
with  his  father  in  New  York,  and  continued  in  the  mercantile  trade  until  the 
affairs  of  the  firm  were  closed  in  1873.  During  these  years  of  active  business 
life  he  developed  marked  executive  ability,  and  became  known  as  an  energetic 
and  careful  business  man.  It  was  while  thus  engaged  that  Mr.  Keogh  decided  to 
gratify  a  cherished  desire,  and  prepared  himself  for  the  practice  of  the  law. 
Beginning  this  preparation  with  Logan  and  Kane,  Wall  street,  he  afterward 
continued  his  legal  studies  in  the  office  of  P.  and  D.  Mitchell,  eminent  lawyers 
of  New  York,  and  in  the  spring  of  1875  was  examined  before  the  supreme  court 
in  New  York  and  admitted  to  the  bar,  standing  second  in  a  class  of  thirty-seven. 
Having  decided  to  settle  in  the  West,  he,  in  the  fall  of  the  following  year,  1876, 
removed  to  Chicago.  Instead  of  establishing  himself  at  once  in  his  profession, 
Mr.  Keogh,  in  the  furtherance  of  purposes  growing  out  of  political  associations 
which  he  had  formed,  organized  the  Chicago  "  Sun,"  an  independent  paper, 
which  he  conducted  with  marked  success,  both  as  a  political  organ  and  family 
newspaper,  until  the  fall  of  1878,  when  he  turned  his  attention  to  the  practice  of 
his  profession,  opening  an  office  at  No.  91  Madison  street.  In  his  practice  he  has 
been  called  into  many  prominent  cases  both  in  the  civil  and  criminal  courts,  and 
has  established  for  himself  a  professional  character  and  reputation  of  which  he 
may  justly  be  proud.  Possessing  personal  and  social  qualities  of  the  highest 
order,  he  has  attracted  to  himself  a  large  circle  of  warm  friends  and  admirers, 
among  whom  he  is  known  as  a  most  genial  companion  and  true  friend. 

As  a  lawyer  he  possesses  a  comprehensive  mind,  which,  with  his  ready  wit, 
clear  memory  of  facts,  vivid  imagination  and  command  of  language,  renders  him 
an  entertaining  and  effective  advocate.  He  is  a  man  of  large  stature  and  com- 
manding presence,  a  fine  representative  of  the  race  from  which  he  springs.  Ever 
ready  to  champion  the  cause  of  the  weak  and  oppressed,  his  heart  and  sympathies 
have  been  readily  enlisted  in  all  local  movements  organized  to  alleviate  the  suf- 
ferings of  his  native  land,  or  further  the  interests  of  the  Irish  people. 

Since  coming  to  Chicago  he  has  been  an  active  political  worker,  and  although 
positions  of  trust  have  been  tendered  him,  he  has  uniformly  declined  their  accep- 


57O  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

tance,  choosing  to  devote  himself  to  the  pursuit  of  his  legitimate  profession.  He 
is  a  firm  believer  in  republican  institutions,  and  is  ever  ready  to  raise  his  hand 
and  voice  in  the  maintenance  of  law  and  good  government.  During  the  riots  of 
1877  he  enrolled  as  a  member  of  the  ist  cavalry  regiment  organized  in  Chicago, 
and  until  August,  1882,  when  the  term  of  his  enlistment  expired,  stood  by  the 
organization,  promptly  responding  to  every  call  of  the  command. 

Mr.  Keogh  is  still  a  young  man,  and  in  the  strength  and  vigor  of  a  sturdy 
manhood,  turning  from  his  clean  record  of  the  past,  with  its  satisfactory  achieve- 
ments, he  may  hopefully  look  to  a  successful  future  that  awaits  every  man  of 
ability  and  perseverance. 


ALEXANDER    McCOY. 

ALEXANDER  McCOY  is  of  Scotch  descent,  and  was  born  in  West  Findley 
L\.  township,  Washington  county,  Pennsylvania.  At  the  classical  school,  under 
the  instruction  of  Rev.  Dr.  McCloskey  and  others,  Alexander  was  prepared  to  enter 
the  junior  class,  "  half  advanced,"  at  Washington  College,  Pennsylvania,  in  the 
fall  of  1842.  Having  spent  some  time  after  graduating  in  teaching  at  home,  and 
subsequently  as  teacher  of  languages  in  Vermillion  Institute  at  Hayesville,  Ohio, 
he  entered  as  a  student  of  law  in  the  office  of  Given  and  Barcraft,  Millersburgh, 
Ohio,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  that  state  during  the  winter  of  1849-50. 
He  removed  to  Peoria,  Illinois,  March  18,  1850.  On  February  i,  1851,  he  com- 
menced the  practice  of  law  in  company  with  Henry  Grove,  under  the  firm  name 
of  Grove  and  McCoy. 

In  the  fall  of  1856  he  was  elected  state's  attorney  for  the  then  sixteenth  judi- 
cial district,  for  a  term  of  four  years.  The  duties  of  his  office,  together  with  the 
increased  labor  of  his  partnership,  proved  too  much  for  his  health,  and  a  hem- 
orrhage from  the  lungs  compelled  a  dissolution  of  his  partnership  in  1858.  His 
health  gradually  improving,  he  continued  to  discharge  the  duties  of  prosecutor 
in  his  district  with  such  ability  and  fidelity  that  at  the  expiration  of  this  term,  he 
was  in  1860  reflected  for  another  term  of  four  years.  Still  continuing  to  improve 
in  health,  in  1861  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  N.  H.  Purple,  an  ex-judge 
of  the  supreme  court  of  the  state,  whose  term  of  office  had  expired,  under  the 
firm  name  of  Purple  and  McCoy.  This  partnership  continued  until  dissolved  by 
the  death  of  Judge  Purple  in  August  1863.  In  the  fall  of  1864  he  was  elected  to 
the  legislature  of  the  state.  During  the  session  of  the  legislature  of  1865  he  was 
awarded  the  chairmanship  of  the  committee  on  judiciary,  thus  giving  him  the 
first  place  upon  the  floor  of  the  house.  In  the  spring  of  1867  he  formed  a  part- 
nership with  Judge  M.  Williamson  and  John  S.  Stevens,  under  the  firm  name  of 
Williamson  and  Stevens.  This  partnership  was  dissolved  by  the  death  of  Judge 
Williamson  in  1868,  after  which  the  business  was  carried  on  under  the  name  of 
McCoy  and  Stevens.  Their  business  was  large  and  lucrative,  embracing  not  only 


H-C.Ccopev    Jr    I    To 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAK   OF  CHICAGO. 


573 


the  practice  in  the  courts  of  the  surrounding  counties,  but  in  the  supreme  court 
of  the  state  and  the  circuit  and  district  courts  of  the  United  States  at  Chicago. 
In  May,  1871,  he  removed  to  Chicago  and  entered  into  partnership  with  George 
L.  Harding. 

In  the  year  1872  Louis  Grant  Pratt,  a  lawyer  of  great  experience,  force  and 
remarkable  quickness  of  perception,  became  associated  with  him  and  Mr.  Harding, 
under  the  firm  name  of  Harding,  McCoy  and  Pratt.  At  the  expiration  of  the 
year  1875  Mr.  Harding  went  out  of  the  firm,  after  which  time  the  business  was 
carried  on  by  McCoy  and  Pratt,  under  the  name  of  McCoy  and  Pratt.  From 
this  time  on  their  business  increased  rapidly.  His  partner,  Mr.  Pratt,  September 
23,  1 88 1,  was  suddenly  taken  from  his  side  by  heart  disease,  which  broke  up  a 
partnership  peculiarly  fitted  for  the  practice  of  law,  and  pleasant  in  all  its  rela- 
tions. Wedded  to  the  law,  we  still  find  Mr.  McCoy  at  his  post,  early  and  late, 
practicing  his  profession,  taking  care  of  the  large  practice  of  his  late  firm. 


ROBERT   B.   KENDALL. 

ROBERT  B.  KENDALL  was  born  January  31,  1842,  in  Freeport,  Cumber- 
land county,  Maine,  and  is  the  eldest  son  of  Robert  P.  Kendall,  who  is  a 
son  of  Robert  R.  Kendall,  late  of  Freeport,  and  a  descendant  of  Francis  Ken- 
dall, who  emigrated  from  England  about  the  year  1640,  and  settled  in  what  is 
now  the  town  of  Woburn,  near  Boston,  Massachusetts.  Mr.  Kendall's  father 
moved  to  Bridgton,  Maine,  in  1849,  where  he  resided  during  the  boyhood  of  the 
subject  of  this  sketch.  Mr.  Kendall  received  his  early  education  in  the  public 
schools  and  at  Bridgton  Academy,  but  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  upon  the  breaking 
out  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  he  left  school  and  enlisted  as  a  private  soldier  in 
Co.  H,  5th.  Me.  Inf.,  in  which  regiment  he  participated  in  the  disastrous  battle 
of  Bull  Run,  July  21,  1861,  where  he  was  taken  prisoner.  After  nearly  eleven 
months  of  imprisonment  in  Richmond,  New  Orleans  and  Salisbury,  North  Caro- 
lina, he  was  paroled,  and  after  an  exchange  of  prisoners  was  effected,  rejoined 
his  regiment,  and  was  in  the  battles  of  Fredericksburgh  and  Chancellorsville,  at 
which  latter  battle  he  was  severely  wounded  and  incapacitated  for  duty  for  over 
a  year. 

Partially  recovering,  however,  he  reentered  the  service  again  in  the  winter  of 
1865,  as  adjutant  of  the  i2th  Me.  Inf.,  and  served  with  that  regiment  until  he  was 
finally  mustered  out  in  March  1866.  Immediately  after  the  close  of  the  war  he 
began  the  study  of  law,  pursuing  his  studies  in  an  office  in  Bridgton,  and  after- 
ward at  Harvard  Law  School,  and  in  the  office  of  Leonard  A.  Jones,  in  Boston. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston  in  1868,  and  practiced  in  that  city  until 
1876,  when  he  came  to  Chicago  as  attorney  for  the  Union  Mutual  Life  Insurance 
Company,  and  was  engaged  exclusively  for  that  corporation  until  the  winter  of 
1880,  since  which  time  he  has  been  in  general  practice. 
61 


574 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 


Mr.  Kendall  is  a  republican,  but  has  taken  no  active  part  in  politics,  being 
devoted  to  his  profession.  He  was  married  in  Boston  in  1870.  Mr.  Kendall  is 
•one  of  the  most  accomplished  of  the  younger  lawyers  practicing  at  the  Chicago 
bar.  He  aims  to  be  thorough  in  all  that  he  undertakes,  and  possesses  a  sound, 
practical  judgment  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  his  profession.  He  is  reputed  to 
be  very  adroit  in  the  management  of  his  cases.  He  is  doing  a  general  law  busi- 
ness, but  gives  especial  attention  to  chancery  cases,  in  which  branch  of  practice 
he  has  had  considerable  experience,  and  is  an  expert.  Mr.  Kendall  is  a  gentleman 
of  refinement  and  culture,  is  courteous  and  obliging,  sustains  an  excellent  charac- 
ter, and  has  the  confidence  of  the  courts  before  whom  he  practices,  as  well  as  the 
good  will  of  his  brethren  at  the  bar,  and  the  admiration  of  his  clients. 


WILLIAM    W.    GURLEY. 

WILLIAM  W.  GURLEY,  one  of  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago  bar, 
was  born  at  Mount  Gilead,  Morrow  county,  Ohio,  January  27,  1851.  His 
father,  John  J.  Gurley,  was  a  prominent  lawyer  in  that  section  of  Ohio;  was  pro- 
bate judge,  prosecuting  attorney,  member  of  the  legislature,  member  of  the  con- 
stitutional convention  of  1872,  and  has  held  other  positions  of  honor  and  trust. 
William  W.  was  educated  at  the  Wesleyan  University,  Delaware,  Ohio,  where  he 
graduated  in  1870.  He  was  superintendent  of  public  schools  at  Seville,  Ohio,  in 
1871-2.  While  engaged  in  teaching,  he  read  law  in  his  father's  office,  and  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  June  1873. 

In  September,  1874,  he  came  to  Chicago,  and  formed  a  copartnership  with 
Col.  J.  S.  Cooper  in  1876,  and  has  since  been  successfully  engaged  in  general 
practice.  He  is  a  man  of  ability,  faithfulness  and  integrity,  and  has  first-class 
clientage.  He  is  a  genial  and  manly  gentleman. 


HENRY  S.  TOWLE. 

HENRY  S.  TOWLE  was  born  October  10,  1842,  in  Mishawaka,  Indiana,  and 
is  the  son  of  Gilman  Towle,  a  large  property  owner  and  leading  citizen 
Henry  S.  attended  the  high  school  at  Mishawaka,  and  also  at  Valparaiso,  Indiana, 
and  was  about  entering  college  in  1862,  when  he  became  connected  with  the 
sanitary  expedition,  sent  out  by  Gov.  Morton  for  the  relief  of  the  soldiers  from 
Indiana  in  the  Southwest,  in  which  capacity  he  served  about  one  year,  when  he 
was  sent  to  Washington  in  the  same  capacity,  where  he  was  for  some  time  engaged 
in  the  service  of  his  native  state.  In  1867  he  entered  the  law  department  of  the 
University  of  Michigan,  at  Ann  Arbor,  graduating  in  1869,  and  immediately  there- 
after removed  to  Chicago  and  began  practice.  He  was  for  a  time  in  the  office  of 
Arrington  and  Dent,  after  which  he  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Goodwin, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  575 

Larned  and  Towle,  which  afterward  became  Goodwin,  Offield  and  Towle,  and 
since  1879  has  been  Offield  and  Towle.  Mr.  Towle  has  played  no  inconsiderable 
part  in  the  building  up  of  the  large  and  lucrative  practice  of  this  firm  and  in 
contributing  to  their  success,  and  is  esteemed  for  his  many  good  qualities  of  mind 
and  character  as  well  as  honesty  and  perfect  uprightness.  As  a  lawyer  he  is 
industrious,  able  and  successful,  and  has  won  the  love  and  respect  of  his  asso- 
ciates at  the  bar.  He  is  a  close  student,  and  rarely  fails  to  reach  conclusions 
which  are  sustained.  His  ability,  honesty  and  industry  are  recognized  and  ap- 
preciated, not  only  in  Chicago,  but  by  some  of  the  most  eminent  counsel  in  various 
parts  of  the  United  States,  whom  he  represents  in  their  western  business.  He 
deservedly  ranks  high  in  his  branch  of  the  law. 

He  is  a  republican  in  politics,  but  for  years  has  taken  no  active  part  therein. 
He  is,  and  has  been  for  nine  years,  a  trustee  of  the  Northwestern  University,  and 
is  prominently  identified  with  the  interests  of  that  institution,  and  is  one 
of  the  board  of  management  of  the  Union  College  of  Law.  The  cause  of 
education  has  no  more  earnest  advocate  than  Mr.  Towle,  and  in  all  things  tending 
to  its  advancement  or  benefit  he  takes  an  active  interest,  doing  all  he  can  to  raise 
in  every  way  the  standard  of  educational  excellence. 

He  married  in  1868  a  daughter  of  Robert  F.  Queal,  of  Evanston,  who  died  in 
1881,  leaving  one  child. 

Mr.  Towle  is  a  Methodist  in  religion,  having  been  identified  with  that  body  for 
many  years. 

HON.  GRANT  GOODRICH. 

~  RANT  GOODRICH,  one  of  the  best  known  and  most  distinguished  mem- 
bers  of  the  Chicago  bar, —  distinguished  as  one  of  the  first  and  ablest, —  was 
born  in  Milton,  Saratoga  county,  New  York,  August  u,  1812,  just  after  the  decla- 
ration of  war  by  President  Madison,  against  England.  His  father  was  Gideon 
Goodrich,  who  had  eight  sons  and  one  daughter.  Hence  Grant  Goodrich's 
birth  occurred  during  the  stirring  and  exciting  times  in  the  early  history  of 
the  country,  when  it  was  new  and  unsettled,  and  of  course  schools  were  scarce, 
the  country  poor,  and  parents  were  not  able  to  give  their  children  the  advantages 
of  education  which  parents  have  since  had  the  opportunity  to  do.  But  it  is  a 
noteworthy  fact,  that  men  born  in  those  times  and  under  such  circumstances,  sub- 
sequently became  the  pioneers  in  founding  the  great  country  which  this  has 
become  to-day.  Among  the  few  of  those  living  to-day  is  Judge  Grant  Goodrich, 
the  youngest  of  the  family  and  the  only  living  representative.  He  comes  from 
old  and  excellent  New  England  stock,  and  hence  had  all  the  energy  and  good 
qualities  of  the  men  who  have  built  up  the  Great  West,  descended  from  an  Eng- 
lishman, William  Goodrich,  a  historic  name,  who  came  to  this  country  ten  years 
after  the  landing  of  the  Mayflower,  in  1630,  and  the  descendants  became  noted 
citizens  in  various  parts  of  New  England,  where  many  of  them  reside  to  this  day 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  others  have  been  among  the  foremost  citizens  in  the  West.  The  father  of 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  settled  in  Milton,  western  New  York,  soon  after  marry- 
ing Eunice  Warren,  of  Rock  Hill,  Connecticut,  where  many  of  the  family  origi- 
nally settled.  Having  purchased  large  tracts  of  land  in  Chautauqua  county,  New 
York,  the  family  removed  there  in  1817,  when  Grant  was  but  six  years  of  age. 
His  father,  appreciating  the  advantages  of  education,  employed  a  private  tutor 
for  the  benefit  of  his  own  and  his  neighbors'  children,  who  occupied  a  room  under 
his  own  roof.  When  ten  years  of  age  young  Grant  went  to  Westfield,  New  York, 
to  live  with  his  sister,  where  he  enjoyed  the  advantages  of  the  higher  English 
branches  and  the  classics,  under  the  tuition  of  a  lawyer  of  that  place. 

Not  being  physically  strong,  and  predisposed  to  consumption,  it  was  thought 
best  for  him  to  suspend  study,  and  enter  upon  a  more  active  out-door  life,  and  to 
that  end,  after  two  years  spent  in  Westfield,  he  took  a  few  trips  on  one  of  the 
vessels  owned  by  an  older  brother,  who  had  established  himself  at  Portland  Har- 
bor, on  Lake  Erie,  as  a  ship  owner  in  the  lake  trade.  His  father,  in  the  meantime, 
removed  his  family  to  Portland  Harbor.  The  pure  air  on  the  lakes  and  his  man- 
ual exercise  greatly  improved  his  health,  and  he  remained  in  that  employ  two 
years,  and  laid  the  foundation  for  the  ripe  old  age  which  he  has  attained,  and  also 
gained  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  lake  business,  which  has  since  been  of  service 
to  him.  He  then  returned  to  Westfield  and  completed  his  education  in  the  acad- 
emy there,  and  at  the  age  of  eighteen  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Dixon  and 
Smith,  where  he  remained  until  1834,  when  he  came  to  Chicago,  and  later  spent 
considerable  time  in  traveling  through  Illinois,  and  became  thoroughly  posted  in 
the  location  and  value  of  lands  in  northern  Illinois,  when  he  returned  to  Chicago 
and  opened  a  law  office,  and,  in  connection  with  his  practice,  engaged  extensively 
in  real  estate  operations.  Until  1837  the  tide  of  emigration  to  Illinois  was  great, 
speculation  rife;  real  estate  commanded  fabulous  and  unwarrantable  prices,  and  a 
disastrous  crash  ensued  in  that  year,  and  Mr.  Goodrich  went  under  with  nearly 
the  entire  population  of  the  state,  and  was  engulfed  to  the  amount  of  $60,000, 
from  putting  his  name  to  accommodation  paper.  Many  took  advantage  of  the 
bankrupt  law,  but  he  manfully  shouldered  the  burden,  which  took  eighteen  of 
the  best  years  of  his  life  to  discharge.  His  wisdom,  firmness  and  integrity  carried 
him  through,  however,  and  he  paid,  as  he  always  has,  dollar  for  dollar  of  his  own 
obligations,  and  eloquently  advocated  the  same  policy  in  public  affairs,  and  was 
among  the  foremost  in  saving  the  state  from  threatened  repudiation,  and  secured 
the  payment  of  every  dollar  of  the  public  debt,  and  he  has  lived  to  see  fruits  of 
his  efforts,  the  state  free  from  debt,  with  an  untarnished  reputation,  and  a  full 
treasury. 

In  1835  he  became  associated  in  the  law  business  with  the  late  Giles  Spring, 
which  continued  until  the  latter  was  elected  judge  of  the  Cook  county  court  in 
1851.  In  1854  he  formed  a  partnership  with  W.  W.  Farwell,  since  circuit  judge 
of  this  county,  and  in  1856  Sidney  Smith,  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior 
court  of  this  county,  was  admitted  to  the  firm,  which  became  Goodrich,  Farwell 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  577 

and  Smith,  a  very  strong  law  firm,  which  soon  acquired  an  extensive  practice 
throughout  this  and  the  adjoining  states.  In  1857  his  health,  from  over  work  of 
a  naturally  slender  constitution,  having  become  affected,  upon  the  advice  of  his 
physician  he  went  to  Europe,  and  remained  until  the  spring  of  1859.  Upon  his 
return  he  was  elected  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior  court,  and  held  the  posi- 
tion for  over  four  years,  when  he  again  resumed  his  place  in  the  same  firm,  and 
continued  practice.  As  a  judge  he  ranked  among  the  ablest  and  best  in  the 
Northwest;  when  he  laid  aside  the  ermine  it  was  as  clean  and  unspotted  as  when 
he  put  it  on.  In  1874  he  retired  from  general  practice,  giving  his  attention  only 
to  the  most  important  cases.  As  a  lawyer  and  counselor  he  has  few  peers;  his 
ability  and  wide  experience  enable  him  to  successfully  and  accurately  resolve  the 
most  intricate  cases  which  are  presented  to  him. 

In  educational  and  religious  affairs  he  has  for  many  years  been  an  earnest  and 
effective  worker.  He  is  neither  bigoted  nor  self-opinionated,  but  magnanimous 
and  consistently  liberal  in  all  essentials.  In  connection  with  Dr.  J.  Evans,  Or- 
rington  Lunt,  J.  R.  Botsford,  William  Wheeler  and  Philo  Judson,  he  is  the  founder 
and  patron  of  the  Northwestern  University  at  Evanston,  which,  since  its  founda- 
tion in  1853,  has  been  in  a  most  flourishing  condition,  and  hardly  excelled  by  any 
educational  institution  in  the  West. 

He  has  since  1832  been  a  zealous  member  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  church, 
and  to  his  wisdom  more  than  any  other  is  the  First  Methodist  Episcopal  Church 
indebted  for  its  possession  of  the  valuable  and  productive  property,  at  the  corner 
of  Clark  and  Washington  streets,  known  as  the  Methodist  block,  the  only  house 
of  worship  in  the  heart  of  the  city.  The  income  from  the  rentals  for  business 
purposes  is  $32,000  per  annum,  which  is  largely  devoted  to  the  aid  of  weak  sister 
churches  in  Chicago. 

In  politics  Mr.  Goodrich  was  originally  a  whig,  and  became  one  of  the  earliest 
champions  of  the  free-soil  party,  and  when  that  was  absorbed  in  the  republican 
party  he  joined  that,  and  has  always  been  a  consistent  anti-slavery  advocate.  He 
was  a  member  of  the  Union  Defense  Committee  during  the  late  war,  and  an  ear- 
nest advocate  of  the  war  measures  of  the  administration  of  Mr.  Lincoln;  was  also 
one  of  the  directors  of  the  Freedman's  Aid  Society.  While  he  is  an  advocate  of 
temperance  he  is  not  of  prohibition,  believing  it  essentially  impracticable  to 
accomplish  and  impolitic  to  attempt. 

He  was  married  in  1836  to  Juliet  Atwater,  of  Westfield,  New  York,  by  whom 
he  has  had  four  sons  and  one  daughter.  Four  survive;  one  son,  finely  educated 
and  well  read  in  the  law,  died  at  the  age  of  twenty-six,  mourned  by  relatives  and 
many  friends.  His  daughter  Mary  married  and  settled  in  St.  Louis,  but  has 
returned  a  widow  to  the  paternal  mansion.  Of  the  remaining  sons  one  is  a  man- 
ufacturer in  Boston,  one  engaged  in  the  practice  of  the  law,  and  another  in  the 
real  estate  business  in  Chicago.  After  several  years  expended  in  recovering  his 
losses  from  the  great  fire  he  succeeded  in  doing  so  in  1876,  though  at  the  expense 
of  the  loss  of  his  health,  and  since  then  his  only  efforts  to  do  business  are  for 


578  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

amusement,  or  rather  as  a  relief  to  his  still  active  mind.  Grant  Goodrich  has 
been  a  philanthropist,  a  sincere  and  honorable  man;  has  great  firmness  and  deci- 
sion of  character,  and  is  esteemed  by  those  who  know  him  or  know  of  him.  His 
life  has  been  one  of  beneficent  activity.  He  can  look  back  upon  a  long,  and,  in 
all  respects,  a  successful  life. 


DEXTER,  HERRICK  AND  ALLEN. 

THE  senior  member  of  this  firm  is  well  known,  and  occupies  a  high  rank  at 
the  bar.  He  is  the  grandson  of  Samuel  Dexter,  a  member  of  ex-President 
John  Adams'  cabinet.  His  father  was  Samuel  Dexter,  and  his  uncle,  Franklin 
Dexter,  both  prominent  lawyers.  Wirt  Dexter  was  born  in  the  town  of  Dexter, 
Michigan,  about  the  year  1833.  He  commenced  his  education  in  the  common 
schools,  and  was  a  student  for  a  short  time  in  Michigan  University,  and  afterward 
in  an  eastern  college.  He  was  engaged  in  lumbering  business  in  Michigan  before 
coming  to  Chicago,  about  twenty  years  ago.  He  studied  law  in  the  office  of 
Sedgwick  and  Walker,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  He  formed  the  partnership 
of  Walker  and  Dexter,  and  afterward  the  partnership  now  existing,  of  Dexter, 
Herrick  and  Allen.  Mr.  Dexter  is  quite  an  orator  on  moral  questions,  and  tries 
his  cases  well.  He  sustains  the  reputation  of  being  an  honorable  gentleman. 

John  J.  Herrick  has  a  very  clear,  comprehensive  mind,  is  an  industrious, 
hard  working  lawyer,  and  stands  high  at  the  bar.  He  prepares  his  briefs  remark- 
ably well,  and  argues  his  cases  with  good  effect  before  a  court.  He  is  a  native  of 
Auburn,  Maine,  and  is  about  thirty-five  years  old.  He  came  to  Chicago  in  1871, 
and  worked  as  a  clerk  in  a  law  office,  and  studied  law  at  the  same  time.  After  a 
thorough  preparation,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  later  to  the  partnership  of 
Dexter,  Herrick  and  Allen. 

C.  L.  Allen  is  the  junior  member  of  this  firm,  and  is  known  as  its  business 
manager. 

GEORGE    F.    BAILEY. 

LKE  so  many  Chicago  citizens,  Mr.  Bailey  is  a  New  Englander,  having  been 
born  in  Burlington,  Vermont.  He  inherited  his  profession,  his  father,  Ben- 
jamin F.  Bailey,  having  been  a  prominent  lawyer  of  that  city.  Mr.  Bailey  attended 
the  University  of  Vermont,  and  entered  on  the  study  of  law  in  the  office  of  Hon. 
Asahel  Peck,  distinguished  as  a  citizen,  a  lawyer  and  a  judge  in  his  state.  Ver- 
mont was  at  this  time  involved  in  an  extensive  and  delicate  litigation,  arising 
from  the  building  of  railroads  through  an  old,  established  community,  and  afford- 
ed an  excellent  school  for  a  young  lawyer.  Mr.  Bailey  fully  availed  himself  of 
his  opportunities;  but  the  conclusion  of  the  railway  matters  leaving  compara- 
tively little  business,  he  sought  a  larger  field  in  the  West. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  579 

Coming  to  Chicago,  a  young  and  unknown  man,  he  soon  attained  a  position, 
a  lucrative  practice,  and  the  full  confidence  of  his  clients.  This  he  has  steadily 
maintained  during  his  residence  of  over  twenty-five  years  in  this  city. 

Although  he  had  marked  success  as  a  jury  lawyer  in  his  earlier  years,  he  has 
for  a  long  time  been  mainly  engaged  in  real  estate  and  chancery  practice.  This, 
though  not  of  a  nature  to  gain  notoriety,  has  won  him  the  esteem  and  trust  of 
many  influential  friends,  and  afforded  him  opportunities  which  he  has  always 
declined  to  use,  preferring  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  his  profession. 

He  is  well  known  to  the  elder  members  of  the  bar  as  a  formidable  antagonist 
and  a  powerful  ally,  and  by  some  younger  members  as  a  judicious  instructor  and 
kind  friend.  He  has  always  conducted  his  business  with  a  high  regard  for  pro- 
fessional ethics,  and  his  word  is  relied  upon  equally  by  his  friends  and  his  oppo- 
nents. 

IRA  WARNER  BUELL. 

THE  leading  characteristics  in  the  career  of  Ira  W.  Buell,  a  prominent  member 
of  the  Chicago  bar,  have  been  his  untiring  industry  and  application  in  his 
legal  studies  and  professional  business,  and  his  upright  and  honorable  course  in 
all  his  dealings.  To  these  qualities  he  owes  the  success  that  has  attended  his 
professional  labors.  He  was  born  at  Lebanon,  Madison  county,  New  York, 
December  9,  1830,  and  is  the  son  of  Elijah  and  Polly  (Higgins)  Buell.  His  father, 
whose  ancestors  emigrated  from  England  to  America  soon  after  the  landing  of 
the  Mayflower,  was  a  farmer,  noted  for  his  piety  and  purity  of  life.  His  maternal 
grandfather  was  a  captain  in  the  revolutionary  war.  Mr.  Buell  received  his  early 
education  at  Hamilton  Academy,  and  at  the  age  of  sixteen  engaged  in  teaching. 
This  he  continued  with  marked  success  until  his  nineteenth  year,  when  he  entered 
Madison  University,  of  Hamilton,  New  York;  completed  the  full  classical  course 
in  that  institution,  and  immediately  began  the  study  of  law  with  Hon.  Charles  H. 
Mason,  then  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  New  York,  but  afterward  studied 
with  Judge  Humphrey,  at  Rochester,  New  York,  where,  in  September,  1855, 
he  was  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  practiced  his  profession  until  1856,  when  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  made  a  large  circle  of  friends,  and  built  up  a 
good  business,  both  in  common  law  and  chancery.  He  has  also  given  special 
attention  to  insurance  and  commercial  law.  In  politics  he  is  identified  with  the 
republican  party. 

In  1860  he  was  elected  supervisor  of  North  Chicago,  and  in  1861  held  the  office 
of  city  attorney  of  Chicago.  In  1871  he  declined  the  nomination  of  judge  of  the 
circuit  court  of  Cook  county,  which  was  tendered  to  him  by  a  joint  committee  of 
republicans  and  democrats.  He  was  president  of  the  republican  convention  that 
first  nominated  Hon.  J.  B.  Rice  as  mayor  of  Chicago,  and  of  the  congressional 
convention  in  which  Charles  V.  Farwell  received  his  first  nomination  as  congress- 
man. In  the  Masonic  fraternity  Mr.  Buell  stands  high. 


580  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

He  was  married  August  25,  1858,  to  Miss  Lydia  A.  Gillette,  who  died  Septem- 
ber 19,  1864.  Was  again  married  July  15,  1867,  to  Anna  M.  Averill,  daughter  of 
Capt.  James  Averill,  of  Chicago. 

Though  not  one  of  the  most  brilliant  of  his  profession,  Mr.  Buell  is  noted  for 
his  sound  reasoning,  while  the  coolness  and  decision  which  mark  his  judgments 
give  to  them  weight  and  worth. 


JUDGE   VAN    H.   HIGGINS. 

VAN  HOLLIS  HIGGINS,  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  known  lawyers  of  the 
Chicago  bar,  was  born  in  Genesee.  county,  New  York, .February  20,  1821. 
He  came  to  Chicago  in  1837,  and  during  the  winter  of  1843  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  of  Illinois,  and  commenced  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Iroquois 
county,  where  he  remained  two  years,  after  which  he  removed  to  Galena,  and 
there  formed  a  partnership  with  Judge  Pratt,  which  continued  until  about  1849. 
During  his  residence  in  Galena  he  served  two  years  as  city  attorney,  but  desiring 
a  larger  field  of  usefulness,  he  returned  to  Chicago  in  the  autumn  of  1852,  and 
the  next  year  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  Corydon  Beckwith  and  B.  F. 
Strother,  under  the  firm  name  of  Higgins,  Beckwith  and  Strother,  and  enjoyed  a 
very  extensive  and  successful  practice  until  the  fall  of  1858,  when  he  was  elected 
to  the  legislature,  and  the  following  year  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  superior 
court  of  Chicago,  in  which  capacity  he  served  until  the  autumn  of  1865,  when  he 
resigned  and  resumed  the  practice  of  the  law,  forming  a  partnership  with  Hon. 
Leonard  Swett,  which  law  firm  continued  until  the  fall  of  1872,  when,  having 
been  elected  to  the  presidency  of  the  Babcock  Manufacturing  Company,  his  con- 
nection with  the  law  firm  was  dissolved. 

January  i,  1876,  he  retired  from  active  participation  in  the  affairs  of  the  com- 
pany, having  accepted  the  financial  agency  of  the  Charter  Oak  Life  Insurance 
Company,  for  all  of  the  western  states. 

In  personal  appearance  Judge  Higgins  has  a  fine  natural  judicial  presence. 
He  is  tall,  well  formed,  and  of  a  commanding  figure,  while  his  face  shows  refine- 
ment and  culture  as  well  as  firmness  and  decision  of  character.  Judge  Higgins 
combines  many  qualities  rarely  found  in  combination.  It  would  not  be  claimed 
for  him  that  he  is  a  man  of  genius,  but  for  such  a  community  as  he  has  lived  in 
and  still  lives,  he  possesses  a  talent  more  serviceable  to  himself  and  the  commu- 
nity in  which  he  lives  than  genius  itself.  He  is,  first  of  all,  as  a  citizen,  a  man  of 
great  public  spirit,  and  is  in  feeling  and  character  a  typical  western  man.  From 
the  beginning  Judge  Higgins  has  seen,  with  a  vision  clearer  than  most  men,  not 
only  the  probabilities  but  the  possibilities  of  this  Great  West,  and  what  a  quar- 
ter of  a  century  and  more  ago  he  so  clearly  saw,  and  what  he  so  confidently 
prophesied,  he  has  diligently  worked  to  realize. 

Politically,  Judge  Higgins  has  been,  ever  since  the  organization  of  the  repub- 


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THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  583 

lican  party,  a  republican.  A  staunch  friend  of  Mr.  Lincoln  before  his  nomina- 
tion, after  his  election  he  stood  by  him,  exhibiting  in  his  support  the  same 
patient  common  sense  and  ability  to  adapt  means  to  ends  which  characterized 
our  great  president.  The  Union  cause  found  no  more  practical  supporter  during 
the  war,  and  particularly  its  early  periods,  than  Judge  Higgins.  He  was,  if  not 
the  originator,  at  least  one  of  the  earliest  of  our  citizens  to  discover  the  necessity 
for  organized  action  among  the  friends  of  the  Union,  and  did  as  much  as  (and 
perhaps  more  than)  any  other  man  to  perfect  the  organization  of  that  body,  the 
character  and  work  of  which  ought  always  to  live  in  our  history,  the  Union 
Defense  Committee  of  the  City  of  Chicago.  In  season  and  out  of  season,  the 
Judge  was  tireless  in  the  maturing  and  formulating  of  schemes  for  recruiting  our 
armies,  and  his  practical  suggestions  as  to  the  selection  of  methods  were  gener- 
ally adopted,  and  in  a  great  part  through  the  exertions  and  influence  of  the 
Union  Defense  Committee,  Chicago,  and  indeed  the  state,  was  enabled  to  fill  its 
quota  substantially  without  a  draft. 

The  part  which  the  judge  took  in  politics  at  that  time  was  beyond  the  effort 
of  the  mere  partisan,  and  at  no  time  has  he  been  mixed  up  or  identified  with 
merely  partisan  contests  or  squabbles. 

As  a  business  man,  Judge  Higgins  is  perhaps  the  ablest  who  has  ever  occupied 
in  this  city  a  judicial  position.  His  knowledge  of  business  men  and  business 
methods  made  him  exceedingly  useful  as  a  judge,  for  his  legal  knowledge,  and  it 
is  very  great,  in  his  hands  was  made  applicable  to  business  matters  and  the 
affairs  of  every  day  life.  As  a  judge  he  did  not  deal  with  the  law  merely  in  the 
abstract.  He  not  only  knew  a  great  deal  about  law,  but  he  knew  a  great  deal  of 
law.  He  not  only  knew,  for  example,  the  law  of  commercial  paper,  but  when  the 
maker,  the  payee  and  the  guarantor  of  a  promissory  note  were  in  court  before 
him,  he  could  apply  those  principles  to  those  parties.  His  business  and  method- 
ical habits  enabled  him  to  dispatch  judicial  business  with  remarkable  rapidity 
and  accuracy.  The  court  room  in  which  Judge  Higgins  presided  was  a  place  for 
the  administration  of  justice  according  to  the  forms  and  principles  of  law,  and 
justice  was  there  administered  intelligently,  courteously  and  speedily.  A  pains- 
taking student,  we  have  perhaps  never  had  at  our  bar,  nor  upon  the  bench,  a  man 
more  completely  abreast  of  current  statutory  enactments  and  legal  adjudications 
than  Judge  Higgins.  His  memory  of  adjudged  cases  was  something  marvelous, 
and  his  knowledge  of  those  cases  was  so  methodized  and  arranged  in  his  own 
mind,  that  he  was  never  confused  by  their  number,  and  his  keen,  thoroughly  crit- 
ical and  analytical  mind  enabled  him  with  great  accuracy  to  discriminate  cases, 
and  to  detect  false  analogies,  a  capacity  absolutely  essential  to  the  proper  admin- 
istration of  justice,  and  which  distinguishes  the  mere  case-hunter  and  recollecter 
from  the  great  lawyer. 

In  its  general  make-up,  so  distinctively  is  Judge  Higgins'  mind  a  legal  one 
that  no  length  of  time  devoted  to  other  pursuits  than  that  of  the  law  would  ever 
leave  him  anything  less  than  a  fine  lawyer.  He  reasons  upon  legal  propositions 
62 


584  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

naturally  and  in  a  legal  way.  As  has  been  said,  his  habits  of  thought  and 
mind  are  methodical,  well  arranged,  and  the  mere  machinery  of  his  court  was  in 
such  beautiful  working  order  that  it  was  a  pleasure  to  any  lawyer  who  had  pre- 
pared his  case,  and  understood  it,  to  appear  before  Judge  Higgins  with  it.  To 
young  men,  ambitious  of  genuine  distinction  at  the  bar,  and  exhibiting  that 
ambition  by  a  thorough  preparation  of  their  cases  at  all  points,  Judge  Higgins 
was  always  most  courteous  and  attentive.  Nothing  seemed  to  gratify  him  more 
than  honest  preparation  by  the  lawyers  who  appeared  before  him,  and  no  lawyer 
practicing  in  his  court  could  fail  to  observe  that  however  new  the  point  which  he 
presented,  or  however  much  opposed  it  seemed  to  be  to  the  general  current  of 
authority,  it  would  receive  from  Judge  Higgins  the  most  careful  and  patient 
attention,  and  he  had  the  personal  and  intellectual  courage  and  ability  to  sustain 
such  points  whenever  sound  reason  seemed  to  justify  it. 

Upon  the  bench,  Judge  Higgins  had  no  pets  or  favorites.  No  complaints 
were  made  of  uncourteous  treatment.  In  judicial  manner  he  was  a  model.  His 
courtesy  never  descended  to  undue  familiarity.  He  held  the  bar  in  respect,  and 
they  respected  him,  and  the  lawyer  appearing  before  Judge  Higgins  felt  that  he 
was  called  upon  to  do  his  best.  Devoted  for  the  last  few  years  to  extended  busi- 
ness pursuits,  having  charge  of  great  financial  interests,  the  judicial  career  of 
Judge  Higgins,  and  indeed  his  professional  career,  are  practically  unknown  to 
the  younger  members  of  the  bar  practicing  in  this  city.  But  to  those  still  living, 
whose  pleasure  it  was  to  appear  before  him  when  he  was  upon  the  bench,  his 
wide  learning,  his  genial  manners,  his  uniform  courtesy,  his  promptness  and  his 
splendid  methods  will  always  be  held  in  honor  and  grateful  remembrance. 

In  many  respects  Judge  Higgins  may  be  considered  as  one  of  the  principal, 
and  one  of  the  most  honored  architects  of  this  great  city.  Its  broad,  far-reaching 
business  enterprise,  its  sagacity,  its  dignified  and  spotless  jurisprudence,  its  pro- 
fessional learning  and  culture,  its  personal  probity,  and  the  general  correctness 
of  its  private  life,  all  find  a  most  worthy  exemplar  in  the  life  and  career  of  Van 
H.  Higgins. 

WILLIAM    LAW,  JR. 

WILLIAM  LAW,  JR.,  is  a  native  of  this  state,  and  was  born  in  Hancock 
county,  January  31,  1841.  His  father,  a  native  of  the  north  of  Ireland,  is 
Dr.  William  Law,  an  eminent  physician,  practicing  in  the  southern  part  of  Wis- 
consin. Mr.  Law  received  a  thorough  education,  which  he  obtained  by  home 
instruction,  and  from  the  facilities  afforded  by  a  private  school  at  Freeport,  and 
subsequently  took  an  academical  course  of  study  at  Plattville  Academy  in  Wis- 
consin. His  legal  course  was  begun  in  1859  at  Shullsburgh,  La  Fayette  county, 
Wisconsin,  in  the  office  of  Higbee  and  Law,  the  younger  member  of  the  firm 
being  an  elder  brother.  He  subsequently  removed  to  Chicago,  and  continued  his 
studies  with  the  late  Hon.  James  H.  Knowlton,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in 
1862. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  585 

In  1864  Mr.  Law  removed  to  Boise  City,  Idaho  Territory,  where  he  com- 
manded a  good  business,  soon  establishing  a  reputation  in  his  profession,  as  well 
as  acting  for  a  time  as  United  States  attorney,  and  was  also  clerk  of  the  United 
States  district  court,  but  his  fondness  for  Chicago  caused  him  to  return  in  1866, 
where  he  has  since  been  an  active  and  worthy  member  of  the  Chicago  bar.  His 
practice  has  been  varied.  He  has  won  a  good  reputation,  and  has  a  large  and 
desirable  clientage.  In  person  Mr.  Law  is  rather  stout  and  short,  of  much  robust- 
ness and  vigor  of  physique.  He  possesses  much  power  and  force  in  delivery,  and 
produces  an  able  argument  before  a  jury. 


HON.  WALTER   B.  SCATES. 

WALTER  BENNETT  SCATES,  once  a  judge  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illi- 
nois, and  at  one  period  collector  of  customs  at  Chicago,  is  a  native  of 
Virginia,  though  reared  in  Kentucky,  and  was  born  at  South  Boston,  Halifax 
county,  Virginia,  January  18,  1808.  His  parents  were  Joseph  Scales,  millwright, 
and  Elizabeth  Eggleston  (Bennett)  Scales.  His  maternal  grandfather,  an  Irish- 
man by  birth,  and  educated  for  a  physician  and  surgeon  in  London,  England, 
came  to  this  country  prior  to  ihe  revolulion,  and  was  a  surgeon  in  that  war,  dying 
in  his  son-in-law's  house  in  Kentucky,  1812. 

When  our  subject  was  three  months  old  the  family  moved  from  Virginia,  and 
in  1809  settled  in  Christian  counly,  Kenlucky,  on  a  farm  near  Hopkinsville,  on 
Little  river,  where  Walter  was  engaged  in  farming,  raising  and  stripping  tobacco 
for  his  father  till  nineteen  years  of  age,  attending  school  usually  during  the  win- 
ters. Delermined  lo  have  more  education,  which  his  father  at  first  failed  to  give 
him,  he  left  home  without  his  parents'  knowledge,  and  went  to  Nashville,  Ten- 
nessee, where  he  entered  a  printing  office.  His  falher  keeping  Irack  of  him,  and 
seeing  the  son  was  determined  to  study  one  of  the  professions,  finally  sent  for 
him  and  made  arrangements  for  him  to  take  a  course  in  law. 

Not  long  afterward  we  find  our  subject  in  the  law  office  of  Hon.  Charles  S. 
Morehead,  subsequenlly  governor  of  Kentucky,  and  in  the  spring  of  1831  he  was 
licensed  to  practice.  He  settled  at  Frankfort,  Franklin  county,  Illinois,  where  he 
remained  for  five  years,  serving  part  of  the  time  as  county  surveyor  and  brigade 
inspector.  In  1836,  on  being  appointed  attorney  general  of  the  state,  he  removed 
to  Vandalia,  then  the  seat  of  government.  November  21,  1836,  he  married  Miss 
Mary  Ridgeway,  daughter  of  John  Ridgeway,  formerly  of  Philadelphia,  Pennsyl- 
vania. At  the  session  of  the  legislature  of  1836,  Mr.  Scates  was  elected  judge  of 
the  third  judicial  circuit,  which  embraced  the  southern  peninsula  of  the  state, 
extending  from  Cairo  a  hundred  and  twenty  miles  northward,  and  he  took  up 
his  residence  in  Shawneetown.  In  1841  a  new  law  went  into  operation,  requiring 
the  addition  of  five  circuit  judges  to  the  supreme  court  bench,  making  nine  in  all, 
and  Judge  Scates  was  one  of  the  five  selected,  the  other  four  being  Sidney  Breese, 


586  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Thomas  Ford,  Samuel  H.  Treat  and  Stephen  A.  Douglas.  In  that  year  he 
removed  to  Mount  Vernon,  Jefferson  county,  and  continued  to  hold  his  circuits 
until  January,  1847,  when  he  resigned  and  resumed  the  law  practice.  In  the 
spring  following  he  was  elected  to  the  constitutional  convention,  and  was  chair- 
man of  the  judiciary  committee  in  that  body,  a  post  of  honor  always  assigned  to 
a  lawyer. 

In  1849  there  occurred  an  episode  in  the  judge's  life  which  did  not  inure  very 
much  to  his  pecuniary  benefit,  and  which,  we  venture  to  say,  he  does  not  even 
now  contemplate  with  a  distressing  amount  of  complacency.  In  1849  he  bought 
an  interest  in  a  coal  mine  at  Caseyville,  and  helped  build  a  railroad  from  that 
point  to  St.  Louis,  the  first  road  constructed  with  rail  in  that  part  of  the  state. 
To  these  enterprises  of  opening  the  mine,  and  constructing  an  outlet  for  its 
precious  treasures,  he  gave  four  years  of  hard  labor,  and  in  1853  returned  to 
Mount  Vernon,  having  been  elected  to  the  supreme  court  bench  to  fill  the  vacancy 
caused  by  the  resignation  of  Hon.  Lyman  Trumbull,  who  was  soon  afterward 
elected  to  the  United  States  senate.  In  1857  Judge  Scales  again  resigned  the 
judgeship,  being  then  chief-justice,  and  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  was  in 
the  steady  practice  of  the  law  until  the  civil  war  broke  out. 

In  August,  1862,  Judge  Scales  went  into  Ihe  army,  commissioned  wilh  Ihe 
rank  of  major  of  Ihe  i3lh  army  corps,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel,  being 
on  Gen.  McClerland's  staff.  Appointed  by  a  change  of  the  law,  by  congress,  he 
was  soon  assistant  adjutant-general,  with  the  rank  of  lieutenant-colonel  in  the 
I3th  army  corps,  under  Gen.  McClerland,  and  served  until  January,  1866,  when 
he  was  mustered  out.  After  coming  out  he  was  brevetted  successively  lieuten- 
ant-colonel, colonel  and  brigadier-general.  Says  a  writer  who  has  long  known 
our  subject,  "  It  would  be  unjust  to  history  not  to  state  that  Gen.  Scates,  in  every 
post  assigned  him  during  the  war,  was  vigilant,  active,  faithful,  brave  and  zeal- 
ous. The  officers  of  the  I3th  army  corps,  who  were  brought  in  contact  with  him, 
always  speak  of  him  as  a  tried  and  true  soldier.  *  *  *  Courteous  and  kind 
to  his  inferiors,  respectful  and  obedient  to  his  superiors,  and  though  a  compara- 
tively old  man,  full  of  the  fire,  courage  and  energy  of  the  younger  braves." 

Gen.  Scates  had  resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession  in  Chicago,  when  in 
July,  1866,  he  was  appointed  by  President  Johnson  to  the  office  of  collector  of 
customs,  Chicago,  which  position  he  held  till  July  i,  1869,  when  he  was  turned 
out  by  President  Grant,  under  whom  he  had  served  at  Vicksburg,  in  order  to 
make  a  place  for  a  civilian,  a  partner  of  his  brother.  While  collector  he  was  also 
United  States  depositary,  according  to  the  law  then  in  existence,  and  which  was 
soon  after  changed,  making  that  a  separate  office.  In  every  position,  civil  as 
well  as  military,  which  the  general  has  ever  held,  he  has  discharged  his  duties 
faithfully,  and  with  decided  credit  to  his  judgment  as  well  as  abilities  The  office 
of  collector  requires  the  most  sterling  qualities  of  character,  and  these  our  sub- 
ject possesses  to  an  eminent  degree.  No  honester  man,  we  believe,  lives.  His 
great  abilities  were  seen  to  their  best  advantage  when  he  was  on  the  bench,  and 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  587 

when  the  exigencies  of  the  hour  required  that  all  his  logical  acumen  and  mental 
powers  should  be  brought  into  exercise.  With  his  dormant  energies  fairly 
aroused,  his  luminous  mind  fully  ablaze,  and  his  strong  judgment  brought  to 
bear  on  a  knotty  question,  one  could  not  but  feel  that  he  was  indeed  "a  natural 
born  lawyer,  and  that  God  created  him  for  a  judge."  It  seems  a  pity  that  such 
a  man  could  not  have  been  kept  on  the  bench.  While  there  he  truly  adorned  it, 
and  his  name  will  be  handed  down  with  the  names  of  Breese,  Douglas,  Lock- 
wood,  Caton,  Treat,  Lawrence  and  others,  to  the  latest  generations. 

We  have  already  mentioned  the  marriage  of  Gen.  Scales.  His  wife,  who  is 
still  living,  is  the  mother  of  ten  children,  seven  of  whom  still  survive,  all  grown, 
doing  well  for  themselves.  His  present  family  consists  of  his  wife,  two  daughters 
and  two  sons,  at  his  home  in  Evanston.  The  general  still  retains  his  clearness  of 
head,  his  strong  memory  and  other  mental  faculties,  and  is  quietly  attending  to 
his  professional  duties,  being  very  prompt  and  careful  in  their  discharge.  His 
friends  are  numerous,  abiding  and  appreciative,  and  he  has  the  most  cordial 
v  esteem  of  a  large  circle  of  acquaintances. 


HON.  CONSIDER  H.  WILLETT. 

/CONSIDER  HEATH  WILLETT  was  born  in  the  town  of  Onondaga,  near 
^^  Syracuse,  New  York,  December  12,  1840.  His  education  was  obtained  in  a 
select  school  near  his  home,  and  in  Onondaga  and  Cortlandville  academies.  He 
took  a  course  of  private  instruction  in  higher  mathematics  under  Prof.  H.  N. 
Robinson,  at  Elbridge,  New  York,  and  was  graduated  at  the  New  York  State 
Normal  School  at  Albany  in  the  spring  of  1862.  He  then  volunteered  as  a  pri- 
vate soldier  at  thirteen  dollars  a  month  and  rations,  and  was  afterward  promoted 
to  a  captaincy,  and  served  in  the  army  of  the  rebellion  till  the  close  of  the  war. 
After  his  army  life  he  attended  a  short  course  of  medical  lectures  at  Bellevue 
Medical  Hospital  College,  in  New  York  city. 

In  the  army  our  soldier,  after  studying  every  work  on  military  tactics,  and  on 
international  and  military  law,  read  Kent  and  Blackstone  under  the  instructions 
of  another  captain,  who  had  practiced  law  in  Boston  for  many  years.  He 
attended  the  war  class  of  the  Albany  Law  School,  it  being  the  first  lectures  after 
the  war,  and  most  of  its  members  being  veterans.  The  lecturers  were  Prof.  Amos 
Dean,  Senator  Ira  Harris  and  Judge  Amasa  J.  Parker.  May  10,  1866,  he  was  admit- 
ted to  the  bar  upon  an  examination  in  open  court,  in  the  supreme  court  at 
Albany,  New  York.  He  studied  law  in  Syracuse,  in  the  office  of  the  well  known 
firms  of  Sedgwick,  Andrews  and  Kennedy,  and  Ruger  and  Jenney,  Charles  H. 
Andrews  being  the  late  chief-justice  of  the  court  of  appeals  of  New  York,  and 
Henry  C.  Ruger  occupying  that  position  at  present. 

He  then  entered  the  law  department  of  Michigan  University,  and  was  gradu- 
ated in  1867,  the  professors  being  Judges  J.  V.  Campbell,  Thomas  M.  Cooley  and 


5SS  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

C.  I.  Walker  and  Ashley  Pond.  After  spending  a  few  weeks  in  Syracuse,  New 
York,  in  closing  up  a  law  and  pension  claim  business  established  there,  he  located 
in  Chicago,  and  became  a  member  of  the  Illinois  bar  July  29,  1867.  He  was  mar- 
ried at  Ann  Arbor,  Michigan,  November  5,  1867,  to  Miss  L.  Addie  Wilder,  who  is 
an  educated  and  accomplished  lady.  They  have  a  pleasant  home,  and  a  flock  of 
little  ones.  He  has  been  conscientious  and  fearless  in  the  discharge  of  public 
duties,  giving  satisfaction  to  those  who  sought  the  public  good  and  being  feared 
and  traduced  by  those  who  only  sought  their  own  good  at  the  expense  of  the 
public.  The  parents  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch  were  pioneer  farmers  in  the 
most  fertile  and  beautiful  parts  of  the  Empire  State.  When  a  lad,  he  was  taught 
all  sorts  of  work  which  constitute  farming,  besides  obtaining  a  practical  knowl- 
edge of  many  kinds  of  manual  labor.  He  was  a  clerk  in  a  store,  and  deputy  post 
master,  and  for  two  winters  taught  school.  In  the  army  he  spent  his  time  first 
with  the  army  of  the  Potomac,  and  then  in  Florida,  in  the  department  of  the 
Gulf. 

His  life  in  Chicago  has  been  that  of  a  laborious  lawyer.  He  has  never  been  a 
candidate  for  a  popular  office,  though  he  has  been  an  active,  influential  and  earn- 
est politician;  but  has  been  appointed  village  attorney  of  the  Village  of  Hyde 
Park  three  times,  and  county  attorney  of  Cook  county  four  times,  the  duties  of 
such  appointments  being  strictly  within  the  line  of  his  law  business.  His  legal 
attainments,  and  attention  to  business  early  made  his  success  assured.  He  has 
had  his  share  of  the  varied  law  business,  which  centers  at  Chicago.  His  employ- 
ment has  been  sought  in  the  most  intricate  and  difficult  cases,  which  are  finally  to 
be  determined  by  the  courts  of  last  resort.  The  legal  accuracy  and  attention  to 
close  questions  by  Mr.  Willett  is  well  illustrated  by  the  case  of  Fisher  vs.  Deering, 
60  111.,  114.  To  win  his  case  he  had  to  overrule  Chapman  vs.  McGrew,  20  111.,  101, 
and  Dixon  vs.  Buell,  21  111.,  203,  which  held  that  leases  were  not  assignable  be- 
cause not  embraced  in  the  statutes  concerning  negotiable  instruments.  Mr.  Wil- 
lett demonstrated  that  leases  were  assignable  at  the  common  law  by  virtue  of  the 
32  Hen.  VIII,  Chap.  34,  Sec.  i,  which  had  been  adopted  by  our  statutes  concerning 
the  common  law.  The  principles  of  the  ancient  common  law  are  living  forces 
to-day  in  the  titles  and  complications  of  real  estate. 

He  has  an  industry  in  the  preparation  of  cases  which  will  not  permit  any 
details  to  escape  their  place  of  usefulness,  and  understanding  the  principle  which 
should  govern  the  case,  all  things  else  are  subordinated  to  the  main  design  and 
help  to  bring  success.  In  the  discharge  of  his  duty  to  his  clients,  are  found  integ- 
rity and  industry,  honesty  and  zeal,  and  none  ever  feel  that  aught  has  been  left 
undone  that  could  contribute  aid  to  the  case.  He  has  the  ability,  and  takes  rank 
among  those  who  excel  in  whatever  work  is  undertaken,  and  these  are  some  of 
the  many  qualifications  which  indicate  the  sort  of  character  he  has  built. 

Mr.  Willett  is  not  a  man  to  waste  time  and  force  in  keeping  up  mere  appear- 
ances. He  is  in  no  sense  a  conventional  man,  and  is  too  thoroughly  in  earnest 
to  ever  be  contented  with  the  petty  aim  of  mere  success.  He  has  to  the  thought- 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  589 

ful  observer  always  an  earnestness  akin  to  tragedy,  yet  his  manner  is  undemon- 
strative, and  his  speech  reserved.  His  earnestness  shows  an  utter  indifference 
to  the  trivialities,  and  in  being  absorbed  in  the  principal  things  which  are  essen- 
tial to  accomplish  results.  Opportunity,  which  comes  to  most  men  veiled,  so 
that  they  do  not  recognize  her  until  she  has  passed,  is  to  this  man  an  open  secret; 
consequently  he  pushes  by,  and  wins  the  race,  while  other  men  wonder  at  his 
audacity  and  success. 

DANIEL  DONAHOE. 

1~*HE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  the  son  of  John  Donahoe  and  Johanna  (Long) 
Donahoe,  of  Huntley,  Illinois,  both  of  whom  are  of  Irish  descent.  Daniel 
was  born  April  10,  1853,  in  Saint  Petersburgh,  Indiana,  and  passed  his  boyhood  on 
his  father's  farm  in  Huntley.  He  received  his  primary  education  in  the  academy 
at  Elgin,  Illinois;  attended  Notre  Dame  University,  and  graduated  with  the  first 
honors  of  his  class,  receiving  a  gold  medal,  the  highest  honor  conferred  by  the 
university.  He  also  graduated  from  the  law  department  of  the  same  university. 
He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Springfield,  Illinois,  in  1881,  after  which  he 
became  connected  with  the  law  office  of  Young  and  Gibbons.  Mr.  Donahoe  is  a 
young  man  of  strong  will,  untiring  energy  and  dauntless  perseverance,  which, 
combined  with  his  abilities  and  attainments,  assure  him  success  in  his  profession. 
He  has  keen  perception,  is  apt  and  ready,  and  has  a  happy  faculty  of  presenting 
his  ideas  fluently,  forcibly  and  concisely.  He  has  fine  social  qualities,  and  is 
esteemed  by  all  who  know  him,  as  a  cordial,  genial  gentleman.  In  his  dealing  he 
is  frank,  manly  and  upright.  He  is  a  Catholic  in  his  religious  faith.  In  political 
sentiments  he  is  a  democrat,  and  takes  an  active  part  in  political  affairs. 


JOHN    McKEOUGH. 

A  Saratoga  Springs,  September  27,  1854,  John  McKeough  was  born,  the  son 
of  John  and  Margaret  McKeough.  His  father  was  engaged  in  the  grocery 
business  there  until  the  great  Saratoga  fire  some  seventeen  years  ago,  after  which 
he  removed  with  his  family  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  ever  since  been  engaged  in 
the  wool  business.  Young  McKeough  attended  the  Christian  Brothers'  College, 
of  Chicago,  until  the  fall  of  1871,  when  he  entered  a  branch  of  the  same  college 
in  Memphis,  Tennessee,  where  he  remained  until  the  yellow  fever  epidemic  of 
1872.  Upon  leaving  Memphis  he  returned  to  Chicago,  and  entered  the  employ  of 
Field,  Leiter  and  Company,  with  whom  he  remained  until  compelled,  by  reason 
of  impaired  health,  to  resign  his  position.  He  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law 
in  1874,  and  graduated  with  the  class  of  1877,  and  at  once  commenced  active 
practice  in  connection  with  Judge  Hudson,  now  of  Iowa.  This  connection  con- 
tinued until  1878,  since  which  time  he  has  practiced  alone. 


THE    BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

During  the  early  part  of  his  practice,  Mr.  McKeough  did  a  very  large  bank- 
rupt business,  and  during  the  last  week  prior  to  the  repeal  of  the  bankrupt  law, 
he  entered  petitions  for  some  thirty  business  firms.  Since  the  repeal  of  that  law 
he  has  devoted  himself  almost  exclusively  to  civil  and  probate  law,  and  has  in 
that  particular  line  established  a  large  practice.  Mr.  McKeough  is  a  very  social 
man,  and  numbers  his  friends  by  scores.  He  was  one  of  the  organizers  of  the  2d 
regiment  I.  N.  G.,  and  for  three  years  held  the  position  of  adjutant,  which  he  was 
obliged  to  resign  on  account  of  business  cares.  He  has  been  president  of  the 
fifth  division  A.O.H.,  and  is  prominently  identified  with  several  social  organiza- 
tions. In  politics  he  is  an  active  democrat,  being  a  member  of  the  county  central 
committee,  and  taking  a  lively  interest  in  all  municipal  election  matters. 


PAUL   CORNELL. 

A 5  fair  a  sample  of  the  genus  Chicagoan  as  we  could  possibly  select  is  Paul 
Cornell,  the  original  founder  of  the  thriving  suburbs  of  Hyde  Park  and 
Cornell,  and  who  is  one  of  the  South  Park  commissioners.  He  is  a  lawyer,  a  real 
estate  operator,  and  a  maker  of  towns.  Coming  to  Chicago  a  poor  young  man, 
but  being  amply  endowed  with  that  serviceable  quality  which  the  Yankee  calls 
pluck,  he  gradually  pushed  his  way  into  the  very  front  rank  of  the  legal  profes- 
sion, and  subsequently  into  the  front  rank  of  energetic  and  public-spirited  men 
of  business  and  wealth,  where  we  find  him  to-day. 

Mr.  Cornell  was  born  at  White  Creek,  Washington  county,  New  York,  August 
5,  1822.  His  father  was  Hiram  K.  Cornell,  whose  wife  was  Eliza  Hopkins,  from 
Swanton,  Vermont.  The  great-grandfather  of  Eliza  Hopkins  was  Samuel  Rob- 
inson, one  of  the  famous  Bennington  Robinsons,  who  distinguished  themselves 
in  those  troublous  years  in  the  early  history  of  Vermont,  before  her  admission  to 
the  Union. 

Samuel  Robinson  was  appointed  a  delegate  to  represent  to  the  court  of  Great 
Britain  the  grievances  of  the  settlers,  arising  from  the  unjust  claims  made  by 
New  York,  and  to  obtain,  if  possible,  a  confirmation  of  the  New  Hampshire 
grants.  He  was  so  far  successful  in  his  mission  that  the  governor  of  New  York 
was  forbidden  to  make  any  further  grants  in  the  disputed  territory  until  His 
Majesty's  pleasure  should  be  known.  Before  the  purpose  of  his  journey  was 
fully  accomplished,  Mr.  Robinson  died  in  London,  1767. 

The  grandfather  of  Eliza  Hopkins  was  Leonard  Robinson,  a  brave  soldier  in 
the  battle  of  Bennington,  remembered  for  his  accuracy  of  aim  and  the  prayer 
breathed  as  the  shot  was  fired,  "God  have  mercy  on  your  soul."  A  brother  of 
Leonard  was  Moses  Robinson,  who  was  sent  by  Vermont  as  delegate  to  the  con- 
gress of  1780  to  vindicate  her  independence  and  negotiate  for  her  admission  into 
the  Union. 

Mr.  Cornell's  great-grandfather,   Daniel  Cornell,  was  a  Quaker  preacher  of 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  593 

the  seventeenth  century,  at  Dartmouth,  Massachusetts,  and  there  his  grandfather, 
Paul  Cornell,  was  born  in  1759,  removing  thence  to  Washington  county,  New 
York.  When  the  subject- of  this  sketch  was  nine  years  of  age  his  step-father,  Dr. 
Barry,  removed  with  his  family  to  Ohio,  and  five  years  later  to  Adams  county, 
Illinois,  where  he  was  for  many  years  a  practicing  physician.  Paul  had  an  appe- 
tite for  knowledge,  and  in  order  to  raise  money  enough  to  pay  his  school  expen- 
ses in  the  winter,  he  hired  out  to  the  neighboring  farmers  as  a  field  hand  during 
the  summer  months.  After  passing  through  several  terms  at  a  select  school  he 
became  a  school  teacher,  studying  law  during  such  hours  as  he  could  spare  from 
his  school  duties.  He  finally  gave  up  teaching,  devoting  all  his  time  to  the  study 
of  the  law,  for  which  purpose  he  entered  the  office  of  Hon.  William  A.  Richard- 
son (afterward  United  States  senator),  at  Rushville,  Schuyler  county,  Illinois. 

His  first  visit  to  Chicago  was  in  1845,  when  it  was  yet  a  small  town,  just 
beginning  to  grow,  and  was  favorably  impressed  with  its  prospects.  Not  being 
fully  prepared  to  enter  upon  the  active  practice  of  his  chosen  profession,  however, 
he  did  not  then  settle  here,  but  went  to  the  little  city  of  Joliet,  where  he  had 
friends,  and  entered  the  law  office  of  Wilson  and  Henderson,  the  Wilson  being 
Hon.  John  M.,  who  some  years  afterward  became  chief-justice  of  the  superior 
court  of  Chicago.  After  assiduously  pursuing  his  studies  there  for  two  years 
he  was  admitted  to  practice,  procured  a  license,  and  June  i,  1847,  took  pas- 
sage on  one  of  Frink  and  Walker's  stage  coaches  (there  was  no  railroad  then, 
nor  even  a  canal)  for  Chicago,  landing  here  with  a  small  bundle  of  clothing,  the 
suit  he  had  on,  a  dollar  and  a  half  in  money,  and  a  few  plain  cards  in  his  pocket 
inscribed  "Paul  Cornell,  Attorney-at-Law,  Chicago."  He  put  up  at  a  small  two- 
story  frame  hotel,  near  the  corner  of  Clark  and  Lake  streets,  and  depositing  his 
little  package  on  a  seat  in  the  office  while  registering  himself  on  the  hotel  book, 
he  was  not  a  little  chagrined  to  find,  on  returning  to  his  seat,  that  some  sneak 
thief  had  stolen  the  package,  thus  leaving  him  with  absolutely  nothing  except 
the  clothing  on  his  back,  a  dollar  and  a  half  in  money,  and  his  printed  cards, 
rather  a  discouraging  situation  for  a  young  man  starting  out  in  life  on  his  own 
hook  in  a  strange  city.  But  thus  it  was  when  he  commenced  his  career  in 
Chicago. 

There  were  only  two  persons  in  the  city  with  whom  he  was  acquainted,  one  of 
whom  was  Hon.  John  M.  Wilson,  who  had  but  recently  moved  hither  from  Joliet, 
and  who  was  now  the  senior  member  of  the  law  firm  of  Wilson  and  Freer  (L.  C. 
P.  Freer,  who  is  still  one  of  Chicago's  prominent  citizens).  Mr.  Cornell  entered 
their  office,  starting  out  in  the  active  practice  of  his  profession,  finding  day  board 
at  a  dollar  and  a  half  a  week,  and  sleeping  in  the  office. 

The  first  suit  he  ever  tried  was  before  Justice  Howe,  whose  office  was  on  Dear- 
born street,  near  South  Water,  and  the  lawyer  on  the  other  side  was  Hon.  N.  B. 
Judd,  late  member  of  congress,  and  at  one  time  collector  of  customs  for  this  port. 
Mr.  Cornell  won  the  suit,  but  felt  neither  flattered  nor  greatly  encouraged  when 
his  client  paid  him  only  one  dollar  for  his  services.  Subsequently  he  entered  the 


594  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

office  of  James  H.  Collins,  who  at  that  time  was  one  of  the  leading  lawyers  of  the 
city,  as  an  assistant  in  the  trying  of  cases,  receiving  therefor  a  merely  nominal 
monthly  compensation.  Next  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Skinner  and  Hoyne 
(Hon.  Mark  Skinner  and  Hon.  Thomas  Hoyne,  both  of  whom  are  still  practicing 
their  profession,  and  are  among  its  most  influential  members  in  this  city),  who 
were  at  that  time  doing  an  extensive  collection  business  for  New  York  mer- 
chants. While  associated  with  this  firm  Mr.  Hoyne  was  elected  probate  judge, 
and  he  appointed  Mr.  Cornell  clerk  of  his  court.  He  performed  all  the  duties  of 
probate  clerk,  and  received  a  small  amount  per  folio  for  writing  papers  and  doc- 
uments in  connection  therewith.  He  wrote  up  the  official  records  in  the  earlier 
hours  of  the  forenoon  and  late  at  night,  and  devoted  the  regular  working  hours 
of  the  day  to  the  collection  business  of  the  firm,  the  details  of  which  they  con- 
tinued to  intrust  to  his  charge,  thus  giving  him  an  excellent  opportunity  for 
forming  an  extensive  acquaintance,  which  proved  of  great  advantage  to  him  in 
the  future. 

After  Mr.  Skinner's  election  as  county  judge  in  1851.  Mr.  Cornell  formed  a 
copartnership  with  Hon.  William  T.  Barren,  under  the  firm  name  of  Cornell  and 
Barron.  Judge  Skinner  recommended  this  new  firm  to  his  old  clients  at  the  East 
and  elsewhere,  and  the  result  was  that  Cornell  and  Barron  at  once  launched  into 
a  larger  and  more  lucrative  collection  practice  than  any  other  law  firm  in  the 
city.  Their  business  continued  to  increase  until  they  gave  constant  employment 
to  five  clerks,  and  not  infrequently  they  had  as  many  as  two  hundred  suits  on  the 
docket  at  one  time. 

In  1856  Mr.  Barron  was  elected  probate  judge,  retiring  from  the  firm,  and 
John  A.  Jameson  (now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior  court  of  Chicago)  and 
Perkins  Bass  became  associated  with  Mr.  Cornell,  the  firm  name  being  Cornell, 
Jameson  and  Bass.  Mr.  Bass  retired  from  the  firm,  and  afterward  received  the 
appointment  of  United  States  district  attorney,  H.  N.  Hibbard  (now  United 
States  register  of  bankruptcy)  taking  his  place,  and  the  copartnership  nomencla- 
ture then  became  Cornell,  Jameson  and  Hibbard.  This  is  a  record  of  Mr.  Cor- 
nell's career  in  the  legal  profession.  We  now  come  to  his  history  as  a  real-estate 
operator  and  founder  of  towns. 

In  1854  and  1856  Mr.  Cornell,  through  certain  real-estate  agents,  invested  his 
surplus  means  in  real  estate,  which,  rising  in  value,  gave  him  ample  returns.  It 
was  his  habit  to  take  horseback  rides  on  pleasant  mornings  before  breakfast,  and 
occasionally  he  extended  his  ride  to  the  residence  of  an  old  lady  friend  who  lived 
in  a  small  cottage  several  miles  south  of  the  city,  on  the  lake  shore.  The  more 
he  saw  of  the  "  lay  of  the  land  "  down  in  that  region,  the  more  fully  he  became 
impressed  with  the  idea  that  the  location  was  a  favorable  one  for  the  establish- 
ment of  a  suburban  residence  town,  and  finally  determined  to  have  it  surveyed, 
the  result  of  which  was  that  the  swampy  portions  of  it  were  susceptible  of 
thorough  drainage.  He  then  purchased  three  hundred  acres  of  this  land,  fronting 
a  mile  and  a  half  on  the  lake  shore.  Soon  afterward  he  sold  sixty  acres  of  it  to 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  595 

the  Illinois  Central  Railroad  Company,  one  of  the  conditions  of  the  bargain  being 
that  the  company  should  run  a  suburban  Hyde  Park  accommodation  train  to 
what  would  soon  be  his  new  town.  He  at  once  went  to  work  planning  the  future 
village  of  Hyde  Park,  laying  out  streets,  parks,  etc.,  and  platting  the  ground. 
Hyde  Park  soon  was  a  reality  as  well  as  a  town  on  paper.  The  accommodation 
train  was  put  on  the  railroad  as  agreed,  and  Mr.  Cornell,  besides  making  other 
improvements,  erected  the  Hyde  Park  House,  and  pushed  the  new  venture  to  an 
early  success.  This  is  the  history  of  the  origin  of  Hyde  Park,  now  a  thriving  and 
populous  village;  and  this,  too,  was  the  beginning  of  the  suburban  idea,  which 
has  since  then  been  so  extensively  carried  out  in  all  directions  beyond  Chicago's 
corporate  limits. 

In  1866  Mr.  Cornell,  with  several  other  public-spirited  Chicago  men,  first 
began  to  agitate  the  propriety  of  establishing  extensive  public  pleasure  grounds 
in  Chicago's  immediate  vicinity,  or,  as  he  termed  it,  giving  lungs  to  the  great  city 
and  its  future  generations.  He  spent  the  entire  winter  of  1867  at  Springfield, 
laboring  for  the  passage  of  the  Park  bill  through  the  legislature,  and  in  spite  of 
very  stubborn  opposition,  both  from  some  of  Chicago's  wealthiest  citizens  and 
from  members  of  both  houses,  succeeded  in  securing  its  passage,  which  was  the 
initiatory  step  of  Chicago's  present  great  park  system,  now  rapidly  developing 
into  the  most  extensive  and  attractive  public  grounds  possessed  by  any  city  in 
the  world.  No  sooner  had  the  South  Park  bill  passed  the  legislature,  than  the 
same  intense  opposition  that  the  measure  encountered  in  its  passage  was  aimed 
against  himself.  His  friends,  in  consideration  of  his  services  in  this  connection, 
asked  the  governor  to  appoint  him  as  one  of  the  commissioners  provided  for  by 
the  bill,  and  the  opponents  of  the  measure  and  a  political  ring  vigorously  under- 
took to  prevent  his  appointment.  The  governor,  convinced  of  his  fitness  for  the 
place,  nevertheless  made  him  one  of  the  commissioners,  and  he  still  holds  the  posi- 
tion, having  been  appointed  four  successive  times,  now  being  the  only  commis- 
sioner left  of  the  first  appointees;  his  present  term  will  make  eighteen  years  of 
service,  as  one  of  the  South  Park  commissioners.  In  earnest  cooperation  with  the 
other  members  of  the  board,  he  has  thus  far  faithfully  and  efficiently  fulfilled 
his  trust;  South  Park  with  its  grand  boulevards  being  already  one  of  Chicago's 
noblest  features. 

Another  of  Mr.  Cornell's  enterprises  is  the  founding  of  the  new  town  bearing 
his  name,  at  the  crossing  of  the  railroads  south  of  Hyde  Park.  The  history  of  this 
undertaking  is  this:  In  1854  a  terrible  accident  occurred  at  the  crossing,  the 
trains  of  two  different  railroads  coming  into  collision  and  killing  forty  persons. 
The  occurrence  sent  a  thrill  of  horror  throughout  the  whole  country.  The  com- 
panies agreed  upon  an  arbitration  to  decide  the  question  of  the  payment  of  dam- 
ages, and  one  clause  of  the  decision  was  that  all  trains  at  that  point  should  come 
to  a  full  stop.  Mr.  Cornell  at  once  perceived  that  this  would  virtually  make  the 
crossing  a  railway  station,  and  that  to  invest  in  land  there  would  be  a  wise  thing 
to  do.  He  accordingly  purchased  a  section  and  a  half  of  the  lands  at  and  around 


596  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  crossing,  paying  from  seven  to  thirty  dollars  per  acre  for  what  is  now  worth 
almost  as  much  as  that  per  front  foot,  in  building  lots.  This  was  the  origin  of 
the  Hyde  Park  suburb  of  Cornell,  which  was  laid  out  as  a  town  in  1871.  One  of 
the  first  substantial  improvements  of  the  place  was  an  extensive  watch  factory, 
which  was  removed  there  from  Newark,  New  Jersey,  and  known  as  the  Cornell 
Watch  Factory.  It  was  successfully  operated  up  to  the  fall  of  1874,  when  Mr. 
Cornell,  conceiving  the  idea  that  the  Chinese  labor  of  California  could  be  utilized 
in  the  manufacture  of  watches,  visited  the  Pacific  coast  and  negotiated  with  W. 
C.  Ralston,  president  of  the  Bank  of  California;  Gov.  Stanford,  president  of  the 
Central  Pacific  railroad;  Senator  Jones,  of  Nevada;  John  Parrott;  Oliver  Eld- 
ridge,  agent  of  the  Pacific  Mail  Steamship  Company,  and  other  leading  citizens, 
for  the  sale  and  transfer  of  the  entire  establishment  to  San  Francisco.  Other 
important  manufacturing  establishments  have  been  located  at  Cornell,  and  the 
town  is  making  a  very  healthy  progress  in  the  matter  of  residences  and  population. 

In  July,  1856,  Mr.  Cornell  was  married  to  Miss  Helen  M.  Gray,  of  Bowdoin- 
ham,  Maine,  the  ceremony  taking  place  at  the  residence  of  Orrington  Lunt, 
her  brother-in-law,  in  Chicago.  Mrs.  Cornell  has  always  shared  her  husband's 
faith  and  enthusiasm  in  the  great  future  of  Chicago,  and  whether  their  sky  was 
bright  or  dark,  she  has  always  been  a  true  helpmeet,  sharing  his  burdens  when 
they  came,  and  economizing  to  the  utmost  when  necessary;  and  during  the  finan- 
cial storm  of  1857  and  1858,  and  also  during  the  dark  days  of  the  war  of  the 
rebellion,  it  was  often  painfully  necessary.  The  husband  gratefully  acknowledges 
that  he  owes  as  much  to  the  devoted  efforts  and  self-sacrificing  spirit  of  his  good 
wife,  in  times  of  trial  and  hard  times,  as  to  his  own  energy  or  foresight,  for  the 
good  fortune  and  prosperity  that  now  attend  them.  He  is  as  devoted  and  faith- 
ful a  husband  as  she  is  a  wife.  It  is  needless,  therefore,  to  remark  that  they  are 
truly  a  happy  pair.  They  have  five  children,  George,  John,  Paul  junior,  Lizzie 
and  Helen,  all  of  whom  enjoy  the  best  of  health. 

Mr.  and  Mrs.  Cornell  are  members  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Hyde 
Park,  and  take  an  active  part  in  all  matters  pertaining  to  Christianity.  Mr.  Cor- 
nell gave  the  ground,  a  lot  near  the  central  part  of  Hyde  Park,  and  donated 
means  sufficient,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  amount  given  by  citizens  of  Chi- 
cago, for  the  erection  of  the  first  chapel  on  it.  The  lot  was  given  with  a  view  to 
the  erection  of  stores  upon  it,  and  the  proceeds  arising  from  rents,  etc.,  to  be  used 
as  a  church  extension  fund.  Two  stores  have  been  erected,  and  the  property  is 
now  worth  fully  thirty  thousand  dollars.  He  also  aided  largely  in  erecting  the 
fine  stone  edifice  now  used  by  the  society,  which  cost  about  forty-five  thousand 
dollars. 

Although  shrewd  and  sharp  at  a  bargain,  and  having  passed  through  some 
trying  financial  ordeals  in  times  past,  sometimes  embarking  in  extensive  enter- 
prises that  timid  men  would  have  deemed  extremely  venturesome,  we  have  never, 
during  the  eighteen  years  of  our  acquaintance  with  him,  known  Mr.  Cornell  to  be 
accused  of  intentional  wrong  or  injustice.  He  is  a  man  of  conscience,  possessing 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  597 

a  nice  sense  of  honor,  and  would  not,  we  think,  intentionally  injure  even  an 
enemy.  Of  quick  perceptions,  intelligent  judgment  and  remarkable  intuitions, 
his  business  life  has  on  the  whole  been  a  successful  one,  and  he  now  has  the  con- 
sciousness of  being  an  independent  man,  and  of  having  the  friendship  and  good 
will  of  his  fellow  citizens,  especially  those  who  have  side  by  side  marched  on  with 
him  through  Chicago's  progressive  career  of  the  past  twenty  years  and  more,  a 
career  that  has  been  as  eventful  as  wonderful,  and  in  the  whole  course  of  which 
he  has  been  a  prominent  and  active  figure. 


EDWARD   A.   GIBBS. 

EDWARD  A.  GIBBS  was  born  in  Lee  county,  Iowa,  April  20,  1853,  the  son 
of  E.  A.  Gibbs,  one  of  the  oldest  settlers  in  that  county,  and  a  prominent 
business  man  in  Fort  Madison,  Iowa.  Mr.  Gibbs  received  his  preparatory  educa- 
tion in  the  public  schools  of  Fort  Madison,  and  afterward,  in  1869.  entered  the 
Iowa  Wesleyan  University,  graduating  there  in  1873.  He  then  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, and  entered  the  law  office  of  Forrester  and  Beems,  and  regularly  began  his 
legal  studies,  he  having  already,  concurrently  with  his  literary  course  at  college, 
taken  a  course  of  law.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1874,  and  began 
practice  at  once,  forming  a  partnership  with  Forrester  and  Beems,  under  the 
name  and  style  of  Forrester,  Beems  and  Gibbs,  which  firm  continued  until  1876, 
since  which  time  Mr.  Gibbs  has  been  practicing  alone.  In  1878  he  went  to 
Alaska  and  engaged  in  the  fur  business,  meeting  with  success.  He,  however, 
returned  to  Chicago  after  an  absence  of  a  couple  of  years,  and  resumed  the  prac- 
tice of  his  profession.  Up  to  the  repeal  of  the  bankruptcy  act,  he  had  a  very 
large  bankruptcy  practice,  but  since  that  time  he  has  turned  his  attention  largely 
to  mining.  Mr.  Gibbs  was  married  in  1878. 


WILLIAM    H.    SKELLY. 

WILLIAM  H.  SKELLY  was  born  in  Chicago,  September  17,  1847,  and  is 
the  son  of  Daniel  C.  Skelly  and  Susan  (Cosgrove)  Skelly,  both  of  whom 
are  of  Irish  descent.  During  the  war  of  the  rebellion  his  father  served  with  dis- 
tinction as  captain  of  a  company,  with  the  23d  regiment  111.  Vols.,  known  as 
Mulligan's  Brigade.  William  H.  received  a  good  common-school  education,  and 
afterward  pursued  a  course  of  study  at  Notre  Dame  Academy,  at  South  Bend, 
Indiana;  thence  he  removed  to  Lemont,  Illinois,  where  he  was  elected  town  clerk 
for  the  years  1872  and  1873,  and  from  1873  to  1881  had  the  honor  of  serving  as 
justice  of  the  peace.  During  that  same  period,  in  1875-6,  he  was  a  valuable 
member  of  the  general  assembly  of  Illinois. 

In  September,  1877,  after  his  return  from  the  legislature,  he  was  admitted  to 


598  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  bar,  and  since  that  time  has  practiced  his  profession  in  Chicago.  As  a  lawyer 
he  is  successful,  and  honors  the  profession.  He  is  a  man  of  excellent  personal 
qualities,  and  having  traveled  extensively  throughout  the  United  States,  has 
gained  a  valuable  and  practical  fund  of  information,  which  renders  him  an  agree- 
able and  genial  social  companion. 

In  political  belief,  Mr.  Skelly  is  an  ardent  democrat,  'and  for  some  six  years 
has  been  an  active  member  of  the  Cook  county  central  democratic  committee. 
In  religious  sentiment  he  is  a  Catholic. 

Mr.  Skelly  was  married  February  29,  1870,  to  Miss  Mary  F.  Smith,  and  by 
that  union  has  had  six  children,  of  whom  two,  Roger  J.  and  William  H.,  are  now 
living. 

JOSEPH   N.   BARKER. 

T  OSEPH  N.  BARKER,  who  for  thirty-eight  years  has  been  a  member  of  the 
J  legal  profession  in  Chicago,  is  an  excellent  representative  of  that  class  of 
western  lawyers  who  have  achieved  success  and  gained  a  competence  by  faithful 
and  persevering  adherence  to  a  strictly  legitimate  law  practice.  He  was  born  in 
Augusta,  Bracken  county,  Kentucky,  September  20,  1824.  His  father's  name  was 
William  M.  Barker,  and  his  mother's  maiden  name  was  Jane  C.  Buckner.  His 
father  was  a  farmer,  and  removed  to  Ohio  in  1834,  where  he  continued  to  live 
at  home,  attending  public  and  select  schools  during  the  winter  and  working 
on  the  farm  during  the  summer,  until  he  was  seventeen  years  old.  For  the  next 
four  years  he  spent  his  winters  teaching  school.  In  1845,  lured  by  the  glowing 
accounts  of  young  Chicago,  he  came  to  this  city,  and  soon  after  began  the  study 
of  law  in  the  office  of  Judges  B.  S.  Morris  and  J.  J.  Brown.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  March  4,  1848,  and  continued  in  the  office  of  Morris  and  Brown  until 
1851,  when  he  opened  an  office  and  began  practicing  alone.  In  1850  he  took, 
entirely  unaided,  the  census  of  Chicago.  This  census  showed  at  that  time  a  popu- 
lation of  28,250.  The  same  year  Mr.  Barker  was  appointed  deputy  United  States 
marshal  for  the  district  of  northern  Illinois.  This  office  he  filled  for  three  years, 
performing  all  the  duties,  which  involved  in  those  early  days  a  large  amount  of 
traveling,  mostly  on  horseback.  In  the  performance  of  his  duties  as  deputy  mar- 
shal he  became  acquainted  with  a  very  large  number  of  shippers,  and  from  1854 
until  1860  did  the  largest  admiralty  law  practice  in  Chicago.  It  was  a  very  remu- 
nerative kind  of  practice,  and  Mr.  Barker  gained  a  handsome  income  from  it. 

In  1854  he  entered  into  a  law  partnership  with  George  A.  Meech,  and  the  firm 
of  Barker  and  Meech  continued  up  to  1856,  when  he  formed  a  partnership  with 
L.  H.  Hyatt,  and  the  firm  of  Barker  and  Hyatt  continued  to  the  year  1859,  when 
he  and  Hon.  Murray  F.  Tuley,  now  judge  of  circuit  court,  entered  into  partner- 
ship, which  continued  until  Mr.  Tuley  became  corporation  counsel  in  1869,  under 
the  name  of  Barker  and  Tuley,  when  he  and  Horatio  L.  Wait  formed  a  partner- 
ship, which  continued  until  May  i,  1875,  when  Ira  W.  Buell  was  added  to  their 
firm,  the  firm  being  Barker,  Buell  and  Wait. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  599 

During  the  whole  of  his  practice  in  Chicago,  and  especially  since  1860,  he  has 
done  a  very  large  general  law  business;  has  always  been  actively  engaged  in  his 
profession,  and  has  always  been  successful.  In  1868  he  was  elected  to  the  board 
of  education,  and  held  that  office  until  1871,  when  he  removed  to  Hyde  Park. 
During  this  time  he  filled  the  position  of  chairman  of  committee  on  the  high 
school.  It  was  through  his  efforts,  and  those  of  Hon.  William  H.  King,  that  the 
rules  of  the  board  were  so  changed  that  lady  teachers  received  the  pay  of  men 
for  performing  man's  work. 

Mr.  Barker  was  a  whig  until  1853,  since  which  time  he  has  been  an  ardent 
republican.  He  has  always  taken  a  great  interest  in  politics,  and  has  been  very 
active  in  his  own  immediate  ward,  but  has  never  been  a  candidate  for  any  office. 
In  1869  he  united  with  what  is  now  the  Fourth  Presbyterian  Church  of  Chicago. 
He  is  now  a  member  of  the  Presbyterian  Church  of  Hyde  Park. 

He  was  married  November  28,  1850,  to  Miss  Francis  M.  Long,  daughter  of 
James  Long,  one  of  Chicago's  oldest  citizens.  Out  of  seven  children  they  have 
now  living  one  son  and  two  daughters. 

As  a  lawyer  he  is  distinguished  for  good,  sound  common  sense;  is  a  steady, 
quiet  and  efficient  worker.  He  is  emphatically  the  business  man's  lawyer,  and  a 
remarkably  good  adviser  in  business  matters.  He  is  consulted  as  well  for  his 
good  judgment  regarding  business  transactions  as  concerning  legal  matters,  in 
both  of  which  he  is  an  excellent  and  safe  counselor.  He  is  more  distinguished  as 
a  legal  adviser  than  as  an  advocate,  and  as  an  adviser,  few  of  his  age  have  had 
more  experience.  In  the  trial  of  causes  he  gains  his  case  by  candor,  earnestness 
and  practical  reasoning,  rather  than  by  a  display  of  oratory.  In  all  his  practice 
he  is  exceedingly  conscientious,  never  taking  advantage  of  legal  technicalities  to 
gain  a  case.  He  is  now  the  third  oldest  practicing  member  of  the  Chicago  bar. 


WILLIAM    H.  SHIRLAND. 

WILLIAM  HARRY  SHIRLAND  was  born  at  Troy,  New  York,  July  4, 1851, 
and  is  the  son  of  an  iron  manufacturer  in  that  city,  and  both  his  paternal 
and  maternal  lineage  is  traceable  to  the  earliest  American  settlements.  After 
receiving  an  academical  education  he  spent  some  years  in  North  and  South 
America  in  travel,  and  made  his  home  in  California,  in  which  state  members  of 
his  family  were  pioneer  settlers.  After  a  collegiate  course  in  that  state  he  entered 
the  United  States  government  employ,  and  first  read  law  with  Gen.  Oscar  Hugh 
La  Grange,  of  San  Francisco.  He  was  then  transferred  to  Washington,  where 
he  continued  some  time  in  the  government  employ.  Subsequently  Mr.  Shirland 
entered  the  Rensselaer  Polytechnic  Institute,  a  scientific  college  located  at  Troy, 
New  York,  and  after  a  course  of  civil  engineering  resumed  his  legal  study  with 
Hon.  Martin  I.  Townsend,  United  States  district  attorney  at  that  place.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  New  York  state  as  an  attorney  and  counselor  in  1874,  and 
in  1878  to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States. 


6OO  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

In  1880,  being  attracted  by  the  growing  importance  of  Chicago,  he  removed 
to  that  city  and  was  connected  for  a  time  with  Hon.  Emery  A.  Storrs,  and  in 
1882  formed  the  legal  association  of  Shirland  and  Asay,  a  firm  now  existing  in 
Chicago. 

Mr.  Shirland  is  a  highly  polished  literary  man,  quick  and  accurate,  a  fluent, 
easy  speaker,  a  good  advocate  before  a  jury,  and  enjoys  the  reputation  of  being 
one  of  the  brightest  young  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar. 


DAVID   BRAINERD   LYMAN. 

DAVID  B.  LYMAN  was  born  March  27,  1840,  in  Hilo,  in  the  Island  of  Hawaii, 
Sandwich  Islands.  He  is  a  son  of  Rev.  David  B.  Lyman,  who  was  formerly 
of  New  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  who  having  graduated  at  Williams  College, 
studied  theology  at  the  Andover  Theological  Seminary.  After  completing  his 
theological  studies,  Mr.  Lyman,  Sr.,  married  and  sailed  in  November,  1831,  for 
the  Sandwich  Islands,  as  a  missionary  of  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners 
for  Foreign  Missions,  where  he  and  his  wife  still  reside,  laboring  for  the  cause  of 
Christianity  and  civilization.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  acquired  his  education  by 
his  own  efforts,  having  maintained  himself  since  early  boyhood,  and  applied  his 
leisure  hours  to  study.  At  a  very  early  age  he  held  several  important  positions 
under  the  government  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  thereby  obtaining  means  to  pre- 
pare himself  for,  and  go  through  with,  a  university  education.  In  the  year  1859 
he  left  Honolulu,  sailed  around  Cape  Horn,  and  arrived  in  New  Bedford,  Connect- 
icut, in  May  1860.  He  entered  Yale  College  in  September  of  that  year,  and 
graduated  in  arts  in  1864.  After  leaving  Yale,  Mr.  Lyman  went  to  Harvard  Law 
School,  and  entered  upon  the  study  of  law,  and  graduated  in  1866.  After  leaving 
Yale,  and  during  the  time  that  he  was  enrolled  as  a  student  at  Harvard  Law 
School  in  the  years  1864  and  1865,  he  was  connected  with  the  sanitary  commission 
as  hospital  visitor.  He  was  then  in  charge  of  the  sth  corps  hospital  of  Army  of 
Potomac,  and  also  the  Point  of  Rocks  hospital  in  Virginia,  and  for  the  last  few 
weeks  of  his  service  was  in  charge  of  the  sanitary  commission  of  the  forces  con- 
centrated around  Washington.  In  1866,  after  finishing  his  course  at  the  law 
school,  Mr.  Lyman,  having  been  admitted  to  the  bar  in  Boston,  removed  to 
Chicago,  and  entered  the  office  of  Messrs.  Waite  and  Clark  as  a  clerk,  and 
remained  in  that  capacity  two  years.  July  i,  1869,  he  formed  a  partnership 
with  Huntington  W.  Jackson,  under  the  firm  name  and  style  of  Lyman  and 
Jackson,  which  is  to-day  one  of  the  oldest  partnerships  in  Chicago. 

Mr.  Lyman  has  fine  literary  attainments,  and  is  a  good  classical  scholar. 
He  has  been  highly  successful  in  the  practice  of  his  chosen  profession.  While  he 
has,  perhaps,  devoted  more  time  to  real  estate  and  commercial  law  than  to  any 
other  branch,  so  general  has  been  his  reading,  and  such  has  been  his  industry, 
that  he  is  a  general  practitioner,  being  at  home  everywhere,  and  always  ready 


HC  C.cp.r  Jr 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  603 

for  attack  or  defense.  The  subject  of  this  sketch  has  much  natural  ability,  yet 
by  the  thoroughness  with  which  he  prepares  his  cases,  he  illustrates  the  truth  of 
the  well  known  maxim,  "there  is  no  excellence  without  labor." 

While  Mr.  Lyman  has. probably  a  higher  reputation  as  an  able  and  learned 
counselor  than  as  an  advocate  before  a  court  or  jury,  yet  such  is  his  standing,  and 
so  thoroughly  does  he  investigate  and  prepare  his  cases,  that  his  arguments  usu- 
ally carry  more  weight  than  those  of  other  members  of  the  bar  who  may  possess 
more  of  the  gift  of  eloquence. 

He  has  the  confidence  of  his  clients,  because  they  know  he  will  not  advise 
them  to  commence  a  suit  unless  their  course  is  right,  and  then  only  when  there 
is  no  remedy  for  them  save  in  litigation.  Mr.  Lyman  is  noted  for  his  indefatiga- 
ble industry,  for  his  painstaking  preparation  and  management  of  his  cases,  for 
his  unvarying  courtesy  toward  everyone  with  whom  he  comes  in  contact,  and  for 
his  most  thorough  and  conscientious  discharge  of  his  duty  to  his  clients.  These 
qualities,  added  to  his  well  known  ability  and  learning,  have  given  him  a  high 
standing  with  his  brethren  of  the  bar,  as  well  as  with  the  courts. 

Mr.  Lyman  takes  no  active  part  in  politics,  but  is  a  staunch  republican.  He 
was  married  October  5,  1870,  to  Miss  Mary  E.  Cossitt,  daughter  of  F.  D.  Cossitt, 
of  Chicago,  and  has  three  children  living.  He  resides  in  La  Grange,  one  of  the 
suburbs  of  Chicago. 

RICHARD  B.  TWISS. 

RICHARD  BENTLEY  TWISS,  son  of  John  Russell  and  Ann  (Bentley)  Twiss, 
was  born   at  Cambridge,  Washington  county,  New  York.      His  father,  a 
blacksmith  by  trade,  moved  to  Ohio  in  the  year  1850,  and  thence,  four  years  later, 
to  Clinton  county,  Iowa,  where  he  settled  on  a  farm,  and  where  he  still  resides,  a 
highly  honored  and  influential  citizen. 

Richard  remained  at  home  until  his  sixteenth  year,  spending  most  of  his  time 
at  school,  where  he  made  rapid  progress  in  his  studies,  and  thus  early  gave  evi- 
dence of  possessing  a  capacity  for  learning.  In  the  spring  of  1865  he  entered 
graduated  in  the  month  of  November  following,  having  received  the  first  prize 
Bryant  and  Stratton's  Commercial  College,  at  Davenport,  Iowa,  from  which  he 
for  excellence  in  penmanship.  He  was,  soon  after  his  graduation,  appointed 
teacher  of  bookkeeping  and  penmanship  in  the  same  institution,  which  position 
he  continued  to  fill  with  signal  success  until,  in  the  year  1868,  he  entered  the  pre- 
paratory department  of  the  University  of  Chicago.  Here  he  remained  seven 
years,  pursuing  the  full  classical  course  of  study,  and  graduating  with  the  class 
of  1875.  While  at  college  Mr.  Twiss  naturally  took  a  leading  position,  being  a 
good  student,  a  terse,  graceful  and  fluent  writer,  and  an  orator  of  unusual  force 
and  eloquence.  In  the  sophomore  year  he  was  awarded  the  prize  for  the  best 
essay,  achieving  a  like  distinction  in  the  junior  year  for  excellence  in  oratory,  and 
in  the  senior  year  was  selected  to  represent  the  University  of  Chicago  in  theinter- 
64 


604  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

collegiate  oratorical  contest  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  He  was  also  elected  by  his 
class  to  deliver  the  oration  on  class  day.  He  was  a  prominent  member  of  the  Psi 
Upsilon  Fraternity,  and  universally  esteemed  for  his  fine  social  qualities,  his 
frank,  manly  and  independent  character,  and  his  honorable  and  gentlemanly  con- 
duct. In  January,  1876,  Mr.  Twiss  began  the  study  of  law(at  the  Union  College 
of  Law  of  Chicago,  graduated  in  June,  1877,  and  in  the  month  of  September  of 
the  same  year,  upon  examination  before  the  supreme  court,  was  duly  admitted  to 
the  bar  of  Illinois. 

While  pursuing  his  legal  studies,  and  for  some  time  after  his  admission  to  the 
bar,  he  filled  the  position  of  law  clerk  with  the  firm  of  Tuley,  Stiles  and  Lewis, 
but  subsequently  opened  an  office  for  the  general  practice  of  law.  Mr.  Twiss  is 
in  every  sense  an  ornament  to  his  profession,  bringing  to  it  a  mind  well  disciplined 
by  a  thorough  course  of  study,  and  stored  with  a  large  fund  of  general  informa- 
tion, oratorical  gifts  of  a  very  high  order,  and  a  personal  character  above  reproach. 
He  is  a  hard  working,  conscientious  and  painstaking  lawyer;  careful  of  the  inter- 
ests of  his  clients,  fair  to  his  opponents,  and  gentlemanly  and  courteous  to  all. 
In  politics,  as  in  religion,  he  is  independent,  acting  always  according  to  his  sense 
of  right,  regardless  of  party  or  sect.  Personally,  he  is  modest  and  unassuming, 
yet  dignified  in  his  bearing,  and  has  the  confidence  and  esteem  of  all  who  know  him. 
Hating  all  pretense  and  hypocrisy,  he  scorns  to  purchase  popularity  at  the  price 
of  honor  and  self-respect,  but  those  who  have  his  confidence  find  in  him  a  genial 
companion  and  a  true  and  generous  friend. 


PENOYER   L.  SHERMAN. 

P)ENOYER  L.  SHERMAN  is  among  the  prominent  members  of  the  Chicago 
JL  bar.  He  was  born  at  Pompey  (now  La  Fayette),  Onondaga  county,  New 
York.  His  family  are  descendants  of  Roger  Sherman,  of  Connecticut,  one  of 
the  signers  of  the  Declaration  of  Independence.  Penoyer  L.  was  prepared  for 
college  at  the  academies  in  Homer  and  Pompey  Hill  in  that  county.  The  latter 
was  a  famous  institution  in  those  days,  and  many  afterward  distinguished  men 
were  educated  there.  In  1847,  at  the  age  of  sixteen  years,  he  entered  Hamilton 
College  and  was  graduated  in  1851.  He  then  studied  law  in  the  office  of  the 
distinguished  Hon.  Daniel  Gott.  This  office  was  the  law  school  of  Pompey,  from 
which  many  of  the  most  distinguished  lawyers  in  central  New  York  and  else- 
where have  graduated.  It  was  said  in  those  days  that  studying  law  under  this 
eminent  and  gifted  instructor  was  equivalent  to  a  graduation  from  the  best  law 
institute  in  the  country.  Mr.  Sherman  had  these  advantages,  and  made  the  most 
of  them.  He  came  to  Chicago  in  1853  and  continued  his  reading  in  the  office  of 
Collins  and  Williams,  one  of  the  ablest  law  firms  then  here.  He  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  1855. 

As  a  civil  law  practitioner  he  has  few  peers.     He  is  industrious,  and  devotes 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  605 

himself  to  his  business  wholly.  He  prepares  his  cases  and  briefs  with  such 
accuracy,  and  presents  them  with  such  charms  that  they  are  half  tried  when  pre- 
sented. He  has  been  successful  in  his  practice,  which  is  the  result  of  his  ability, 
force  of  character  and  energy.  He  is  quiet  in  his  business  and  makes  no  display, 
but  wins  the  cause  he  advocates,  on  its  merits.  He  has  the  confidence  of  client 
and  court,  because  of  sincerity,  earnestness  and  his  known  integrity  of  character. 


HON.   RICHARD  PRENDERGAST. 

JUDGE  PRENDERGAST  is  a  native  of  Ireland,  where  he  was  born  November 
8,  1854.  His  mother  died  when  he  was  but  eight  years  of  age,  and  his  father 
who  was  both  a  merchant  and  a  farmer,  meeting  with  financial  reverses,  immi- 
grated to  America  in  1864,  and  settled  in  La  Salle,  Illinois.  For  two  years  Rich- 
ard attended  school  there,  working  during  vacation  in  a  store,  and  in  1866  came 
to  Chicago,  and  again  entered  a  store,  at  the  age  of  twelve,  from  which  time  on 
he  wholly  supported  himself.  Without  wealthy  friends  or  money  to  back  him  the 
lad  could  not  attend  school,  but  until  1872  labored  faithfully  in  his  employer's 
interest,  meanwhile  storing  his  mind  with  general  information  by  reading  in  his 
spare  moments  everything  that  came  in  his  way.  In  1872,  when  not  yet  eighteen 
years  old,  he  went  to  Canada,  and  attended  college  in  Montreal  for  two  years, 
when  returning  to  Chicago,  he  entered  St.  Ignatius  College,  where  he  studied 
for  one  year  more.  The  full  course  required  from  seven  to  eight  years,  but  at  the 
end  of  one  year  he  graduated  the  second  in  a  class  whose  members,  except  him- 
self, had  all  studied  the  prescribed  eight  years.  In  1876,  after  graduating  with 
honor,  and  receiving  his  degree  of  A.B.,  he  entered  the  law  office  of  Judge  Moran, 
where  he  remained  for  two  years  more.  These  were  very  earnest  and  laborious 
years.  His  days  were  spent  during  business  hours,  performing  the  usual  duties 
of  a  clerk  and  law  student,  but  entirely  without  compensation,  in  order  that  he 
might  fully  learn  the  practical  work  of  a  lawyer,  while  his  mornings  and  evenings 
were  devoted  to  a  more  than  usual  course  of  law  reading.  In  this  way  he  acquired 
both  the  theoretical  and  the  practical  at  once,  and  saved  one-half  of  the  usual 
time  spent  by  law  students  in  preparatory  studies.  A  portion  of  the  second  year 
he  attended  the  Union  College  of  Law  of  Chicago,  and  graduated  in  1878,  receiv- 
ing the  Horton  prize  of  $50  for  the  best  essay  on  law.  His  subject  was  "  The 
Law  of  the  Land,"  and  it  is  a  sufficient  indication  of  its  merits  to  add,  that,  by 
request  of  the  faculty,  he  twice  read  it  before  succeeding  classes  in  the  regular 
course  of  lectures. 

In  1878  the  rule  of  the  supreme  court  required  a  course  of  two  full  years  in  the 
law  school  and  the  diploma  of  the  law  school,  as  conditional  to  admission  to  the 
bar,  or  in  lieu  thereof  an  examination  by  the  appellate  court,  but  not  having 
spent  the  required  time  in  the  school,  he  went  through  an  examination,  and  was 
marked  100  in  that  scale,  thus  being  the  only  one  in  the  class  of  that  year,  or  in 


606  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

the  state  of  Illinois  up  to  that  time,  who  received  so  high  a  mark.  Immediately 
upon  his  admission  to  the  bar  he  began  the  practice  of  his  profession,  although,  in 
fact,  by  his  course  in  the  office  of  Judge  Moran,  he  had,  in  the  most  important 
sense,  practiced  law  for  two  years.  He  took  at  once  as  high  a  stand  in  his 
profession  as  he  held  after  four  years  of  most  successful  practice,  when  he  was 
elected  to  the  important  position  he  now  holds.  During  these  four  years  he 
acquired  important  experience  in  the  successful  management  of  law  cases  of  vari- 
ous kinds,  mainly  in  civil  suits,  but  to  a  large  extent  in  criminal  causes.  In  two 
important  contested  election  cases  he  succeeded,  in  a  fair  fight,  in  ousting  the 
incumbent,  and  installing  the  contestant.  These  were  the  cases  of  M.  W.  Ryan, 
the  West  Town  collector,  and  Frank  A.  Stauber,  the  socialistic  candidate  for 
alderman  from  the  i4th  ward.  After  the  labors  of  the  day  were  over  for  most  of 
the  profession,  Judge  Prendergast  devoted  himself  to  severe  and  laborious  study. 
At  the  November  election  in  1882  he  was  nominated  on  the  democratic  ticket  for 
the  office  of  county  judge,  and  was  elected  by  a  majority  of  1,177  over  C.  C. 
Kohlsaat,  his  republican  competitor,  thus  running  very  considerably  ahead  of  his 
ticket.  Although  but  twenty -eight  years  old  the  day  of  his  election,  the  youngest 
judge  that  ever  sat  upon  the  bench  in  Chicago,  Judge  Prendergast  has  already 
convinced  the  judgment,  and  won  the  hearts  of  his  opponents  in  the  canvass,  and 
bids  fair  to  become  the  most  popular  judge  that  ever  accepted  the  place  he  now 
holds. 

In  personal  appearance  Judge  Prendergast  is  rather  below  the  average  size, 
but  with  a  large  shapely  head,  broad  and  high  forehead,  heavy,  well  marked  fea- 
tures, a  calm  and  kindly  eye,  and  dignity  and  self  possession  in  every  movement. 
When  on  the  bench  he  is  every  inch  a  judge,  but  in  the  freedom  and  privacy  of 
social  intercourse  is  sprightly  and  entertaining  in  conversation,  and  a  genial, 
warm-hearted  friend  and  companion.  It  will  go  hard  with  him  indeed,  if  the 
future  does  not  have  for  him  some  of  its  most  coveted  favors. 


GEN.  M.    R.  M.  WALLACE. 

MARTIN  RUBIN  MERRILL  WALLACE  was  born  September  29,  1829, 
at  Urbana,  Champaign  county,  Ohio.  His  father  was  John  Wallace,  a 
native  of  Delaware,  and  the  maiden  name  of  his  mother  was  Sarah  Hill,  a 
native  of  Kentucky.  The  subject  of  our  sketch  removed  to  Illinois  with  his  par- 
ents in  1834.  Settling  on  a  farm  in  La  Salle  county,  near  the  present  city  of 
Ottawa,  it  was  here  he  spent  the  greater  portion  of  the  days  of  his  youth, 
working  on  his  father's  farm  during  the  busy  seasons,  and  attending  the  county 
schools  during  the  winter  months.  In  1839  his  father  removed  to  Ogle  county, 
settling  near  Mount  Morris,  and  his  son  continued  his  studies  at  the  Rock  River 
Seminary,  his  father  at  the  same  time  being  one  of  the  board  of  trustees. 

In  1852  Mr.  Wallace  began  his  legal  course  in  the  office  of  Dickey  and  Wallace, 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  607 

Ottawa,  Illinois,  both  of  whom  are  well  known,  the  senior  member  of  the  firm 
being  an  elder  brother,  who  heroically  paid  his  life  for  the  freedom  obtained  by 
our  late  civil  war.  In  the  course  of  due  time  Mr.  Wallace  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Illinois,  and  entered  into  his  present  active  life  as  a  member  of  the  bar, 
removing  to  Chicago  in  1856. 

In  1 86 1  he  abandoned  his  profession  which  was  then  filled  with  brilliant 
prospects,  and  entered  the  Union  army,  where  he  served  faithfully  in  different 
prominent  positions,  being  promoted  through  the  different  ranks,  to  that  of  col- 
onel, and  in  the  fall  of  1864,  by  reason  of  the  expiration  of  the  full  three  years 
term,  he  was  mustered  out  of  the  service,  whereupon  he  took  up  his  abode  in 
Natchez,  Mississippi,  resuming  the  practice  of  law,  which  he  continued  there  until 
1866,  at  which  time  he  returned  to  Chicago,  and  since  then  he  has  taken  an 
active  part  in  the  foremost  rank  of  the  Chicago  attorneys,  and  has  occupied 
several  very  important  positions.  He  was  appointed  by  President  Johnson 
United  States  assessor  of  internal  revenue  for  the  ist  district  of  Illinois,  and 
subsequently  nominated  and  elected  on  the  people's  ticket  for  the  position  of 
county  judge,  where  he  served  with  the  utmost  satisfaction  until  his  health  failed 
him,  when  he  resigned,  and  was  then  appointed  county  attorney  by  the  board 
of  county  commissioners,  which  position  he  held  for  the  year  1878,  after  which 
time  he  resumed  the  practice  of  law  in  Chicago. 

In  politics  he  has  always  been  an  active  worker  in  the  democratic  party. 

Judge  Wallace  was  married  while  in  the  army,  during  a  leave  of  absence,  in 
September,  1863,  to  Miss  Emma  R.  Gilson. 


HON.  FRANCIS  A.   RIDDLE. 

THE  subject  of  this  brief  sketch  was  born  March  19,  1843,  in  Sangamon 
county,  Illinois.  Even  at  that  date  the  townships  in  the  central  part  of  the 
state  were  few.  Indeed,  between  Springfield  and  Chicago,  Postville,  now  Lin- 
coln, Bloomington  and  Jolietwere  the  only  corporations  within  county  lines.  Mr. 
Riddle's  birth-place  was  the  prairie,  in  a  farming  settlement,  about  eight  miles 
from  Springfield.  The  father  of  this  scion  of  the  broad  savanna  was  John  Rid- 
dle, a  vigorous,  well  informed  and  thrifty  farmer,  a  man  greatly  respected  by  all 
who  knew  him.  He  was  of  Scottish  origin,  the  family  having  been  two  or  three 
generations  in  America.  The  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Sarah  How  Clark, 
was  of  the  old  Dutch  blood,  which  ran  so  freely  from  Holland  to  all  parts  of 
the  western  world. 

Francis  Riddle  was  the  third  among  six  children,  four  of  whom  were  girls  and 
two  boys.  The  brother  dying  in  infancy,  Francis  was  subjected  to  all  the  endear- 
ments and  all  the  perils  of  an  only  son.  Young  Riddle's  boyhood  was  marked 
by  the  physical  and  intellectual  vigor  which  farm  life  so  generously  nourishes. 
Fond  of  his  books,  and  quite  as  fond  of  out-door  life,  a  master  of  wild  colts,  and 


608  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

a  daring  rider,  he  grew  up  with  that  happy  combination  of  intellect  and  healthful 
energy  which  has  contributed  to  make  the  strong  and  virile  lawyer  as  he  is  known 
to-day.  The  common  school  and  untamed  horses  were  the  joint  masters  in  his  first 
gymnasium.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  Riddle  entered  the  State  University  at 
Springfield,  then  under  the  patronage  of  the  Lutheran  denomination.  Here  he 
remained  two  years,  at  the  end  of  which  period  the  war  broke  out,  and  for  him, 
as  for  so  many  of  the  young  collegiates  of  this  country,  opened  a  new  and 
undreamed  of  path  of  activity. 

Young  Riddle's  father  was  an  abolitionist  of  the  old  radical  type.  The  son, 
as  a  matter  of  course,  drew  in  anti-slavery  and  patriotic  sentiments  from  every- 
thing about  the  old  farm.  When,  therefore,  Illinois  began  to  muster  her  forces 
for  the  defense  of  the  national  flag,  he  needed  no  conscription  and  no  bounty  to 
lead  him  to  join  the  thousands  who,  fired  with  the  enthusiasm  of  the  hour,  were 
hastening  to  the  field.  In  June,  1862,  he  enlisted  in  Co.  D.,  I3oth  regiment,  111. 
Vols.,  Col.  Nathaniel  Niles,  which  went  into  camp  at  Camp  Butler  in  the  environs 
of  Springfield.  His  regiment  was  almost  immediately  ordered  to  the  front.  From 
November  to  March  it  was  in  the  trenches  before  Memphis.  It  was  subsequently 
attached  to  the  i3th  army  corps,  Gen.  A.  J.  Smith  commanding.  It  was  in  ser- 
vice at  Milliken's  Bend,  and  shared  in  the  famous  march  to  Grand  Gulf,  Missis- 
sippi. It  took  part  in  the  battle  at  Magnolia  Hill,  and  later  joined  in  the 
investment  of  Vicksburg.  At  Milliken's  Bend  our  young  soldier  was  striken  down 
with  typhoid  pneumonia  in  its  severest  form,  and  after  partial  recovery  was  sent 
home  to  recruit  his  wasted  strength.  In  September,  1863,  Mr.  Riddle  joined  his 
regiment  at  Carrollton,  Louisiana,  then  belonging  to  the  forces  commanded  by 
the  brilliant  and  lamented  Gen.  Ransom.  Shortly  after  this  he  was  made  a  com- 
missioned officer  in  the  25th  corps  d'Afric,  later  called  the  93d  colored  regiment, 
which  he  helped  to  recruit  and  organize  at  Beer's  Landing,  and  along  the  banks 
of  Bayou  Teche.  With  his  dark-skinned  soldiers  Riddle  was  in  the  fight  at 
Cafion  Crow,  where  the  federal  forces,  it  will  be  remembered,  were  badly  cut  to 
pieces. 

In  the  winter  of  1864  Mr.  Riddle  was  made  judge  advocate  of  the  military 
commission  of  which  Col.  George  R.  Davis,  of  the  3d  Rhode  Island  regiment,  and 
at  this  writing  in  the  House  of  Representatives  at  Washington,  was  the  president. 
Mr.  Riddle's  long  and  honorable  career  in  the  army  extended  through  the  whole 
period  of  mature  boyhood,  was  completed  as  quartermaster  at  Carrollton,  Louisi- 
ana, where  at  the  conclusion  of  peace  he  was  mustered  out  August  i,  1865. 

Only  one  month  later  young  Riddle,  resuming  his  old  ambition  for  a  liberal 
education,  was  entered  at  Illinois  College,  where  he  remained  the  junior  and  part 
of  the  senior  year,  in  that  time  mastering  almost  the  entire  curriculum  of  that 
institution.  Returning  from  college  he  began  the  study  of  law  at  home,  reading 
under  the  direction  of  Judge  William  Prescott,  of  Springfield.  Later  he  entered 
the  law  department  of  the  University  of  Chicago,  at  which  he  graduated  with 
honor,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1867.  He  immediately  began  the  practice 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  609 

of  his  profession  in  Chicago.  Well  read  in  the  law,  well  acquainted  with  the 
world,  genial,  subtle,  quick  to  take  in  all  situations  and  make  the  most  of  them 
for  his  clients,  incapable  of  fear  or  discouragement,  skilled  in  diplomacy,  it  was 
only  natural  that  he  should  have  drawn  to  himself  a  large  clientage,  and  gained 
an  enviable  reputation  both  among  commercial  and  professional  men. 

In  1876  Mr.  Riddle  yielded  to  the  solicitations  of  his  friends  and  allowed  him- 
self to  be  sent  to  the  state  senate  of  Illinois,  where  he  served  for  four  years  in  a 
manner  which  won  for  him  the  reputation  of  a  far  seeing  and  able  legislator. 

Mr  Riddle  is  yet  a  young  man,  being  at  this  writing  hardly  forty  years  old, 
enjoying  the  esteem  of  his  fellow  citizens,  and  sedulously  devoted  to  the  duties  of 
his  laborious  profession.  An  able  pleader  at  the  bar,  he  is  more  able  as  a  coun- 
selor, and  in  consequence  is  employed  more  largely  in  those  causes  which  require 
skill  in  developing  and  bringing  forward.  In  1878  Mr.  Riddle  was  admitted  to 
practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States.  He  has  carried  with  him 
into  that  highest  judicatory  the  same  success  which  has  attended  his  practice  in 
the  courts  of  lower  jurisdiction. 

Mr.  Riddle's  life  can  be  be  sketched  in  fifteen  or  twenty  years  far  better  than 
at  the  present.  Indeed,  at  that  time  he  will  not  have  gone  beyond  the  full  pow- 
ers of  intellectual  and  professional  life. 


THOMAS    BATES. 

A  MONG  the  younger  class  of  lawyers  in  Chicago  of  the  best  standing  is  the 
L\.  gentleman  whose  name  heads  this  sketch,  and  who  received  the  latter  part 
of  his  legal  training  in  this  city,  under  Hon.  Leonard  Swett,  one  of  the  most 
eminent  members  of  the  profession  in  Chicago.  Mr.  Bates  has  been  in  practice 
but  a  few  years,  but  he  laid  a  good  foundation  at  the  start,  and  is  building  stead- 
ily, and  as  he  loves  his  profession,  and  is  studious  and  ambitious,  a  brilliant  future 
seems  to  lie  before  him. 

Thomas  Bates  is  a  native  of  Illinois,  his  birth  being  dated  at  Griggsville,  Pike 
county,  March  4,  1845.  His  parents,  Thomas  Bates  and  Elvira  (Cleveland)  Bates, 
were  born  in  Rutland,  Vermont.  This  branch  of  the  Bates  family  we  are  unable 
to  trace  back  farther  than  to  our  subject's  great-grandfather,  Elias  Bates,  who 
was  a  resident  of  the  province  of  Massachusetts  at  the  time  when  the  revolution 
broke  out,  and  who  participated  in  the  struggle  for  independence,  holding  the 
rank  of  lieutenant. 

Mr.  Bates  was  educated  in  the  common  schools  of  Illinois,  supplementing  his 
mental  training  there  with  some  outside  private  study;  was  in  the  government 
service  as  a  wagon-master,  under  Gen.  Sully,  in  his  expedition  against  the  Indians 
in  1865-6;  aided  his  father  more  or  less  in  his  lumber  office  at  Lincoln;  was  prin- 
cipal of  the  Gilman  public  school  four  years,  reading  law  during  the  last  two  of 
them;  in  April,  1876,  came  to  Chicago,  and  finished  his  legal  studies  in  the  office 
of  Mr.  Swett,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  September  following. 


6lO  THE    BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

For  a  little  more  than  two  years  Mr.  Bates  was  of  the  firm  of  Swett  and  Bates; 
then,  for  one  year,  of  Higgins,  Swett  and  Bates,  and  is  now  of  the  firm  of  Swett, 
Bates  and  Haskell,  who  are  doing  a  large  business  in  the  several  courts  of  the 
commonwealth. 

Mr.  Bates  confines  himself  to  civil  law  exclusively;  has  wonderful  success  in 
securing  business  and  the  confidence  of  people;  is  quite  successful  before  a  jury, 
and  is  eminently  trustworthy  in  all  the  relations  of  life. 

Mr.  Bates  votes  the  democratic  ticket,  but  goes  no  further  in  politics,  being 
evidently  ambitious  to  excel  in  his  profession,  or  to  at  least  make  notable  success 
of  it,  and  knowing  that  in  order  to  do  so  his  whole  time  must  be  given  to  legal 
studies  and  practice. 

Mr.  Bates  married,  December  24,  1870,  Sarah  H.  Ricker,  daughter  of  Albion 
Ricker,  of  Turner,  Maine,  and  they  have  two  children. 


HARRY   RUBENS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  July  7,  1850,  of  poor  but  respectable 
parents,  who  lived  in  Vienna.  Harry  received  his  early  education  in  the 
public  schools  of  Vienna,  his  native  place,  and  at  the  age  of  fifteen  entered  the 
Polytechnic  School  of  that  city.  While  pursuing  his  studies,  in  1866,  the  Austro- 
Prussian  war  broke  out,  and  he  being  one  of  the  Students'  Legion,  which  joined 
the  army,  entered  into  the  defense  of  his  country,  and  was  engaged  in  several 
very  important  battles.  At  the  end  of  the  war  he  returned  to  college,  and  after 
graduating  with  honor  in  1867,  started  out  into  the  world.  With  energy,  ambi- 
tion and  high  aspirations,  and  a  desire  for  a  broader  field  of  action,  he,  during 
the  same  year,  immigrated  to  America,  and  entered  into  the  active  duties  of  a 
journalist,  a  profession  to  which  many  are  called,  but  in  which  comparatively  few 
are  eminently  successful.  The  man  who,  by  patient  perseverance,  arduous  effort, 
and  the  execution  of  well  conceived  plans,  succeeds  in  any  department,  will  be 
found  upon  analysis  to  possess  a  character  unlike  that  of  ordinary  men.  The 
exigencies  of  success  require  peculiar  instruments,  as  the  rarer  and  more  difficult 
results  in  mechanism  demand  different  tools  from  those  used  in  ordinary  opera- 
tions. These  essential  and  necessary  variations  in  character,  by  which  the  indi- 
viduality of  men  is  shaped  with  reference  to  certain  ends  to  be  accomplished, 
should  be  kept  in  view  when  studying  the  life  history  and  actions  of  another,  as 
frequently  in  such  cases  there  will  be  found  certain  traits  and  combinations 
bearing  little  or  no  resemblance  to  the  more  usual  composition  of  human  nature. 
Thus  it  was  with  Mr.  Rubens.  In  his  journalistic  enterprise  he  met  with  peculiar 
success.  His  talent  was  principally  spent  on  German  newspapers,  serving  as 
local  editor  of  the  "  Westliche  Post,"  of  St.  Louis,  and  it  was  here,  in  the  year 
1871,  that  he,  in  connection  with  Joseph  Kepler,  the  celebrated  artist,  became 
founder  of  the  greatest  comic  journal  of  the  day,  ''  Puck,"  which  is  now 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  613 

published  in  New  York  city.  During  the  same  year  Mr.  Rubens  accepted  a  posi- 
tion in  Washington,  District  of  Columbia,  as  private  secretary  to  Hon.  Carl 
Schurz,  who  was  then  in  the  United  States  senate,  and  in  this  capacity  displayed 
talent  and  ability.  In  the  winter  of  1872  he  resigned  this  position,  to  accept  the 
assistant  secretaryship  of  the  Missouri  state  senate.  After  the  adjournment 
of  the  legislature,  in  the  spring  of  1873,  he  removed  to  Chicago,  and  became 
local  editor  of  the  "  Freie  Presse,"  and  was  also  associated  with  the  Chicago 
"  Times  "  and  "  Evening  Mail."  He  also,  during  the  same  time,  pursued  a  course 
of  law  studies,  under  the  direction  of  Edmund  Jussen,  and  was  admitted  to  the 
bar  of  Illinois  at  Mount  Vernon,  June  8,  1877.  Mr.  Rubens  then  began  the  prac- 
tice of  law  with  Mr.  Hiestand,  a  well  known  member  of  the  Chicago  bar,  under 
the  firm  name  of  Rubens  and  Hiestand.  The  partnership  continued  until  the 
spring  of  1882,  when  Mr.  Hiestand  withdrew  from  the  firm,  whereupon  Mr. 
Rubens  associated  with  himself  John  McGaffey,  an  attorney  of  ability  from  St. 
Louis,  who  had  formerly  been  an  old  associate,  as  well  as  a  journalist. 

In  the  spring  of  1879,  Mr.  Rubens  was  appointed  by  Carter  H.  Harrison, 
mayor  of  Chicago,  a  member  of  the  board  of  directors  of  the  Chicago  Public 
Library,  a  position  to  which  he  was  reappointed  in  the  spring  of  1882,  and  at  the 
same  time  was  elected  president  of  the  board. 

For  several  years  he  has  been  the  attorney  for  the  liquor  dealers'  state  and 
national  association,  and  has  been  prominently  identified  with  the  German  socie- 
ties of  this  city,  and  is  now  (1883)  president  of  the  Germania. 

Mr.  Harry  Rubens  has  been  a  member  of  the  Chicago  bar  only  six  years,  but 
from  his  zealous  efforts  in  the  practice  of  his  profession,  combined  with  marked 
success,  he  has  established  a  very  extensive  and  desirable  practice.  He  has  at 
the  same  time  taken  an  active  part  in  political  affairs,  but  uniformly  declined 
political  preferment,  choosing  rather  to  give  his  entire  energy  to  his  professional 
labors. 

WILLIAM   A.   SHERIDAN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  is  a  lawyer  of  fine  attainments,  who  will  some  day 
add  new  luster  to  the  illustrious  name  he  wears,  should  he  meet  with  the 
opportunities  usually  afforded  a  member  of  the  bar  possessing  his  qualifications, 
both  natural  and  acquired.  He  was  born  in  Charlestown,  New  Hampshire  in 
1837,  and  is  the  son  of  James  Sheridan,  who  is  of  Irish  descent.  His  mother 
before  marriage  was  Mary  McGloughlin,  and  is  of  Scotch  descent.  His  brother 
George  A.  Sheridan,  of  Louisiana,  an  eminent  orator,  is  recognized  as  one  of  the 
best  stump  speakers  in  the  United  States.  William  A.  commenced  his  education 
in  Millbury,  Massachusetts,  and  graduated  from  Leicester  Academy  in  1855,  after 
which  he  pursued  a  scientific  course  in  civil  engineering. 

During  his  spare  time  for  several  years  he  read  law,  and  in  1874  was  admitted 
to  the  Chicago  bar.     He  then  went   into  active  practice  in  company  with  C.  M. 
65 


6 14  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Hardy,  a  prominent  Chicago  lawyer,  with  whom  he  built  up  a  very  extensive 
practice.  Since  1876  Mr.  Sheridan  has  been  in  practice  by  himself,  devoting  his 
attention  principally  to  a  general  civil  business.  Mr.  Sheridan  is  a  social,  con- 
genial gentleman,  of  nervous  sanguine  temperament;  of  medium  height  and  stout 
build.  He  has  a  handsome,  clean  shaved  face,  with  the  exception  of  a  heavy 
brown  mustache;  his  eyes  are  blue,  his  forehead  high,  intellectual  and  broad; 
he  has  a  luxuriant  growth  of  curling  gray  hair,  which  in  his  younger  days  was  of 
a  dark  chestnut  color.  He  is  a  fluent  speaker  and  an  excellent  trial  lawyer. 


WILLIAM    E.    LEFFINGWELL. 

WILLIAM  EDWARD  LEFFINGWELL,  one  of  the  leading  advocates  in 
the  city  of  Chicago,  is  a  lineal  descendant  of  Lieut.  Thomas  Leffingwell, 
the  leader  of  the  colony  that  founded  Norwich,  Connecticut,  receiving  his  grant 
of  land  from  the  celebrated  Indian  chief. 

The  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  at  New  London,  Connecticut,  October  9, 
1822,  his  parents  being  William  and  Frances  (Ross)  Leffingwell.  The  Rosses 
were  a  Rhode  Island  family.  William  Leffingwell,  a  native  of  Norwich,  where 
the  Connecticut  branch  was  founded,  was  an  industrious  mechanic,  a  joiner,  car- 
penter and  ship-builder,  acting  for  many  years  as  foreman  of  ship-yards  at  New 
London,  Sag  Harbor  and  Long  Island.  His  father  died  at  Muscatine,  Iowa,  in 
1876;  his  mother  is  still  living  there. 

The  school  days  of  our  subject  ended  at  fourteen  years  of  age,  when  he  left  a 
seminary  on  Long  Island,  conducted  by  Prof.  R.  G.  Isham,  Mr.  Leffingwell  act- 
ing, after  that  date,  as  his  own  tutor,  and  acquiring  a  mastery  of  the  English 
language. 

In  1838  Mr.  Leffingwell  came  to  the  West.  He  read  law  at  Muscatine,  Iowa, 
in  the  office  of  Judge  S.  C.  Hastings  and  William  G.  Woodward,  being  admitted 
to  the  bar  at  Iowa  City,  March  6,  1845.  May  15  following  he  opened  an  office  at 
De  Witt,  Iowa,  he  being  the  first  lawyer  to  settle  in  Clinton  county.  Iowa  was 
then  a  territory.  Early  in  1846  Mr.  Leffingwell  was  elected  to  the  last  territorial 
legislature.  Meanwhile  the  constitutional  convention  had  finished  its  work,  Iowa 
became  a  state,  and  before  the  territorial  legislature  had  occasion  to  meet,  he  was 
elected  to  the  first  state  legislature.  Prior  to  this  date,  Gov.  Clarke,  the  last  ter- 
ritorial governor,  had  appointed  Mr.  Leffingwell  prosecuting  attorney  of  the 
twenty-second  district. 

At  the  second  session  of  the  Iowa  state  legislature,  Mr.  Leffingwell  was  elected 
chief  clerk  of  the  house  of  representatives,  and  during  the  next  two  sessions  he 
represented  the  counties  of  Clinton  and  Scott  in  the  state  senate,  and  was  elected 
president  of  the  senate  of  the  fourth  general  assembly.  In  1852  he  was  a  presi- 
dential elector  on  the  Pierce  and  King  (democratic)  ticket.  The  next  year  he 
removed  from  De  Witt  to  Camanche,  in  the  same  county,  and  two  years  later 
(1855)  to  Lyons,  also  in  that  county. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  615 

While  a  resident  of  the  last  named  town,  Mr.  Leffingwell  greatly  distin- 
guished himself  at  the  bar,  particularly  as  a  criminal  lawyer,  he  having  very  few 
peers  in  that  state.  But  Mr.  Leffingwell  could  not  be  kept  out  of  politics.  He 
was  too  able  a  "stumper,"  and  too  much  of  a  pet  with  the  democratic  party,  to 
be  allowed  to  remain  a  quiet  looker-on  in  the  political  arena.  In  1858  he  was 
put  forward  as  the  democratic  nominee  for  congress  in  the  old  second  northern 
district,  pitted  against  Hon.  William  Vandever.  Iowa  had  then  become  a  repub- 
lican state,  and  Mr.  Leffingwell,  though  making  a  brilliant  canvass,  was  defeated. 
Ten  years  later  (1868)  he  was  the  candidate  of  his  party  in  the  new  second  dis- 
trict, against  Hon.  William  Smyth,  and  in  1870  and  1872  against  Hon.  A.  R. 
Gotten,  suffering  defeat  or  being  counted  out  at  each  contest.  The  second  dis- 
trict has  usually  been  strongly  republican,  but  Mr.  Leffingwell  reduced  the 
majority  more  and  more  at  each  of  the  three  trials,  and  at  the  last,  in  1872,  was 
claimed  by  his  friends  to  have  been  elected. 

Tired  of  political  life,  and  particularly  disgusted  with  the  jugglery  of  trick- 
sters, Mr.  Leffingwell  now  devoted  himself  exclusively  to  his  profession,  in  which, 
in  spite  of  the  time  given  to  politics,  he  had  stood,  almost  from  the  start,  in  the 
front  rank  of  Iowa  attorneys. 

In  the  spring  of  1875,  Mr.  Leffingwell  settled  in  Chicago,  where  he  was  not 
unknown,  either  to  the  legal  fraternity  or  to  leading  business  men,  and  he  had 
no  difficulty  in  getting  a  prompt  start.  The  reputation  which  had  preceded  him 
to  this  city  he  has  nobly  maintained. 

Mr.  Leffingwell  is  very  high  up  in  Masonry,  having  been  grand  commander  of 
the  consistory  of  the  Ancient  and  Accepted  Scottish  Rite.  He  was  married  at 
Clinton,  Iowa,  in  1846,  to  Celinda  Walrod,  a  native  of  Watertown,  Jefferson 
county,  New  York,  and  he  has  had  twelve  children,  only  five  of  whom  are  now 
living. 

HENRY    HUDSON. 

HENRY  HUDSON  was  born  in  Trumansburg,  Tompkins  county,  New 
York,  July  24,  1835.  His  father,  Richard  Hudson,  and  his  mother,  Sarah 
(Emmet)  Hudson,  lived  a  quiet  life  in  the  state  of  New  York  until  1845,  when 
they  removed  to  Ypsilanti,  Michigan.  There  Henry  enjoyed  excellent  educa- 
tional advantages  in  the  public  schools  of  the  town,  and  afterward  pursued  a 
course  of  study  in  the  State  Normal  School.  When  twenty  years  of  age  he 
removed  to  Chicago,  but  afterward  located  for  a  time  at  Morrison,  Whitesides 
county,  Illinois.  After  deciding  to  prepare  himself  for  the  legal  profession,  he 
began  his  studies  with  O.  F.  Woodruff,  a  prominent  member  of  the  Whitesides 
county  bar,  and  by  close  application  and  hard  work,  gained  a  thorough  and  prac- 
tical knowledge  of  the  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois  in  the  spring 
of  1865. 

In  the  summer  of  the  same  year  Mr.  Hudson  moved  to  Boone,  Iowa,  and  there 


6l6  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 

practiced  his  profession  for  three  years,  and  in  1868  was  elected  judge  of  the  cir- 
cuit court  of  the  eleventh  district  of  Iowa,  and  was  also  honored  with  the  first 
mayoralty  of  Boone,  an  office  of  four  years'  continuance.  In  the  fall  of  1866  he 
married  Mary  E.  Roche,  of  Lyons,  Iowa.  After  leaving  Boone,  Iowa,  he  made  an 
extended  trip  through  the  West,  spending  some  time  in  Salt  Lake  City,  and 
returned  to  Chicago,  where  he  continued  the  practice  of  law  until  1879,  when  he 
was  appointed  justice  of  the  peace  of  North  Chicago,  an  office  which  he  still 
holds.  Mr.  Hudson  was  a  democrat  prior  to  the  war,  but  since  then  has  been  a 
republican.  He  is  of  the  Roman  Catholic  faith.  A  man  of  untiring  energy, 
industrious  and  ambitious,  he  has  steadily  risen  in  his  profession  until  he  is  a 
worthy  and  an  honored  member  of  the  Chicago  bar. 


LEWIS   L.  COBURN. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  Lewis  L.  Coburn,  was  born  in  East  Montpelier, 
Vermont,  November  2,  1834.  His  grandparents  moved  from  Massachusetts 
to  Vermont,  and  settled  in  Washington  county  among  its  earliest  settlers.  His 
grandfather  on  his  father's  side,  Joseph  Coburn,  settled  in  Cabot,  Vermont,  and 
built  a  fulling  and  carding  mill.  His  grandfather  on  his  mother's  side,  James 
Allen,  settled  on  a  farm  in  East  Montpelier.  They  were  both  successful  citizens, 
and  much  respected  in  the  community. 

Lewis  L.  Coburn's  father,  Larned  Coburn,  married  Lovisa  Allen  soon  after 
each  arrived  of  age,  and  purchased  a  small  farm  in  East  Montpelier  adjoining 
the  farm  of  James  Allen.  He  there  prospered,  and  purchased  three  adjoining 
farms,  and  possessed  one  of  the  largest  estates  in  central  Vermont.  He  at  differ- 
ent times  was  town  representative  in  the  state  legislature,  and  held  various  offices 
in  his  town  and  county,  always  having  the  respect  and  confidence  of  his  fellow- 
citizens,  and  occupying  a  prominent  position  among  them  as  a  successful  repre- 
sentative man.  He  had  five  children,  all  born  upon  his  farm  in  East  Montpelier, 
where  they  received  the  advantages  of  a  district  school  education  when  small,  all 
having  the  opportunity  of  attending  the  academies  in  the  fall  and  spring,  as  their 
inclination  led  them.  Lewis  L.  was  the  youngest  of  the  five.  He  worked  on  the 
farm  summers,  and  attended  district  school  winters,  as  was  the  custom  for  the 
children  to  do,  until  he  arrived  at  the  age  of  fifteen  years,  when  he  first  com- 
menced attending  school  at  the  academies  in  that  part  of  the  state,  first  going  to 
Morrisville,  afterward  to  Northfield,  then  to  Barre,  Vermont,  usually  teaching  in 
the  winter,  attending  the  academy  in  the  fall  and  spring,  and  working  on  his 
father's  farm  in  the  summer.  He  first  taught  district  school  in  the  winter  at  the 
age  of  sixteen,  and  soon  acquired  a  reputation  in  that  part  of  the  state  as  a 
teacher,  which  led  to  his  being  sought  for  to  teach  the  largest  and  most  difficult 
schools  to  manage  in  that  part  of  the  state. 

He  fitted  for  college  at  Barre,  Vermont,  graduating  from  that  institution,  and 


I,,    lrECWilli.i«4  StNY 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  619 

entered  the  University  of  Vermont  in  the  summer  of  1855,  and  graduated  at  that 
institution  with  a  high  standing  in  mathematics  and  a  medium  standing  in  his 
class,  taking  a  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Arts  in  the  summer  of  1859.  Upon  entering 
college,  he  decided  to  adopt  the  legal  profession,  and  during  his  college  course 
read  law  during  several  vacations  in  Roberts  and  Chittenden's  law  office,  at  Bur- 
lington, Vermont,  and  immediately  after  graduating,  entered  the  law  office  of 
Hon.  T.  P.  Redfield,  at  Montpelier,  Vermont,  with  the  intention  of  completing 
his  law  studies  there.  He  remained,  however,  in  this  office  but  a  short  time 
before  entering  Harvard  Law  School,  at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  from  which 
institution  he  graduated  with  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Laws,  in  1861.  He  also 
was  examined  in  open  court  in  Boston,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  in  all  the 
courts  of  the  commonwealth  of  Massachusetts. 

In  casting  about  to  select  a  city  in  which  to  locate  and  practice  his  profession, 
he  finally  decided  upon  Chicago,  and  purchasing  a  small  and  select  law  library 
in  Boston,  immediately  started  for  Chicago,  where  he  arrived  in  February,  1861. 
He  was  an  entire  stranger  in  the  city  that  he  had  chosen  for  the  practice  of  his 
profession.  He  had  come,  however,  to  practice  law,  and  he  lost  no  time  in  rent- 
ing an  office,  supplying  it  with  suitable  furniture,  and  putting  a  sign  out  as  an 
attorney  at  law.  At  that  time  there  was  no  attorney  in  Chicago  who  made  patent 
law  a  specialty.  Young  Coburn  knew  that  in  other  and  older  cities  there  were  a 
few  lawvers  who  had  made  a  great  success  in  this  department  of  the  profession, 
and  he  decided  that  he  would  pay  special  attention  to  patent  law,  and  so  an- 
nounced upon  his  cards.  The  war  that  immediately  followed  left  at  home  a 
scarcity  of  men  to  perform  the  manual  labor  required,  and  therefore  labor-saving 
machinery  became  necessary.  This  at  once  stimulated  invention,  and  created  a 
demand  for  the  services  of  those  who  understood  patent  law. 

In  November,  1861,  young  Coburn  had  a  business  which  warranted  his  taking 
his  college  chum  and  classmate,  William  E.  Marrs,  who  had  been  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  Vermont,  as  a  partner.  From  that  time  on  there  was  never  a  time 
when  these  beginners  in  a  strange  city  did  not  have  all  the  business  they  could 
attend  to,  and  in  a  few  years  their  business  extended  to  the  United  States  courts 
of  nearly  all  the  western  states. 

In  the  summer  of  1862  young  Coburn  went  to  Vermont  on  a  vacation  to  visit 
his  parents.  It  happened  that  there  was  a  brigade  of  nine  months'  men  being 
enlisted  in  Vermont,  one  of  the  companies  of  which  was  being  raised  in  East 
Montpelier  and  adjoining  towns.  Upon  learning  that  their  young  townsman  was 
about  to  visit  home,  this  company  unanimously  elected  him  its  captain.  Although 
he  had  a  lucrative  law  practice  already  established,  he  concluded  that  it  would 
not  be  lost  entirely  if  he  accepted  the  position,  and  entered  the  army  for  a  short 
term,  leaving  his  partner  to  conduct  the  business.  He  served  as  captain  of  Co. 
C,  ijth  Vt.  regiment,  during  the  period  of  his  enlistment.  Capt.  Coburn  was  in 
the  front  line  for  two  days  at  the  battle  of  Gettysburg,  in  Gen.  Stannard's  bri- 
gade, and  led  his  company  on  a  charge  by  which  one  of  our  batteries  which  had 


62O  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 

been  taken  by  the  rebels  was  retaken,  he  being  the  first  person  who  reached  two 
of  the  cannon  after  the  rebels  fled.  There  surrendered  to  him  also,  in  person, 
Maj.  Moore,  of  a  Florida  regiment,  and  a  captain  and  lieutenant  of  a  Mississippi 
regiment,  all  of  whom  delivered  up  to  him  their  swords  and  pistols  on  the  battle- 
field, which  he  was  permitted  to  keep.  An  account  of  his  gallant  conduct  on  the 
battle-field  had  reached  Vermont  before  the  return  of  his  regiment  to  be  mus- 
tered out  of  service,  and  the  adjutant-general  urged  him  to  accept  any  position 
at  his  disposal,  and  reenlist  for  a  new  term,  or  during  the  war,  but  he  was  unwill- 
ing to  relinquish  his  law  practice,  which  had  been  continued  under  the  firm  name 
by  his  partner.  He  immediately  returned  to  Chicago,  and  resumed  active  labor 
in  his  profession.  In  1868  his  partner,  Mr.  Marrs,  died,  as  his  friends  thought 
from  over-work,  leaving  Mr.  Coburn  alone,  with  a  very  large  practice  in  the 
United  States  courts,  extending  through  many  of  the  different  states  of  the 
Union.  His  strong  constitution  enabled  him  to  keep  up  his  large  business  alone, 
with  the  assistance  of  a  corps  of  clerks,  until  1875,  when  he  took  as  a  partner 
Hon.  John  M.  Thacher,  who  had  also  been  a  school  and  college  classmate,  and 
who  for  ten  years  had  been  in  the  United  States  patent  office,  holding  various 
positions,  from  assistant  examiner  to  that  of  commissionership,  which  he  resigned 
to  become  a  partner  in  the  new  law  firm.  There  are  very  few,  if  any,  who  have 
attained  such  uniform  and  rapidly  increasing  success  in  the  profession  of  law. 
Mr.  Coburn  has  always  applied  himself  closely  to  his  profession  of  patent  law, 
for  which  he  is  eminently  qualified.  He  is  remarkable  in  the  facility  with  which 
he  grasps  and  comprehends  new  inventions,  seeing  at  once  the  result  sought  to 
be  obtained,  as  well  as  the  mechanism  and  means  used  by  the  inventor  to  obtain 
that  result.  He  also  readily  comprehends  the  relative  position  that  a  new  inven- 
tion occupies  in  the  art  to  which  it  belongs.  He  at  once  understands  what  an 
inventor  has  accomplished  that  is  new  or  different  from  what  has  been  done  by 
others,  and  is  able  to  point  out  clearly  and  concisely  what  an  inventor  has  de- 
scribed and  shown  in  a  patent  that  is  new,  and  also  describe  what  has  been  done 
by  others  who  have  labored  in  the  same  field,  but  have  fallen  short  of  accom- 
plishing all  that  his  client  has  done.  He  has  been  the  active  managing  attorney 
on  the  successful  side  of  several  of  the  most  important  patent  litigations  ever  had 
in  the  country.  Notable  among  these  are  the  Irwin  tubular  lantern  patent  suits, 
the  barbed  wire  suits,  the  beef-canning  suits,  and  many  others  of  less  general 
importance,  that  are  of  equal  importance  to  the  patentees  and  those  directly 
interested.  Mr.  Coburn  has  avoided  speculative  investments,  but  has  judiciously 
invested  his  surplus  income  from  his  profession  in  real  estate,  and,  believing  in 
the  future  of  Chicago,  has  located  most  of  his  investments  in  this  city. 

The  law  practice  of  this  firm  is  now  one  of  the  largest  and  most  lucrative  in 
the  Northwest,  and  the  investments  of  Mr.  Coburn  in  improved  real  estate  in 
Chicago,  which  have  continued  through  a  series  of  years,  until  his  annual  rent  roll 
exceeds  $25,000,  have  closely  identified  him  with  all  the  important  material  inter- 
ests of  the  city,  both  political  and  financial.  At  the  time  the  finances  of  Chicago 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  621 

were  in  a  most  critical  condition,  Mr.  Coburn  inaugurated  the  movement  which  led 
to  a  change  in  the  South  Town  and  City  governments.  This  movement  was  inau- 
gurated at  public  meetings,  over  the  first  of  which  Mr.  Coburn  presided.  He  has 
also  been  one  of  the  originators  of  several  beneficent  and  charitable  institutions, 
among  which  was  the  Christian  Union,  now  called  the  Chicago  Athenaeum;  also 
the  Vermont  Association  for  the  state  of  Illinois,  he  having  been  one  of  its  offi- 
cers and  once  its  president;  also  the  Union  League  Club  of  Chicago,  he  being  its 
first  president.  Mr.  Coburn  has  frequently  been  urged  to  be  a  candidate  for  elec- 
tion to  political  offices,  which  he  has  uniformly  declined.  He  has  been  proposed 
for  candidate  to  the  state  senate,  and  almost  unanimously  indorsed  by  the  press 
of  Chicago,  as  well  as  by  his  friends,  as  a  candidate  for  the  United  States  con- 
gress to  represent  the  first  district  for  the  state  of  Illinois. 

Mr.  Coburn  was  married  June  23,  1880,  to  Miss  Annie  S.  Swan,  at  the  residence 
of  her  grandmother,  Mrs.  Shaler,  in  Brooklyn,  New  York. 


JOHN    OLNEY. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  was  born  January  10,  1822,  at  Shawneetown, 
Illinois,  where  his  family  had  settled,  having  come  thither  from  the  East. 
John  passed  his  boyhood  and  youth  in  his  native  place,  receiving  a  good  common- 
school  education.  He  was  studious  and  industrious  in  his  habits,  and  early  in 
life  evinced  a  strong  liking  for  the  legal  profession,  and  a  determination  to  pre- 
pare himself  for  its  duties.  With  this  purpose  in  view,  he  entered  an  office  at  his 
native  place,  and  in  1844,  after  a  thorough  and  careful  course  of  study,  passed  an 
examination  and  received  his  license  to  practice.  He  at  once  entered  upon  the 
duties  of  his  profession  in  his  own  town,  and  gradually  rose  to  an  honorable 
position  at  the  bar,  being  known  as  an  able  advocate  and  a  safe  and  conscien- 
tious adviser. 

At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion,  in  1861,  Mr.  Olney  enlisted  in  the 
service,  and  being  chosen  lieutenant-colonel  of  the  6th  regiment  111.  Cavalry,  at 
once  proceeded  to  Paducah,  Kentucky,  at  which  post  he  was  placed  in  command. 
Col.  Olney  was  actively  engaged  in  the  service  until  1863,  when  he  was  honorably 
discharged,  having  been  wounded  and  disabled,  and  returned  to  his  home,  and 
resumed  the  practice  of  his  profession.  Two  years  later,  in  1865,  he  removed  to 
Cairo,  Illinois,  where,  in  1867,  he  was  elected  judge  of  the  circuit  court  of  Alex- 
ander, Pulaski,  Massac  and  Pope  counties.  Although  elected  for  a  term  of  six 
years,  he  resigned  his  office  in  1869,  and  accepting  the  office  of  supervisor  of 
internal  revenue,  to  which  he  was  appointed  by  President  Grant,  removed  to  Chi- 
cago, where  he  still  resides.  Judge  Olney  satisfactorily  performed  the  duties  of 
his  appointment  until  1871,  when,  being  removed  from  office,  he  again  resumed 
his  profession,  giving  his  attention  especially  to  matters  growing  out  of  the  law 
respecting  internal  revenue,  a  line  of  work  to  which  he  was  peculiarly  adapted, 


622  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  in  which  he  secured  an  extensive  practice.  Like  many  others,  Judge  Olney 
suffered  the  loss  of  his  valuable  law  library  and  many  valuable  papers  in  the 
great  fire  of  October  9,  1871,  but  with  unabated  vigor,  and  courage  undaunted, 
he  immediately  opened  another  office  and  began  to  repair  his  losses. 

In  1876,  Judge  Olney  was  the  recipient  of  a  very  high  compliment,  being 
appointed  revenue  agent  at  Chicago,  the  duties  of  which  office  were  very  like 
those  which  devolved  upon  him  as  supervisor  of  internal  revenue,  that  office  hav- 
ing been  abolished.  To  form  any  just  estimate  of  the  responsibilities  of  this  office 
during  the  time  of  Judge  Olney's  appointment,  and  to  appreciate  the  position  in 
which  he  was  placed,  one  needs  to  review  the  history  of  that  period,  —  the  high- 
handed and  open  defiance  of  the  law,  the  bargain  and  sale  among  politicians,  the 
offers  of  bribery,  to  which  so  many  fell  willing  victims,  the  criminal  prosecutions, 
in  which  were  involved  so  many  high  in  office  and  in  public  esteem,  and  the  final 
disgrace  that  came  to  those  who  had  participated  in  the  revenue  frauds.  Through 
this  trying  time  Judge  Olney  passed,  faithful  to  his  trust,  showing  at  the  close  of 
his  official  career  a  clean  record,  and  a  character  above  the  slightest  reproach. 

Judge  Olney  is  now  engaged  in  the  general  practice  of  his  profession,  and 
wherever  known  is  recognized  as  an  able  lawyer  and  an  upright  man. 


HON.  JOHN   NELSON   JEWETT. 

AT  Palmyra,  Somerset  county,  Maine,  October  8,  1827,  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
was  born  to  David  H.  and  Hannah  (Gale)  Jewett.  They  were  originally 
from  New  Hampshire.  Young  Mr.  Jewett's  early  life  was  spent  in  the  healthful 
occupation  of  tilling  the  soil  in  company  with  his  father.  At  the  age  of  eighteen 
he  entered  Bovvdoin  College,  Maine,  where  he  completed  a  full  classical  course, 
and  graduated  in  1850.  He  was  then  employed  as  teacher  in  the  academy  at 
North  Yarmouth,  Maine,  for  two  years.  During  his  early  youth  Mr.  Jewett  had 
a  strong  desire  for  the  study  of  law,  and  while  teaching  he  devoted  a  portion  of 
his  time  to  reading  law.  He  completed  his  law  studies  in  the  office  of  Collins 
and  Smith,  Madison,  Wisconsin,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  that  state  in 
1853.  He  then  removed  to  Galena,  Illinois,  and  engaged  in  practice  for  three 
years,  when  he  came  to  Chicago  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Scales  and 
McAllister,  which  partnership  was  dissolved  in  1863. 

He  is  republican  in  politics,  and  was  elected  to  the  Illinois  state  senate  in 
1876,  immediately  after  the  adoption  of  the  new  state  constitution.  As  a  state 
senator  Mr.  Jewett  acquitted  himself  with  honor  and  credit,  not  only  to  himself, 
but  giving  universal  satisfaction  to  his  constituents,  and  honestly  earned  a  most 
enviable  reputation  for  strict  integrity  and  rare  ability.  As  a  practitioner  he  is 
keen,  sharp  and  decided,  having  his  resources  always  within  command.  In  con- 
versation and  oral  argument  he  is  affable  and  benign,  but  in  writing  he  is  pun- 
gent and  sometimes  sarcastic.  He  is  logical  and  strong,  and  his  analytical  powers 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  623 

are  great.  He  is  rigidly  honest,  not  only  with  reference  to  himself,  but  with  all 
connected  with  him.  His  speeches  are  easy,  fluent  and  deliberate,  speaking 
tersely  and  to  the  point  in  an  attractive,  forcible  manner.  In  the  office  he  is 
industrious  and  conscientious  in  his  work.  Mr.  Jewett  was  married,  November, 
1855,  to  Miss  Ellen  R.  Rountree,  daughter  of  Hon.  J.  H.  Rountree,  of  Wisconsin. 


ROLAND   R.  LANDIS. 

ROLAND  R.  LANDIS  was  born  October  26,  1850,  in  the  city  of  Baltimore, 
Maryland,  the  son  of  Edmund  Landis,  and  Hannah  P.  (Robinson)  Landis. 
His  father  was  a  prominent  physician  in  Baltimore  ;  his  mother  was  a  native  of 
Rhode  Island,  and  a  descendant  of  an  old  English  family  of  that  state.  Roland 
received  his  earlier  education  in  the  common  schools  of  Baltimore  and  Chicago, 
having  resided  in  the  latter  place  since  he  was  twelve  years  of  age.  After  a  thor- 
ough common  school  education,  he  entered  the  Union  College  of  Law,  of  Chi- 
cago, from  which  he  graduated  in  1871.  During  the  same  year  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  Illinois,  and  for  several  years  thereafter  was  associated  in  business 
with  the  late  Col.  R.  W.  Ricaby,  under  the  firm  name  of  Ricaby  and  Landis,  and 
during  that  time  built  up  a  large  civil  practice.  The  firm  was  dissolved  by  the 
death  of  Col.  Rickaby,  which  occurred  in  December  1882.  In  political  belief  Mr. 
Landis  is  a  consistent  republican.  He  was  married  December  19,  1879,  to  Miss 
Ella  Cox,  of  Sandwich,  Illinois. 


BENJAMIN    E.  GALLUP. 

BENJAMIN  ELA  GALLUP  was  born  at  Lebanon,  New  Hampshire,  July  12, 
1826,  his  parents  being  Benjamin  and  Susan  Emerson  (Ela)  Gallup.  His 
father  was  a  physician,  and  a  man  of  no  inconsiderable  prominence  in  the  Con- 
necticut valley,  forty  and  fifty  years  ago.  His  grandfather,  whose  Christian  name 
was  also  Benjamin,  was  a  member  of  an  old  Connecticut  family.  The  mother 
of  our  subject  was  a  native  of  the  Connecticut  valley.  Mr.  Gallup  is  the  oldest 
child  in  a  family  of  five  children,  four  sons  and  one  daughter.  He  received  his 
preparatory  education  at  the  Kimball  Union  Academy,  Meriden,  New  Hampshire, 
and  his  college  at  Hanover,  same  state,  being  a  graduate  of  Dartmouth,  class  '47, 
and  having  a  high  standing  in  scholarship.  He  was  dependent  largely  upon  his 
own  resources  for  defraying  his  expenses,  and  both  before  going  to  college  and 
while  pursuing  his  studies  therein,  usually  taught  school  during  the  winter  term. 
He  early  learned  to  be  self-reliant,  and  that  lesson  has  been  of  incalculable 
benefit  to  him  through  all  his  manhood  years.  He  is  no  doubt  thankful  to-day 
that  he  was  not  only  born  and  reared  in  the  country,  but  was  early  obliged  to 
test  the  value  of  industry. 
66 


624  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

After  his  graduation  Mr.  Gallup  was  engaged  awhile  as  a  civil  engineer  on 
what  is  now  known  as  the  Central  Vermont  railroad.  Subsequently  he  studied 
law  in  Bangor,  Maine,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  about  1850.  In  1852  he  came 
to  the  West,  made  some  explorations  of  Wisconsin,  then  a  state  only  four  years 
old,  but  made  up  his  mind  that  Chicago  had  the  grandest  future,  and  here  he 
settled  in  the  spring  of  1853.  He  practiced  law  for  seven  or  eight  years  in  the 
firm  of  Gallup  and  Hitchcock,  his  partner  being  Charles  Hitchcock,  who  died  in 
this  city  in  1881.  Subsequently  he  was  a  partner  of  Francis  B.  Peabody,  and  the 
firm  of  Gallup  and  Peabody  was  engaged  in  the  loan  and  real  estate  business, 
doing  a  very  prosperous  business,  using  English  as  well  as  American  capital. 

Immediately  after  the  great  fire  of  1871,  Mr.  Gallup,  in  company  with  his  old 
partner,  Mr.  Hitchcock,  built  the  La  Salle  Block,  on  the  northwest  corner  of  La- 
Salle  and  Madison  streets,  one  of  the  first  blocks  completed  after  the  fire,  and  made 
fire  proof  and  very  substantial.  There  is  none  better  in  the  city. 

Mr.  Gallup  has  done  a  great  deal  in  aiding  to  build  up  the  city  of  Chicago, 
one  of  his  latest  and  best  additions  being  the  Hotel  Royal,  on  Indiana  avenne, 
just  north  of  Eighteenth  street,  opened  in  1881.  It  borders  on  the  Roman  style, 
with  very  massive  front,  and  very  substantial,  cozy  and  homelike  appearance 
throughout.  It  was  designed  by  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Gallup,  and,  aided  by  skillful 
architects,  the  plans  were  all  carried  out,  making  the  arrangements  perfect  from 
cellar  to  attic.  The  house  is  admirably  suited  for  private  families,  for  which  it  is 
largely  used,  and  its  many  suites  of  rooms  are  very  commodious  and  richly  fur- 
nished. A  gentleman  who  has  traveled  all  over  Europe,  visited  the  Hotel  Royal 
soon  after  it  was  opened,  and  frankly  declared  that  he  saw  nothing  better  in  the 
Old  World. 

The  partnership  of  Gallup  and  Peabody  continued  until  the  health  of  the 
former  failed  (1875),  and  he  went  to  Europe,  spending  fifteen  months  in  the  Old 
World,  seeing  many  countries,  but  none  so  promising  or  prosperous,  or  half  so 
inviting  as  his  own.  His  absence,  his  sight-seeing,  his  studies  of  institutions  all 
tended  to  make  him  think  more  and  more  of  his  native  land,  the  only  true  and 
magnificent  land  of  promise  in  this  modern  era  of  the  world. 

Another  episode  in  the  life  of  our  subject  occurred  in  1878,  when  he  was  sent 
by  President  Hayes  as  a  commissioner  to  the  Paris  exposition,  at  which  time  he 
attended  very  closely  to  the  duties  of  his  mission,  and  did  not  see  very  much  of 
Europe. 

Mr.  Gallup  has  held  but  very  few  civil  offices  since  a  resident  of  this  city. 
Indeed  we  can  recall  only  one  office  of  the  kind,  that  of  alderman  of  the  old  4th 
ward  (now  merged  in  the  3d)  at  the  opening  of  the  civil  war,  and  during  the 
administration  of  Mayor  Sherman.  Mr.  Sherman  was  a  democrat,  but  it  was  a 
trying  period  in  the  history  of  this  city,  as  well  as  of  the  country,  and  he  wanted 
such  a  man  as  Mr.  Gallup,  though  a  republican,  in  the  council,  and  Mr.  Gallup 
served  his  term  out  faithfully,  and  to  the  great  satisfaction  of  his  constituents, 
and  the  citizens  generally. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  625 

Mr.  Gallup  married  September  6,  1858,  Miss  Delia  S.  Hulburd,  a  native  of 
Medina,  Orleans  county,  New  York,  her  family  being  from  Orwell,  Vermont,  and 
they  have  six  children,  two  sons  and  four  daughters.  Mrs.  Gallup  was  educated 
at  South  Hadley,  in  one  of  the  best  schools  in  Massachusetts,  and  is  a  lady  of 
much  intelligence  and  refinement.  The  family  attend  the  First  Presbyterian 
Church. 


WILLIAM  H.  YOUNG. 

WILLIAM  H.  YOUNG  was  born  in  Oswego,  New  York,  May  4,  1847.  His 
father,  Andrew  H.  Young,  moved  to  Chicago  when  William  was  quite 
young,  and  there  reared  his  family.  William  was  educated  in  the  public  schools 
of  Chicago,  and  was  a  classmate  of  Luther  Laflin  Mills,  and  other  successful 
young  men  in  the  high  school,  under  the  instruction  of  George  Howland,  where 
he  graduated.  While  in  the  high  school  he  held  copy  for  the  proof  reader 
in  the  "Tribune"  office,  and  was  a  favorite  there.  He  then  read  law  with  the 
then  firm  of  Melville  W.  Fuller  and  Henry  M.  Shepherd,  and  later  was  under  the 
tuition  of  Hon.  Murray  F.  Tuley.  He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1868  and  com- 
menced practice.  He  was  for  several  years  in  the  office  of  D.  C.  and  J.  J.  Nich- 
ols, and  afterward  engaged  in  business  for  himself,  forming  the  firm  of  Young 
and  Forsyth,  which  did  a  successful  business.  In  the  fall  of  1870  he  was  nomi- 
nated by  a  number  of  leading  citizens  for  the  state  legislature  on  the  democratic 
ticket,  against  Hon.  James  P.  Root,  and,  although  defeated,  he  ran  far  ahead  of 
his  ticket.  He  has  taken  an  active  part  in  politics,  and  is  a  successful  operator 
in  that  connection. 

As  a  lawyer  he  has  been  successful,  and  is  considered  reliable  and  trustworthy. 
He  'has  many  friends  in  the  profession  and  among  the  public.  He  is  active  and 
industrious  in  his  business.  In  1866  he  married  Julia  D.  Winters,  one  of  his  com- 
panions in  the  high  school.  They  have  four  children — three  boys  and  one  girl. 


MAJ.  CHARLES  W.   DEANE. 

MAJ.  CHARLES  W.  DEANE  has  attained  to  a  position  and  standing  at  the 
bar  which  ranks  him  among  the  first  attorneys  in  point  of  ability  and 
success,  and  he  has  maintained  a  character  for  integrity  and  honorable  practice 
of  his  profession  which  has  won  the  respect  of  the  fraternity  and  all  who  know 
him.  He  was  born  in  Grafton,  Windham  county,  Vermont,  in  1839.  His  father 
was  Deacon  Peter  W.  Deane,  well  known  in  Vermont,  having  been  county  judge 
and  member  of  the  legislature,  and  was  the  oldest  woolen  manufacturer  in  the 
state.  The  brother  of  Charles  W.,  Hon.  Benjamin  W.  Deane,  was  register  of  the 
probate  court  for  Westminster  district,  and  secretary  of  state  from  1858  to  1862. 
The  subject  of  this  mention  was  educated  in  the  schools  of  the  neighborhood, 


626  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

and  at  Leland  Seminar}';  commenced  reading  law  with  his  brother  in  1857,  and 
entered  the  Albany  Law  University  in  1859,  being  graduated  in  1860;  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  New  York  and  Vermont  the  same  year,  and  went  to  Michigan,  and 
commenced  practice  in  Pentwater.  He  was  elected  prosecuting  attorney  and 
circuit  court  commissioner  in  ten  days  after  his  arrival  there. 

In  the  spring  of  1862  he  raised  three  companies  of  infantry,  but  not  with  the 
intention  of  going  into  the  service  himself.  He  was  solicited  by  those  he  was 
urging  to  enlist  to  go  himself,  and,  to  further  and  encourage  enlistments,  and 
recognizing  the  propriety  and  force  of  the  hint,  he  did  so,  and  was  commissioned 
captain.  He  set  about  raising  another  company  to  lead,  and  found  no  difficulty 
in  doing  so  in  a  short  time.  Going  to  Manistee,  he  soon  raised  a  company  among 
the  employes  of  the  lumber  mills  there,  on  account  of  which  the  mills  were  com- 
pelled to  temporarily  stop  operations.  He  joined  the  6th  Mich.  Cavalry,  Co.  P, 
and  went  to  the  front  in  November,  1862,  first  to  Washington,  and  thence  to 
Poolsville,  commanding  two  companies,  and  reported  to  Col.  Veazey,  of  the  i6th 
Vt.,  as  ordered;  remained  there,  doing  scouting  duty,  until  May,  1863,  when  he  was 
ordered  to  Seneca  Locks,  Maryland.  June  n,  he  was  in  camp  with  thirty-nine  men, 
when  he  was  attacked  at  daylight  by  two  hundred  and  fifty  of  the  enemy,  and  the 
result  of  half  an  hour's  fighting  was  four  killed  and  fifteen  wounded  and  taken 
prisoners.  The  enemy  lost  ten  privates,  killed  and  captured,  and  two  to  one  in 
number  of  horses.  Maj.  Deane  wears  a  ring  made  from  a  $10  gold  piece  which 
he  found  in  a  captain's  pocket  who  had  been  killed.  When  he  crossed  the  Poto- 
mac, he  was  ordered  to  Maryland  Heights  and  Frederick  City,  where  Col.  Mc- 
Reynolds  was  in  command,  to  the  latter  point  to  escort  Gen.  French's  command 
through  the  city.  About  this  time  he  demonstrated  his  bravery,  daring  and  skill 
as  a  soldier  and  officer,  by  volunteering  to  destroy  the  pontoons  over  the  river. 
He  crossed  in  a  most  daring  manner,  and  captured  over  fifty  prisoners,  several 
mules,  and  much  ammunition,  for  which  act  he  has  never  had  full  credit.  The 
details  of  the  operation  have  been  fully  given  in  history,  but  the  credit  was  not 
placed  where  it  belonged.  He  was  promoted  to  the  rank  of  major  in  1863.  He 
was  ordered  back  to  Maryland  Heights,  and  from  there  went  to  the  Shenandoah 
valley  and  engaged  in  scouting,  returning  to  his  regiment  in  May,  1864.  This 
regiment  was  in  the  battle  of  the  Wilderness,  and  in  Sheridan's  campaign  in  the 
valley  of  the  Shenandoah;  was  captured,  but  succeeded  in  getting  away  with  a 
few  men.  The  regiment  was  acting  body-guard  to  Gen.  Sheridan,  and  was 
regarded  as  one  of  the  best  in  the  service,  being  almost  constantly  on  duty  in 
detail  or  in  a  body.  Maj.  Deane  was  in  twenty-nine  battles  and  many  skirmishes, 
but  escaped  without  serious  wounds. 

In  January,  1865,  he  resigned,  was  honorably  discharged,  and  returned  to 
Pentwater,  Michigan,  and  reengaged  in  the  practice  of  his  profession;  was  subse- 
quently elected  to  the  legislature,  to  represent  a  district  including  three  counties, 
the  democrats  making  no  nomination  against  him. 

Maj.  Deane  came  to  Chicago  in  1869,  engaged  in  practice  alone,  and  has  been 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  627 

since  doing  a  successful  business.  He  still  retains  a  fine  farm  in  Vermont,  and 
considerable  interest  in  Lake  Superior  quarries,  and  in  mines  in  Arizona  and 
elsewhere  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  On  the  whole,  he  has  been  a  successful  Ver- 
monter,  and  a  credit  to  that  state,  to  which  he  is  strongly  attached  by  ties  of 
kinship,  and  because  of  his  love  for  its  mountains,  scenery,  people,  and  grand 
history. 

HON.  JOSEPH    E.  GARY. 

JOSEPH  E.  GARY,  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county, 
was  born  in  Potsdam,  New  York,  July  9,  1821.  His  father  was  Eli  B.  Gary, 
and  his  mother  before  marriage  was  Miss  Francis  O.  Easton. 

The  son  received  a  common  school  and  academic  education.  In  1843  he  went 
to  Saint  Louis,  Missouri,  where  he  read  law  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  the  fol- 
lowing year,  and  in  the  spring  he  opened  an  office  in  Springfield,  Missouri.  In 
1849  he  removed  to  Las  Vegas,  New  Mexico,  where  he  practiced  law  and  learned 
to  speak  and  write  the  Spanish  language  fluently.  He  then  went  to  San  Fran- 
cisco, California,  where  he  practiced  law  until  the  spring  of  1856,  when  he  returned 
and  settled  in  Chicago,  and  formed  a  partnership  with  Murray  F.  Tuley,  now  a 
judge  on  the  circuit  bench  of  Cook  county,  Illinois.  A  few  years  later  he  entered 
into  a  partnership  with  E.  and  A.  Van  Buren,  where  he  continued  in  practice 
until  1863,  when  he  was  elected  to  the  bench,  and  has  been  reelected  three  suc- 
cessive terms,  a  continuous  service  of  eighteen  years,  which  has  been  so  accepta- 
ble to  the  entire  public  that  the  last  three  times  he  received  the  nomination  of 
both  parties,  a  distinction  rarely  given  any  man. 

Judge  Gary  has  a  judicial  mind,  is  clear  and  comprehensive.  He  has  a  keen 
sense  of  right  and  justice,  and  is  a  citizen  highly  respected  for  his  moral  and 
intellectual  worth. 


MARSHALL   BECK. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Putnam  county,  Illinois,  March  30, 
1847.  His  parents  are  among  the  earliest  settlers  of  that  part  of  the  state, 
coming  originally  from  the  state  of  Ohio,  and  are  of  German  and  English 
descent.  His  father,  Lewis  I.  Beck,  is  an  enterprising  and  prosperous  farmer 
and  lumberman.  His  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Winters,  is  a  lady  of 
great  force  of  character,  and  most  highly  esteemed  by  all  who  know  her.  Mar- 
shall's schooling  was  limited  to  the  district  school  in  the  neighborhood  where  he 
was  born.  From  1868  to  1874  he  spent  the  winter  months  as  a  teacher,  part  of 
the  time  in  the  school  of  his  native  district,  and  the  remainder  in  other  neighbor- 
ing schools,  including  the  graded  schools  of  the  village  of  Lostant,  Illinois,  of 
which  he  was  a  popular  and  successful  principal,  and  during  the  summer  months 
of  those  years  he  was  engaged  in  farm  labor  for  his  father,  having  charge  of  the 


628  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

farm.  While  he  thoroughly  enjoyed  farm  life  and  labor,  it  did  not  afford  the 
opportunity  for  acquiring  knowledge,  which  he  greatly  desired,  and  he  deter- 
mined to  adopt  the  law  as  a  profession,  and  as  a  means  of  a  better  mental  train- 
ing. Accordingly,  he  left  home  in  January,  1874,  and  going  to  Chicago,  entered 
the  law  office  of  Dent  and  Black,  and  after  three  years  of  careful  and  diligent 
study,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme  court,  at  Springfield,  Illinois. 

Mr.  Beck  is  an  industrious,  honorable,  intellectual  gentleman,  possessing 
great  energy  and  perseverence.  He  is  not  an  active  politician,  but  in  political 
sentiments  is  a  republican.  He  was  married  September  2,  1879,  to  Miss  Eleanor 
J.  Vance,  of  Chicago,  a  most  estimable  and  intellectual  young  lady.  They  have 
one  child,  Marcia  Vance  Beck. 


CHARLES    M.    HARRIS. 

CHARLES  MURRAY  HARRIS  was  born  in  Mumfordsville,  Hart  county, 
Kentucky.  His  father,  John  Harris,  was  of  old  Virginia  stock,  but  early 
emigrated  to  Kentucky.  Jane  (Murray)  Harris,  the  mother  of  Charles,  Was  a 
native  of  Kentucky.  When  Charles  was  thirteen  years  of  age  the  family  moved 
to  Oquawka,  Illinois,  where  his  father  engaged  in  mercantile  pursuits.  Soon 
after  their  removal  to.  Oquawka,  Charles  returned  to  his  native  place,  where  he 
received  his  early  education.  Returning  to  Illinois,  he  was  for  some  time 
employed  in  his  father's  store,  where  he  acquired  correct  business  habits. 

Young  Harris'  early  ambition  was  to  identify  himself  with  the  legal  profes- 
sion, and  obtaining  the  necessary  books,  he  commenced  the  study  of  law  at 
Oquawka.  He  applied  with  great  diligence,  and  in  about  two  years  had  mas- 
tered the  elementary  principles,  and  after  a  thorough  examination  was  admitted, 
in  1845,  to  practice,  and  in  a  short  time  found  himself  in  possession  of  a  large 
and  lucrative  business. 

The  judicial  circuit  in  which  he  practiced  was  at  that  day  large,  and  in  it 
were  some  of  the  most  eminent  lawyers  of  the  West,  and  Mr.  Harris  was  com- 
pelled to  confront  in  the  legal  arena  such  men  as  Archibald  Williams,  Orville  H. 
Browning,  Charles  B.  Lawrence,  Cyrus  Walker,  Julius  Manning,  Norman  H. 
Purple,  and  others.  A  hard  worker  in  the  profession,  self-reliant,  and  always 
well  prepared,  Mr.  Harris  never  suffered  by  blows  from  unexpected  quarters, 
never  asking  and  never  giving  quarter,  although  always  punctiliously  honorable. 
Mr.  Harris  was  employed  in  many  of  the  most  important  cases  in  the  district  in 
which  he  commenced  to  practice.  He  had  charge  of  many  of  the  intricate  cases 
growing  out  of  conflicting  titles  to  lands  in  the  military  land  district,  cases  call- 
ing into  requisition  abilit}'  and  learning  of  the  highest  order.  While  he  preferred 
civil  practice,  he  was  often  called  to  the  defense  in  important  criminal  cases.  As 
a  lawyer,  Mr.  Harris  is  possessed  of  rare  ability  and  sound  judgment.  He  is  a 
logical  speaker,  and  few  advocates  have  more  personal  magnetism  and  influence. 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  629 

As  a  man,  he  is  noted  for  his  sincerity  and  candor.  Strong  in  his  friendships, 
unswerving  in  his  devotion  to  the  right,  he  always  commands  the  confidence  of 
those  who  come  in  contact  with  him. 

In  politics,  Mr.  Harris  has  affiliated  with  the  democratic  party,  but  devotion 
to  his  profession  frequently  caused  him  to  decline  proffered  political  honors,  until 
in  1862,  when  he  was  unanimously  tendered  the  democratic  nomination  for  con- 
gress in  his  district;  he  reluctantly  consented  to  accept  it.  The  district  was 
republican  by  about  2,000  majority,  but  after  a  most  vigorous  canvass  on  both 
sides,  Mr.  Harris  was  elected  by  nearly  2,985  majority.  As  a  member  of  congress, 
he  devoted  himself  to  the  duties  of  his  new  position,  and  earned  the  credit  of 
having  honestly  and  faithfully  served  his  constituents.  But  he  had  no  taste  for 
politics,  and  preferred  to  return  to  his  profession,  and  has  since  declined  office. 

Mr.  Harris  removed  to  Chicago  in  1868,  and  entered  upon  the  practice  in  the 
state  and  federal  courts,  and  has  been  connected  with  many  of  the  important 
cases  claiming  the  attention  of  the  courts  during  his  residence  in  Chicago,  where 
he  is  known  as  a  man  of  thorough  integrity,  a  safe  counselor,  and  good  citizen. 
i 

GEORGE  SPARLING. 

EORGE  SPARLING  is  a  native  of  New  York,  and  was  born  in  Sullivan 
county,  December  25,  1833,  and  is  the  son  of  George  G.  and  Elizabeth 
(Lowewright)  Sparling.  He  received  his  primary  education  in  the  common 
schools,  and  afterward  took  a  classical  course  in  Bush's  Academy  and  Monticello 
Academy,  after  which  he  taught  school  about  four  years  in  the  state  of  New  York. 
He  then  removed  to  Princeton,  Illinois,  where  he  arrived  March  27,  1857,  and 
commenced  reading  law  with  Hon.  George  W.  Stipp,  now  one  of  the  judges  of 
the  ninth  judicial  circuit  of  Illinois,  with  whom  he  continued  his  legal  studies 
until  December,  1866. 

He  was  admitted  to  the  bar  in  April,  1858,  and  immediately  became  associ- 
ated as  partner  with  Judge  Stipp,  at  Princeton,  and  remained  in  partnership  with 
him  in  active  practice  until  he  removed  to  Chicago.  His  early  experiences  there, 
though  somewhat  discouraging,  were  at  the  same  time  amusing.  After  opening 
an  office  he  waited  from  December  till  June  following  and  did  not  get  a  case 
to  try.  He  then  gave  a  man  five  dollars  for  the  privilege  of  trying  his  case,  and 
so  well  satisfied  was  his  client  that  he  paid  Mr.  Sparling  back  the  five  dollars  and 
besides  gave  him  ten  dollars  for  his  services,  and  promised  to  bring  him  other 
business.  True  to  his  promise,  he  soon  brought  another  man,  for  whom  Mr. 
Sparling  brought  a  suit.  The  opposite  party  packed  the  jury,  but  Mr.  Sparling, 
having  learned  how  the  matter  stood,  gave  the  jury  such  a  lashing,  exposing  their 
corruption,  that,  through  fear,  they  brought  in  a  verdict  for  his  client,  as  in  jus- 
tice they  were  bound  to  do. 

He  tried  the  first  case  that  was  ever  tried  in  Illinois  before  a  jury  of  colored 


630  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

men.  He  was  burned  out  in  the  great  conflagration  of  October  9,  1871,  but  on 
the  sixteenth  of  the  same  month  opened  an  office  on  the  corner  of  Harrison 
and  State  streets,  Chicago.  He  made  forcible  detainer  cases  a  specialty,  as 
every  tenant  claimed  he  had  a  very  long  lease  and  every  landlord  claimed  the 
leases  were  very  short.  In  this  line  of  litigation  Mr.  Sparling  became  and  is  yet 
especially  noted  for  his  ability  and  skill.  In  1873  he  removed  to  his  present  office, 
in  the  Exchange  Building,  and  has  become  widely  known,  and  enjoys  the  confi- 
dence and  esteem  of  the  bar  and  a  large  clientage.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  fearless  in 
advocating  what  he  deems  just;  has  a  keen  sense  of  professional  honor,  and  is 
faithful  to  his  clients.  He  is  a  clear  and  forcible  speaker,  and  a  careful,  reliable 
adviser.  Personally  and  socially,  he  possesses  the  highest  qualities,  and  by  all 
who  know  him  is  recognized  and  esteemed  as  a  genial  companion,  with  keen  wit 
and  a  thorough  appreciation  of  the  humorous.  He  is  a  man  of  warm  sympa- 
thies, fond  of  his  friends,  and  in  all  that  he  does,  maintains  the  honor  and  dignity 
of  his  profession. 

FRANCIS    H.  KALES. 

FRANCIS  H.  KALES  was  born  in  Broome  county,  New  York,  March  23, 
1833.  His  grandfather  came  from  the  North  of  Ireland  about  the  year  1809, 
when  his  father  was  three  years  of  age.  The  family  soon  after  settled  in  Che- 
nango  county,  New  York,  near  the  place  of  his  birth.  The  father  of  Mr.  Kales 
was  a  member  of  the  New  York  legislature,  and  held  several  offices  of  trust  in 
Chenango  county.  Francis  was  fitted  for  college  at  Oxford  Academy,  in  the  state 
of  New  York,  and  in  1851  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  1854  at  Yale.  Ill  health 
obliged  him  to  give  up  his  college  course,  and  in  1852  he  entered  the  law  office 
of  Daniel  S.  Dickinson,  renowned  as  a  lawyer  and  orator.  He  completed  his  law 
studies  with  Mr.  Dickinson  at  Binghamton,  and  was  admitted  to  the  New  York 
bar  in  May  1855.  In  the  following  June  he  came  to  Chicago  and  entered  the 
office  of  Higgins,  Beckwith  and  Strother.  He  very  quickly  secured  a  general 
practice  in  the  different  branches  of  the  law.  He  was  associated  for  a  time  with 
Norman  Williams,  and  in  1866  became  a  member  of  the  firm  of  Beckwith,  Ayer 
and  Kales.  In  1873  Judge  Beckwith  retired  from  the  firm  to  accept  the  position 
of  general  solicitor  of  the  Chicago  and  Alton  Railroad  Company,  and  Mr.  Kales 
continued  the  partnership  with  Mr.  Ayer  until  that  gentleman  withdrew  to 
become  solicitor  of  the  Illinois  Central  Railway  Company.  Mr.  Kales  then  con- 
tinued his  practice  alone  until  1879,  when  he  formed  a  business  connection  with 
Mr.  Perry  H.  Smith,  Jr. 

In  1863  he  married  the  daughter  of  Dr.  N.  S.  Davis,  the  head  of  the  Chicago 
Medical  College,  and  since  1865  has  resided  on  the  North  Side.  Mr.  Kales'  prac- 
tice has  been  very  general  in  its  scope,  embracing  cases  involving  property, 
banking  and  corporation  affairs.  He  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  the  law,  and 
has  been  successfully  identified  with  many  of  the  largest  property  litigations  in 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  633 

Chicago  during  the  last  twenty  years.  He  is  distinguished  for  his  ability  to  ana- 
lyze a  case,  for  untiring  devotion  to  his  client's  cause  and  for  a  quickness  of  per- 
ception that  is  unusual.  He  has  preeminently  a  judicial  mind.  As  a  speaker  he 
is  convincing,  ready  and  not  easily  surprised,  and  is  noted  for  clearness  of  state- 
ment and  facility  of  logical  and  concise  expression.  He  has  a  high  sense  of 
professional  honor,  and  never  knowingly  misstates  a  fact  or  proposition  of  law, 
and  as  a  consequence  courts  place  great  reliance  upon  his  arguments. 

Mr.  Kales  is  recognized  as  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  at  the  Chicago  bar,  rank- 
ing high  by  reason  of  his  brilliant  legal  talents  and  his  unswerving  integrity.  As 
a  man  he  has  the  unbounded  respect  of  the  community,  and  his  social  qualities 
are  highly  appreciated. 

Mr.  Kales  is  a  member  of  the  State  and  Chicago  Bar  Associations.  He  was 
appointed  Lincoln  Park  commissioner  by  the  governor,  but  has  never  sought  or 
held  a  political  office. 

HON.    ELLIOT    ANTHONY. 

A'lONG  the  most  prominent  lawyers  of  Chicago  is  Hon.  Elliott  Anthony,  now 
one  of  the  judges  of  Cook  county,  whose  career  in  the  legal  profession 
has  illustrated  to  a  notable  extent  the  jurisprudence  of  this  state  and  the  North- 
west. In  his  profound  knowledge  of  law,  in  varied  learning,  and  his  clear  per- 
ceptions of  right,  he  has  few  peers.  He  was  born  in  Spafford,  Onondaga  county, 
New  York,  June  i,  1827.  His  father,  Isaac  Anthony,  was  born  on  the  island  of 
Rhode  Island,  near  Newport,  an'd  his  mother,  whose  maiden  name  was  Phelps, 
was  a  relative  of  the  distinguished  family  of  which  the  late  illustrious  Chief 
Justice  Salmon  P.  Chase  was  a  member,  and  a  descendant  of  the  Phelps  family. 
Both  parents  devoted  themselves  to  the  correct  development  of  their  children, 
eight  in  number,  four  sons  and  four  daughters;  three  sisters  and  one  brother  are 
now  living.  Jane,  the  oldest  of  the  family,  married  a  Mr.  Harvey,  and  is  now 
living  in  Chicago;  Catherine,  the  next  oldest  sister,  married  Thomas  A.  Gault, 
now  living  in  Sterling,  Illinois,  and  the  head  of  the  great  Keystone  Manufactur- 
ing Company  there;  the  third  and  youngest  sister  is  unmarried  and  lives  in 
Sterling;  the  brother,  Dr.  Julius  Anthony,  is  also  living  there  and  is  the  head  of 
his  profession  in  that  city  and  that  section  of  the  state.  His  father,  his  brother 
Giles,  and  favorite  sister,  Sarah,  sleep  in  the  village  graveyard  at  Borodino,  while 
his  brother  Daniel  lies  buried  at  Elroy,  near  Freeport,  Illinois.  He  has  been 
married  twice;  the  second  wife,  a  sister  of  the  first  who  died  in  1864,  passed  away 
in  1870. 

His  ancestors  were  conspicuous  in  the  revolutionary  war,  and  in  the  Dorr 
rebellion  in  Rhode  Island,  and  were  among  the  most  intelligent,  patriotic  and 
substantial  settlers  there.  They  were  a  prominent  factor  in  the  westward  moving 
population  to  the  states  west,  and  eventually  to  central  New  York,  where  Judge 
Anthony  was  born.  Until  eighteen  years  of  age  he  worked  on  a  farm,  and 
67 


634  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

attended  school  when  he  had  an  opportunity.  His  father  was  a  thorough  histo- 
rian, and  generally  well  read  and  instructive  to  his  children.  During  his  early 
life  Elliott  was  persevering  and  studious,  and  formed  those  habits  which  have 
characterized  his  subsequent  career.  During  his  early  manhood  the  outcropping 
of  this  early  training  and  discipline  was  evidenced,  and  the  inherent  principles  of 
his  nature,  coming  down  from  his  ancestors,  percolating  the  surface  at  every  step 
in  after  life;  and  the  hidden  fire,  which  had  an  outer  fire  to  draw  it  out  in  the 
quiet  though  beautiful  surroundings  of  his  youth,  to  set  it  burning,  came  out  in  a 
clearly  defined  blaze  when  he  came  in  contact  with  the  world,  and  left  no  doubt 
as  to  his  principles  and  belief  in  connection  with  the  great  questions  of  the  day; 
hence  he  has  been  prominently  identified  with  questions  involving  liberty  and 
human  rights,  as  the  details  of  his  life  prove. 

The  father,  an  intelligent  and  enterprising  farmer,  gave  all  his  children  a  good 
common  education.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  Elliott  determined  upon  a  classical 
education,  and  with  that  end  in  view  went  to  Homer  Academy,  and  spent  two 
years  in  fitting  for  college,  at  this  time  the  best  and  most  popular  school  in  cen- 
tral New  York,  the  distinguished  Samuel  B.  Woolworth  being  the  principal.  In 
1847  he  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  Hamilton  College,  and  graduated  with 
honor  in  1850;  he  then  commenced  the  study  of  law  under  that  eminent  law 
tutor.  Prof.  Theodore  W.  Dwight,  and  was  admitted  to  practice  at  Oswego  in 
May,  1851,  when  he  removed  to  the  West  and  located  at  Sterling,  Illinois,  where 
he  remained  in  practice  one  year.  In  July,  1852,  he  returned  east  and  married 
Mary  Dwight,  the  sister  of  his  law  preceptor,  and  granddaughter  of  President 
Dwight,  of  Yale  College.  In  the  fall  of  the  same  year  he  settled  in  Chicago, 
where  he  has  attained  a  decided  success,  all  without  extraneous  influences,  but 
by  his  own  ability,  force  of  character,  energy  and  exertion. 

During  the  first  year  of  his  residence  in  Chicago  he,  with  the  aid  of  his  accom- 
plished wife,  compiled  a  "  Digest  of  the  Illinois  Reports,"  the  first  ever  published, 
which  was  received  with  great  favor  by  the  bar  of  the  state.  In  1858  he  was 
elected  city  attorney,  and  distinguished  his  administration  by  his  energy  and 
ability  in  guarding  the  interests  of  the  citv,  and  was  for  several  years  subse- 
quently retained  by  the  legal  authorities  in  the  most  important  cases  in  the 
courts  of  the  state  and  the  United  States,  involving  the  interests  of  the  city.  In 
1863  he  was  appointed  general  solicitor  of  the  Galena  &  Chicago  Union  railway, 
then  the  largest  in  the  West,  and  held  that  position  until  the  consolidation  with 
the  North  Western,  when  he  became  the  attorney  of  some  of  the  bondholders  and 
the  non-consenting  stockholders,  and  was  such  until  the  settlement  of  that  mem- 
orable litigation  —  the  most  important  of  the  kind  that  has  come  before  the 
courts  in  this  country.  In  connection  with  that  case  he  prepared  and  published 
an  argument  covering  the  whole  ground  in  the  matter  of  consolidation  of  rail- 
roads, the  most  complete  and  exhaustive  treatment  upon  that  subject  ever  put 
forth.  It  is  now  a  standard  authority  in  the  United  States  and  other  courts. 

He  was  a  member  of  the  constitutional   conventions  of   Illinois  of   1862   and 


THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  635 

1870,  and  was  conspicuous  in  both,  as  his  knowledge  of  constitutional  law  was  of 
great  advantage  to  the  members;  was  authority  upon  all  legal  questions,  and  was 
the  author  of  many  of  the  provisions  of  our  present  excellent  organic  law.  His 
speeches  upon  the  "  Powers  of  the  Convention "  were  masterpieces,  and  are 
referred  to  and  quoted  to  this  day.  He  is  the  founder  of  the  flourishing  Chicago 
Law  Institute,  which  controls  the  Law  Library;  one  of  the  founders  of  our  Pub- 
lic Library.  In  the  great  fire  of  October  9,  1871,  he  lost  one  of  the  finest  law  and 
miscellaneous  private  libraries  in  the  West,  but  has  mainly  replaced  it.  In  pub- 
lic affairs  he  is  liberal  in  his  views  and  generous  in  his  action.  In  the  fall  of  1880 
he  was  elected  to  the  bench  of  the  superior  court  of  Cook  county,  and  as  a 
judge  has  fully  met  public  expectation  and  given  satisfaction.  He  has  an  accu- 
rate judgment  and  renders  his  decisions  with  clearness,  showing  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  law,  maturity  of  scholarship,  and  grace  and  force  in  his  diction,  and 
will,  if  he  lives,  forcibly  and  ably  illustrate  the  annals  of  the  bench  in  our  state 
and  still  further  win  the  esteem  and  confidence  of  the  people  and  bar  by  courtesy 
and  impartiality,  and  his  life  work  will  be  written  in  the  history  of  his  time. 

In  politics  he  is  a  staunch  republican,  and  his  eloquent  voice  is  heard  in  all 
important  campaigns.  He  was  a  member  of  the  last  republican  convention  held, 
and  there  distinguished  himself  by  his  speech  before  it  in  behalf  of  the  contesting 
delegation  in  this  state  and  in  behalf  of  the  anti-third-term  movement.  A  man 
of  the  highest  character,  he  is  one  of  Chicago's  best  citizens. 


STEPHEN  C.   KNIGHT. 

STEPHEN  C.  KNIGHT  was  born  on  a  farm  near  Casstown,  Miami  county, 
>-J  Ohio,  February  9,  1847.  In  1857  his  father's  family  moved  to  Champaign 
county,  Illinois,  where  Stephen  was  raised  and  educated,  attending  the  public 
and  high  schools,  and  during  summers  engaging  in  farm  work.  His  parents  were 
William  D.  and  Elizabeth  Knight.  At  the  opening  of  the  war  of  the  rebellion 
young  Knight,  imbued  with  patriotism,  sought  to  enlist  in  the  military  service, 
but  was  rejected  because  of  his  youthfulness,  but  in  1864,  being  a  member  of  a 
home  guards  company,  he  was  enlisted  in  the  one-hundred  day  service  in  the 
I34th  regiment  Ohio  Vol.  Inf.,  and  the  regiment  was  at  once  ordered  to  the 
front,  and  spent  the  entire  time  in  front  of  Petersburgh  and  Richmond. 

Upon  returning  to  his  home  he  resumed  farming,  and  gave  a  portion  of  his 
time  to  study.  In  1868  he  entered  the  law  department  of  the  University  of  Michi- 
gan, taking  the  regular  course,  and  graduated  therefrom  in  1870,  being  admitted 
to  the  bar  of  Michigan  in  1871.  Immediately  afterward  he  established  him- 
self at  Champaign,  Illinois,  in  the  practice  of  his  profession.  In  1874  he  was 
elected  city  attorney  of  Champaign.  In  1873  he  joined  the  masonic  order,  and 
became  a  Knight  Templar  in  1875,  and  held  important  offices  in  each,  and  in  the 
meantime  was  doing  a  prosperous  business  in  the  law. 


6  7  6  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

•J 

In  1875,  losing  his  wife,  to  whom  he  was  greatly  attached,  he  gave  up  his  prac- 
tice, and  leaving  Champaign,  went  to  Council  Bluffs,  Iowa,  but  shortly  afterward 
returned  and  settled  at  Chicago,  with  a  view  of  engaging  in  other  business  until 
he  should  again  resume  his  profession.  Mr.  Knight  is  at  the  present  time  (1883) 
engaged  in  the  abstract  office  of  Otto  Peltzer,  in  Chicago,  giving  his  attention  to 
the  examination  of  abstracts  and  other  duties  of  the  office. 

He  was  married  in  1878  to  Miss  —  -  Doty,  a  daughter  of  Col.  Theodore  Doty, 
an  old  resident  of  Chicago.  Mr.  Knight  is  of  medium  height  and  athletic  phy- 
sique; is  social  and  genial  in  his  nature  and  habits;  is  painstaking  and  careful  as 
a  lawyer,  a  safe  counselor,  and  being  young  in  years,  may  hope  to  attain  to  a  high 
position  in  his  profession. 


EDWARD    G.   ASAY. 

AS  a  criminal  lawyer  of  eminence  perhaps  no  man  for  the  last  twenty  years 
/X  has  enjoyed  a  higher  reputation  than  Edward  G.  Asay,  while  he  is  remark- 
ably efficient  in  all  branches  of  civil  practice,  into  which  he  has  drifted  quite 
extensively.  He  is  a  man  of  great  energy  of  character,  which  is  manifested  in 
all  his  acts.  He  is  logical,  lucid  and  luminous,  quick  to  catch  a  point  and  is  fer- 
tile in  resources,  and  is  seldom  surprised  by  any  emergency,  however  sudden  or 
unexpected.  He  is  a  polished  gentleman,  a  native  of  Philadelphia,  Pennsylvania, 
a  city  noted  for  having  produced  many  erudite  scholars  and  professional  gentle- 
men, whose  ease  and  graceful  deportment  has  adorned  the  legal  profession  in 
nearly  every  state  in  the  Union.  He  was  born  September  17,  1825,  and  is  the 
son  of  John  Asay,  a  merchant  of  that  city,  where  he  still  resides  at  an  advanced 
age,  having  long  since  retired  from  active  business.  He  was  educated  in  the  pri- 
vate schools  of  Jacob  Harpel  and  Rev.  William  B.  Mann.  His  health  was  deli- 
cate in  those  days,  but  it  has  been  recuperated  and  he  has  since  become  strong 
and  vigorous.  In  those  schools  he  laid  a  solid  foundation  of  knowledge,  which 
after  acquirements  have  developed  into  a  cultivated  and  brilliant  scholarship. 
He  prepared  for  the  ministry  under  Drs.  Cooper  and  Kennedy,  both  Methodist 
ministers  of  culture  and  celebrity,  and  then  entered  into  the  ministry  of  the 
Methodist  Episcopal  church,  preaching  at  Tamaqua  and  Tremont,  in  Pennsylva- 
nia ;  Dover,  Delaware,  and  Easton,  Maryland.  In  the  year  1849  he  married 
Emma  C.  Oliver,  daughter  of  James  C.  Oliver,  of  Pottsville,  Pennsylvania,  who 
is  still  living  and  actively  engaged  in  many  works  of  public  character.  After 
traveling  south,  and  sojourning  a  short  time  in  Tallahassee,  Florida,  he  returned 
north  in  1853,  and  resigned  the  ministry,  retaining  the  entire  confidence  and 
esteem  of  his  colaborers  in  the  church,  who  recognized  fully,  but  with  regret,  the 
reasons  rendering  imperatively  necessary  the  pursuance  of  his  course,  and  he 
retained  his  parchments  up  to  the  year  1858,  when  at  his  own  request  they  were 
canceled. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  637 

In  1853  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  law,  and  also  devoted  a  portion  of  his 
time  to  mercantile  affairs  in  New  York  city,  contributing  meanwhile  to  many  of 
the  leading  periodicals,  and  making  many  friends  among  the  resident  litterateurs. 
Early  in  1856  he  passed  his  examination,  the  examiners  being  J.  T.  Brady, 
Richard  Burteed  and  Mr.  Whiting  and  Mr.  Gerard,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar. 
Removing  to  Chicago  in  March  of  that  year,  he  immediately  commenced  the 
practice  of  the  law. 

During  his  first  fifteen  years  of  practice  at  Chicago,  he  defended  over  one 
hundred  capital  cases  in  different  parts  of  the  country,  and  not  one  of  his  clients 
suffered  the  extreme  penalty  of  the  law.  He  has  a  thorough  knowledge  of  every 
department  of  the  law,  and  his  reputation  for  fairness  and  candor  renders  him 
potent  before  a  jury.  He  is  well  known  as  a  bibliophile  in  Europe  and  America, 
and  his  library  is  a  rare  collection  of  literature,  especially  rich  in  poetry,  it  being 
the  collections  of  a  lifetime,  having  been  preserved  from  the  conflagration  of 
1871  by  the  kindness  of  his  friend,  the  eminent  bibliophilist,  Joseph  Sabin,  of 
New  York,  who  kept  his  books  at  his  own  house  during  the  absence  of  Mr.  Asay 
and  his  wife  in  Europe,  which  lasted  about  eighteen  months,  when  he  returned 
with  his  family  in  the  fall  of  1872  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  been  engaged  in  the 
active  practice  of  his  profession  ever  since,  except  a  tour  of  Russia  and  Spain, 
made  by  himself  and  wife  in  1882,  covering  about  one  year.  Mr.  Asay  has  rare 
social  qualities  and  converses  clearly  and  eloquently  on  all  topics,  and  happily 
illustrates  his  ideas  with  epigrammatic  utterances  from  rioted  authors.  He  is 
an  excellent  judge  of  human  nature. 

Personally  he  is  prepossessing,  being  a  little  above  the  medium  height,  with 
a  massive,  well  developed  form.  He  has  a  fine  intellectual  development  of  brain, 
his  eyes  are  kindly  blue,  his  lips  full,  and  his  countenance  extremely  benevolent 
and  genial. 

SAMUEL    BARNES    GOOKINS. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  was  a  native  of  Vermont,  and  was  born  in 
Rupert,  Bennington  county,  May  30,  1809.  His  father  emigrated  to  Rod- 
man, Jefferson  county,  New  York,  in  1812,  and  died  April  12,  1814.  Samuel  was 
the  youngest  of  ten  children.  He  started  for  the  West  May  5,  1823,  not  being 
quite  fourteen  years  of  age,  accompanied  by  his  mother  and  a  brother  twenty- 
three  years  of  age.  The  route  taken  was  from  Sackett's  Harbor  to.  Lewis- 
ton,  by  the  steamer  Ontario  ;  thence  by  wagon  to  Fort  Slasher  ;  thence  in  an 
open  boat  to  Buffalo,  and  in  a  schooner  to  Detroit,  and  later  to  Fort  Meigs,  on 
the  Maumee.  They  then  took  a  canoe  to  Fort  Wayne,  and  then  an  ox  team  to 
the  headwaters  of  the  Wabash,  from  which  point  they  descended  the  river  again 
to  Fort  Harrison,  a  place  once  gallantly  defended  by  Gen.  Zachary  Taylor  against 
an  attack  made  by  the  Indians.  They  settled  near  the  then  small  village,  which 
is  now  the  flourishing  city,  of  Terre  Haute.  This  was  the  second  family  which 


638  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

had  emigrated  to  the  Northwest  by  the  northern  route,  the  usual  route  being 
down  the  Ohio  river. 

The  Indians  had  ceded  the  territory  to  the  United  States  by  the  treaty  of 
1821,  yet  they  occupied  the  territory  through  which  the  emigrants  passed.  There 
was  but  one  settler  on  the  Wabash  above  the  settlement,  near  Fort  Wayne,  to  a 
point  twenty  miles  above  Fort  Harrison.  In  about  a  year  and  a  half  after  reach- 
ing his  western  home,  his  mother's  death  occurred.  Cherishing  a  life-long  desire 
to  acquire  knowledge,  he  apprenticed  himself,  in  1826,  to  the  editor,  printer  and 
publisher  of  the  "  Western  Register,"  the  first  newspaper  published  in  Indiana 
north  of  Vincennes.  His  first  effort  was  putting  into  type  the  narrative  of  the 
death  of  John  Adams  and  Thomas  Jefferson,  which  occurred  July  4,  1826,  on  the 
fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  day  they  affixed  their  names  to  the  declaration  of  inde- 
pendence. He  subsequently  became  a  journalist,  acting  as  such  until  1832,  when 
he  acquired  considerable  celebrity  as  a  writer.  His  articles  were  terse,  pointed 
and  practical,  and  he  took  a  high  rank  among  his  contemporaries.  Among  the 
leading  journalists  of  that  day  were  Hezekiah  Niles,  editor  of  "Miles'  Register," 
and  Gales  and  Stetson,  publishers  of  the  "  National  Intelligencer." 

Hon.  Amory  Kinney,  then  judge  of  the  circuit  court,  an  intimate  friend  of  Mr. 
Gookins,  had  repeatedly  urged  him  to  study  law.  Yielding  to  the  persuasions  of 
Judge  Kinney,  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  profession  in  which  he  afterward 
became  a  distinguished  member.  After  reading  the  usual  course,  he  was  admitted 
to  the  bar  in  1834,  and  thereafter  practiced  his  profession  until  1850,  when  he  was 
appointed  to  the  circuit  bench.  In  the  last  of  August,  1830,  he  went  to  Vincennes, 
the  first  seat  of  government  of  Indiana,  to  assist  in  establishing  the  Vincennes 
"  Gazette,"  a  paper  still  published  there. 

In  twenty  years  from  that  time  he  returned  to  the  same  place  to  hold  his  first 
court.  In  1851  Indiana  adopted  a  new  constitution,  with  an  elective  judiciary. 
The  state  was  governed  exclusively  by  democratic  views,  and  he  was  nominated 
on  the  whig  ticket  for  judge  of  the  supreme  court,  with  Charles  Dewey,  David 
McDonald  and  John  B.  Howe,  and  defeated  by  15,000  majority.  Two  years  later, 
in  1854,  after  the  passage  of  the  famous  Nebraska  bill  and  repeal  of  the  Missouri 
compromise,  he  was  again  nominated  to  the  same  position,  and  elected  by  about 
the  same  majority  as  that  by  which  he  had  been  defeated  two  years  before.  He 
served  as  judge  about  two  years,  giving  universal  satisfaction,  and  gained  the 
reputation  of  being  an  upright  judge,  who  could  hold  the  scales  of  justice  with 
an  even  hand;  and  being  quick  of  apprehension,  and  possessing  a  clear  and  logical 
mind,  he  filled  the  position  with  marked  ability. 

He  resigned  his  position  in  1858,  and  removed  to  Chicago,  entering  the  firm 
of  Gookins,  Thomas  and  Roberts,  practicing  law  until  1877,  when,  being  appoint- 
ed receiver  of  the  Wabash  and  Indiana  canal,  -he  returned  to  Indiana.  Within  a 
year  thereafter,  his  family  and  large  circle  of  friends  were  called  to  mourn  his 
death.  After  his  demise,  bar  meetings  were  held  in  Chicago  and  in  several  coun- 
ties in  Indiana,  where  high  encomiums  were  pronounced  by  his  associates  at  the 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  639 

bar  and  on  the  bench,  when  his  many  deeds  of  kindness  and  the  history  of  his 
eventful  and  worthy  life  were  reviewed. 

He  was  married  in  Terre  Haute,  Indiana,  in  January,  1834,  to  Miss  Mary  Caro- 
line Osborne,  who  survives  him.  She  is  a  lady  of  intelligence  and  refinement, 
and  ever  contributed  her  part  to  the  success  of  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  They 
have  two  children  living:  one  daughter,  married  to  Rev.  George  Duey,  of  Terre 
Haute,  Indiana,  and  one  son,  James  F.  Gookins,  of  Chicago,  an  artist  of  high 
merit,  who  has  inherited  the  refinement  and  taste  of  his  mother,  and  the  intelli- 
gence of  his  father;  a  true  gentleman  and  worthy  citizen. 


JOHN    S.   THOMPSON. 

JOHN  S.  THOMPSON  was  born  July  31,  1824,  at  Wilmington,  Ohio.  He 
was  the  son  of  Abel  W.  Thompson,  and  Elizabeth  (Scarff)  Thompson.  John 
was  indeed  a  self-educated  and  original  character,  securing  his  educational  train- 
ing at  a  private  school  at  Xenia  in  Ohio,  but  being  of  an  inquiring  mind  and  of 
studious  habits,  he  early  cultivated  literary  tastes,  and  had  an  especial  zest  for 
historical  research.  At  seventeen  years  of  age,  in  1841,  he  emigrated  to  Illinois 
from  Ohio,  and  commenced  the  preparation  for  his  life-calling,  the  profession  of 
the  law.  He  entered  the  law  office  of  his  brother,  an  eminent  and  thoroughly 
read  lawyer  of  Mercer  county,  Illinois,  James  S.  Thompson,  at  Millersburg, 
then  the  county  seat  of  Mercer  county.  In  1843,  at  twenty  years  of  age,  he  was 
admitted  by  license  of  the  supreme  court  of  Illinois  to  assume  the  responsibili- 
ties of  a  member  of  the  bar  of  Illinois,  to  practice  in  all  courts  of  record  of  the 
state.  He  immediately  commenced  practice,  and  followed  the  routine  of  an 
extensive  practice  from  1843  to  1845  in  Mercer  county  and  the  surrounding  coun- 
ties and  circuits. 

In  the  same  year  of  1855  he  was  chosen  judge  of  the  tenth  judicial  circuit  of 
the  state  of  Illinois,  which  judicial  district  was  composed  of  Mercer,  Henderson, 
Warren  and  Knox.  The  district  formerly  included  Fulton  county,  but  by  an  act 
of  the  legislature  of  the  state,  passed  through  the  advocacy  of  our  subject,  Ful- 
ton county  was  dropped  from  the  tenth  circuit. 

Elected  for  a  constitutional  term  of  six  years,  he  held  the  responsible  position 
for  about  five  years  and  two  months,  resigning  his  position  and  laying  aside  the 
ermine.  In  1861  he  again  resumed  practice  in  Mercer  county,  and  followed  the. 
routine  of  legal  business  until  1864,  when  Judge  Charles  B.  Lawrence  was  elected 
supreme  judge  of  the  state  of  Illinois,  leaving  the  judgeship  of  the  tenth  circuit 
vacant,  when  Judge  Thompson  was  reflected  circuit  judge  to  fill  the  vacancy  in 
the  same  circuit  where  he  had  presided  with  credit  to  himself,  and  to  the  satisfac- 
tion and  approval  of  the  bar  of  his  district.  In  1868  the  heavy  duties  of  the 
office  proving  too  laborious  for  his  health,  he  again  resigned.  In  the  year  1866 
Judge  Thompson  enlisted  in  the  enterprise  of  building  a  railroad  from  Galva  in 


640  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Henry  county  to  the  Mississippi  river,  the  terminus  being  at  New  Boston.  He 
raised  a  subscription  among  the  agriculturists  and  capitalists  of  Mercer  county, 
of  about  $175,000,  and  succeeded  in  building  the  road. 

In  1866,  against  his  protest,  he  was  nominated  as  a  candidate  for  congress,  and 
ran  against  Gen.  Abner  C.  Harding,  one  of  the  most  popular  men  of  his  district, 
upon  an  independent  ticket,  in  the  fourth  congressional  district,  but  failed  of  an 
election. 

In  the  year  1870  our  subject  removed  to  California,  remaining  at  Oakland 
about  two  years,  during  which  time  he  was  engaged  in  traveling  up  and  down 
the  coast  of  southern  California  to  Oregon.  In  1872  he  took  up  his  abode  at  Los 
Angeles,  there  resuming  the  practice  of  his  profession,  and  at  the  same  time 
engaging  in  politics.  Against  his  protest  he  was  made  a  candidate  of  the  inde- 
pendent party  of  the  state,  there  being  three  tickets  in  the  field,  the  democratic, 
republican  and  the  independents,  the  latter  being  opposed  to  railroad  monopoly. 
He  was  a  candidate  for  congress  at  the  same  time  John  Bidwell,  one  of  the  best 
and  most  deservedly  popular  men  of  California,  was  a  candidate  for  governor, 
but  the  railroad  interest  and  money  effected  his  defeat,  though  while  canvassing 
the  state,  in  concert  with  Gov.  Bidwell,  they  had  a  perfect  ovation,  and  their 
meetings  were  large  and  enthusiastic.  After  the  campaign  closed  he  went  to  Los 
Angeles  and  resumed  practice.  Judge  Thompson  is  at  present  engaged  in  rail- 
roading at  Chicago. 

He  is  phenomenally  unostentatious,  but  of  a  clear  mind  and  quick  compre- 
hension, an  able  advocate,  a  safe  counselor,  conscientious  in  his  opinions,  cau- 
tious and  shrewd  as  a  manager  in  any  enterprise  he  enters  into. 

Judge  Thompson  is  social  and  companionable  to  all  whom  he  meets  in  his 
business  concerns.  He  is  a  republican  in  his  political  views  and  adherence,  inde- 
pendent in  his  views,  but  not  obtrusive  in  his  sentiments,  having  a  large  charity 
for  all  sects  and  conditions.  A  true  friend,  and  sincere  and  self-reliant  in  his 
intercourse  and  business  and  social  relations  with  all. 


GUSTAVE    DEMARS. 

USTAVE  DEMARS  is  a  Belgian  by  birth.  He  was  born  in  the  province  ol 
* — ~f  Namur,  December  2,  1835,  and  is  the  son  of  John  B.  Demars  and  Victoria 
(Mathien)  Demars.  Gustave  commenced  his  education  in  the  common  schools. 
He  afterward  entered  the  university  at  Liege,  and  graduated  at  the  age  of  nine- 
teen years.  The  following  two  years  we  find  him  engaged  in  teaching,  and  on 
arriving  at  his  majority  he  entered  the  army.  After  a  few  months  he  retired 
from  the  service,  and  immigrated  with  his  parents  to  this  country,  and  settled  in 
Kankakee,  Illinois,  where  he  resided  and  practiced  medicine  eleven  years.  Dur- 
ing the  time  Mr.  Demars  resided  in  Kankakee  he  edited  and  published  at  that 
place  a  French  paper,  which  gained  quite  a  prominence  as  a  political  sheet.  He 
took  part  in  building  the  Danville  railroad. 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  64! 

In  1869  he  settled  in  Chicago,  and  became  connected  with  the  Chicago  high 
school,  teaching  French.  In  1876  he  was  connected  with  the  county  clerk's  office 
in  Chicago,  in  the  marriage  license  department. 

During  the  later  years  of  his  life,  Mr.  Demars  had  employed  his  spare  time  in 
the  study  of  the  law,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar.  In  1879  he  was  appointed 
justice  of  the  peace.  In  politics  he  is  an  active  republican.  He  was  one  of  the 
presidential  electors  in  1860. 

Mr.  Demars  takes  great  interest  in  French  matters,  being  a  member  of  all  of 
the  French  societies  of  the  West,  and  is  also  connected  with  the  Knights  of 
Pvthias. 


CHARLES   F.   REMICK. 

/'""CHARLES  F.  REMICK  was  born  in  Brownington,  Vermont,  November  1 1, 
V^/  1829.  He  was  the  eldest  son  of  Parge  and  Laura  Remick.  His  father  was 
a  man  of  great  energy  and  very  successful  as  a  farmer,  merchant  and  manufac- 
turer, in  northern  Vermont  and  lower  Canada.  His  mother,  Laura  (Ward)  Rem- 
ick, belonged  to  a  family  distinguished  for  high  attainments  in  literary  and 
professional  life.  Charles  received  an  academical  education  at  the  place  of  his 
birth,  and  afterward  pursued  a  full  course  of  study  at  Dartmouth  College,  where 
he  graduated  with  high  honor  in  1853.  After  leaving  college  he  was  principal  of 
an  academy  at  Barnston,  Canada,  for  about  a  year,  after  which  he  began  the 
study  of  law,  and  for  about  two  years  applied  himself  assiduously  to  the  same, 
with  the  late  Hon.  John  S.  Sanborn  (brother  of  the  well  known  Prof.  Sanborn,  of 
Dartmouth),  at  Sherbrooke,  Canada,  and  while  there,  was  honored  with  several 
important  positions:  deputy  prothonotary  of  the  superior  court  of  the  district  of 
St.  Francis,  deputy  clerk  of  the  Queen's  bench,  and  also  of  the  quarter  sessions, 
clerk  of  magistrate's  court,  and  secretary  and  treasurer  of  the  school  board  for 
the  city  of  Sherbrooke,  all  of  which  he  filled  with  perfect  satisfaction  to  the  com- 
munity, and  credit  and  profit  to  himself. 

Leaving  Canada,  Mr.  Remick  went  to  Boston,  and  entered  the  office  of  the 
late  Hon.  Ithamar  W.  Beard,  then  a  lawyer  of  eminence,  who  was  afterward 
United  States  sub-treasurer,  at  Boston.  Here  he  continued  his  studies  with 
renewed  energy,  and  at  the  same  time  entered  the  senior  class  in  the  law  college 
at  Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  of  which  Rufus  Choate,  Jr.,  and  Robert  Rantoul 
were  fellow  members.  On  completing  his  course,  in  the  fall  of  1855,  he  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  of  Massachusetts,  after  which  he  set  out  for  the  Great  West 
to  seek  his  fortune,  and  made  his  first  stand  at  Decorah,  Iowa,  embarking  first 
in  land  speculation  at  the  great  United  States  land  sales,  which  opened  in  north- 
ern Iowa  in  December  1855,  and  in  which  he  accumulated  a  handsome  fortune, 
only  to  see  it  largely  dissipated  in  the  great  financial  revulsion  of  1857. 

Having  retired  from  speculation  in  1856,  Mr.  Remick  settled  down  to  his  pro- 
fession in  northern  Iowa.     From  the  first  he  took  a  high  rank  as  a  lawyer  of  abil- 
68 


642  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

ity,  and  became  widely  known  throughout  all  the  northeastern  portion  of  that 
state.  While  there  he  was  tendered  nominations  by  the  republican  party,  both 
to  the  constitutional  convention  and  state  senate,  which  he  declined  on  account 
of  the  pressure  of  professional  duties. 

In  1864  Mr.  Remick  moved  to  Chicago,  where  he  continued  his  practice  with 
great  success,  and  is  one  of  the  few  attorneys  who  have  amassed  a  fortune.  Mr. 
Remick  was  a  republican  until  Gen.  Grant's  first  nomination  to  the  presidency, 
when,  not  agreeing  with  the  financial  policy,  he  refused  to  longer  support  that 
party.  In  1876  he  voted  with  the  greenback  party,  for  Peter  Cooper,  and  has 
since  been  an  able  and  enthusiastic  supporter  of  the  tenets  of  that  organization, 
and  of  the  anti-monopolists,  by  whom,  in  the.  fall  of  1882,  he  was  nominated  judge 
of  the  probate  court  of  Cook  county. 

Mr.  Remick  is  a  man  of  sterling  worth  and  business  integrity,  and  as  a  lawyer 
an  honor  to  his  profession.  In  religion  he  is  liberal,  and  belongs  to  the  Reformed 
Episcopal  Church,  and  is  an  active  Sunday-school  worker. 

Mr.  Remick  married  in  1858  Miss  Harriet  Harrington,  of  Boston,  an  estima- 
ble lady  of  high  literary  attainments. 


THOMAS  COLLINS  WHITESIDE. 

THE  subject  of  this  biography  is  a  native  of  Marion,  Grant  county,- Indiana, 
and  was  born  February  28,  1837.  During  his  boyhood,  Thomas  received 
fair  educational  advantages,  and  preparatory  to  entering  college  pursued  a  course 
of  study  at  Farmer's  College,  in  College  Hill,  Ohio.  Completing  his  course  there, 
he  in  the  fall  of  1855  entered  Union  College,  at  Schenectady,  New  York,  of  which 
the  renowned  Dr.  Nott  was  at  that  time  president.  In  college  he  was  a  thorough, 
earnest  and  close  student,  and  graduated  with  high  honor  in  the  class  of  1858. 

While  still  a  youth  he  had  decided  to  enter  the  legal  profession,  and  imme- 
diately upon  completing  his  college  course  he  began  the  study  of  law  at -Logans- 
port,  Indiana,  in  the  office  of  Hon.  Daniel  D.  Pratt,  afterward  United  States 
senator,  and  still  later  appointed  by  President  Grant  commissioner  of  internal 
revenue. 

After  being  admitted  to  the  bar  in  1860,  Mr.  Whiteside  settled  at  Peoria,  Illi 
nois,  and  began  the  practice  of  his  profession,  in  partnership  with  Leslie  Robin- 
son. During  this  same  year  he  returned  to  Logansport,  and  married  Miss 
Lavina  Walker,  daughter  of  Hon.  George  B.  Walker,  of  that  place,  and  a  few 
months  later  settled  at  Wabash,  where  his  father  then  resided.  In  the  autumn  of 
the  following  year,  1861,  he  was  appointed  by  Gov.  Oliver  P.  Morton  state's 
attorney  in  the  nth  judicial  district  of  Indiana,  a  position  to  which,  at  the  expi- 
ration of  his  term,  he  was  elected  on  the  republican  ticket,  holding  the  same  with 
marked  ability  until  the  fall  of  1864.  During  the  winters  of  1864  and  1865  he 
represented  the  counties  of  Kosciusko  and  Wabash  in  the  state  legislature,  having 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  643 

been  elected  on  the  republican  ticket,  and  during  his  term  of  service  had  the 
honor  of  introducing  before  the  legislature  the  joint  resolution  ratifying  the 
amendment  to  the  federal  constitution  abolishing  slavery  in  the  United  States. 
In  June.  1865,  he  was  appointed  by  Gov.  Morton  judge  of  the  2ist  judicial  dis- 
trict of  Indiana,  comprising  five  counties,  being  at  that  time  but  about  twenty- 
eight  years  of  age.  In  the  fall  of  this  same  year  Judge  Whiteside  was  elected  to 
the  same  office  to  which  he  had  formerly  been  appointed,  and  although  his  term 
of  office  was  expected  to  continue  but  four  years,  through  some  legislative  defect, 
he  continued  in  office  until  1871,  when  he  resigned  on  account  of  ill  health.  Prior 
to  this,  in  1868,  he  was  a  candidate  for  congress  before  the  republican  congres- 
'  sional  convention  of  his  district,  in  opposition  to  Hon  John  U.  Pettit,  and  others, 
and  received  a  complimentary  vote  of  the  convention.  At  his  own  request,  his 
name  was  withdrawn  as  a  candidate,  and  Hon.  Daniel  D.  Pratt  was  elected  to 
represent  the  district.  Again  in  1872  he  was  nominated  for  congress  by  the  liberal 
republican  party,  for  the  nth  congressional  district  of  Indiana,  being  opposed  by 
Hon.  James  N.  Tyner,  postmaster-general  under  President  Grant,  and  subse- 
quently assistant  postmaster-general  by  appointment  of  President  Hayes. 

In  1873  Judge  Whiteside  removed  to  Chicago,  having  regained  his  health,  and 
resumed  the  practice  of  the  law. 


HENRY  CRAWFORD. 

HENRY  CRAWFORD  is  one  of  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the  Northwest,  being 
the  son  of  an  eminent  lawyer,  inheriting  his  sagacity  and  profiting  by  the 
early  training  received  in  his  father's  office.  He  entered  at  once  upon  a  brilliant 
and  successful  career,  not  surpassed,  if  equaled,  by  any  man  of  his  age  who  prac- 
tices at  the  Chicago  bar.  He  is  about  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  has  attained  a 
good  reputation  as  a  corporation  lawyer.  He  is  the  son  of  the  late  Judge  Craw- 
ford, of  New  Albany,  Indiana.  He  graduated  at  an  early  age,  and  was  admitted 
to  practice  law  before  he  became  of  age,  and  went  into  partnership  with  his 
father  and  entered  at  once  into  active  practice,  and  was  so  very  successful,  and 
displayed  such  magnificent  powers,  that  he  enjoyed  a  high  reputation  as  a  cor- 
poration lawyer  before  he  was  twenty-five  years  of  age. 

One  of  his  earliest  important  cases  was  a  case  between  the  Michigan  Central 
Railroad  Company  and  the  New  Albany  and  Salem  railroad,  where  he  had  for 
an  opponent  James  F.  Joy,  a  very  celebrated  and  able  railroad  attorney,  in  which 
Mr.  Crawford  was  eminently  successful,  and  in  that  case  gained  a  widespread 
reputation. 

At  the  solicitation  of  railroad  men  he  came  to  Chicago  in  1869,  where  he  was 
retained  in  numerous  railroad  cases,  one  of  the  earliest  and  most  noted  of  which 
was  that  of  Kelley  vs.  the  Gilman,  Clinton  and  Springfield  Railroad  Company,  a 
suit  brought  by  a  stockholder  for  the  purpose  of  annulling  something  over  a 


644  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

million  dollars  of  stock  which  had  been  issued  to  the  directors  by  themselves 
organized  as  a  construction  company — a  sort  of  "Credit  Mobilier"  company. 
Mr.  Crawford  in  this  suit  was  opposed  by  ex-Gov.  Palmer  and  other  famous 
counsel  of  central  Illinois.  But  Mr.  Crawford  was  successful  from  the  initiation 
to  the  conclusion  of  the  case.  From  that  time  forward  until  he  retired,  in  1880, 
he  was  involved  in  almost  all  of  the  notable  railroad  litigation  in  the  state  of 
Illinois,  and  at  one  time  he  represented  or  was  opposed  to  nearly  every  railroad 
company  in  Illinois.  Probably  no  other  railroad  lawyer  in  Illinois  had  as  lucra- 
tive a  practice  as  Mr.  Crawford. 

As  an  attorney  he  presents  the  unusual  combination  of  being  one  of  the 
quickest  and  industrious  members  of  the  profession,  added  to  a  comprehensive 
understanding  of  the  principles  of  law  and  almost  marvelous  recollection  of 
precedents.  He  can  with  great  readiness  state  a  principle  and  refer  to  the 
authorities  which  illustrate  it.  He  is  not  only  an  eloquent  and  logical  advocate, 
but  no  man  more  thoroughly  appreciates  or  handles  the  technical  opportunities 
afforded  him  than  Mr.  Crawford.  He  is  as  fluent,  witty,  incisive,  luminous  and 
logical  an  advocate  as  ever  practiced  law  in  Chicago,  and  during  his  active  career 
as  a  lawyer  measured  lances  with  nearly  every  lawyer  of  repute  in  the  Northwest, 
and  some  of  the  leading  lawyers  who  practice  in  the  Supreme  Court  at  Washing- 
ton. Mr.  Crawford  retired  from  law  practice  to  engage  in  railroad  business,  and 
he  is  as  brilliant  a  financier  as  he  was  railroad  lawyer. 


HON.   ROMANZO    BUNN. 

ONE  of  the  most  highly  esteemed  and  respected  judges  in  the  Northwest  isx 
Hon.  Romanzo  Bunn,  judge  of  the  United  States  district  court.  His  early 
life  up  to  the  age  of  seventeen  years  was  spent  on  his  father's  farm,  where  he 
labored  summers  and  attended  the  district  school  winters.  He  is  a  native  of  the 
Empire  State,  and  was  born  in  South  Hartwick,  Otsego  county,  September  24, 
1829.  He  removed  with  his  father's  family  in  1832  to  Mansfield,  Cattaraugus 
county,  New  York,  which  was  then  a  wilderness.  In  the  fall  of  1846  he  entered 
the  academy  at  Springville,  Erie  county,  New  York,  attending  fall  and  summer 
terms  for  three  years,  and  teaching  winters,  continuing  the  occupation  of  a 
teacher  a  portion  of  the  time  until  he  was  twenty-four  years  old.  He  commenced 
the  study  of  the  law  at  Elyria,  Ohio,  in  the  spring  of  1849,  in  the  office  of  McAch- 
erson  and  Myers,  with  his  old  friend  and  classmate,  Charles  C.  Wilson,  now  a 
leading  member  of  the  Minnesota  bar  at  Rochester,  Minnesota,  and  afterward 
continued  the  study  of  the  law  until  September,  1853,  in  the  office  of  Harmon  and 
Wood,  at  Ellicottsville,  New  York,  and  was  then  admitted  to  the  bar,  and  immedi- 
ately went  in  company  with  William  H.  Wood,  a  member  of  the  firm  with  which  he 
studied.  This  partnership  continued  until  the  fall  of  1854.  In  August  of  that  year 
he  was  married  to  Miss  Sarah  Purdy,  of  Mansfield,  New  York,  and  in  September 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  645 

of  that  year  removed  to  Sparta,  Wisconsin,  where  he  remained  during  the  winter 
of  1854-55,  and  in  the  spring  of  1855  he  settled  at  Galesville,  the  county  seat  of 
Trempealeau  county.  The  country  was  very  new,  and  in  addition  to  his  law  busi- 
ness he  devoted  his  attention  in  part  to  agriculture.  In  the  winter  of  1860  he 
served  a  term  in  the  legislature,  representing  the  assembly  district  then  composed 
of  Trempealeau,  Jackson  and  Buffalo  counties.  He  removed  to  Sparta  in  the 
spring  of  1861  and  opened  a  law  office.  He  continued  the  practice  of  the  law 
there  until  the  spring  of  1868.  He  was  then  elected  circuit  judge  of  the  sixth 
circuit,  and  was  reflected  in  the  spring  of  1874,  which  position  he  filled  with 
marked  ability  until  October,  1877,  when  he  was  appointed  by  President  Hayes 
United  States  district  judge  of  the  western  district  of  Wisconsin.  This  appoint- 
ment made  it  necessary  for  him  to  remove  to  Madison,  which  he  did  with  his 
family  in  the  summer  of  1879,  where  he  still  resides. 

Judge  Bunn  occasionally  holds  court  in  Chicago.  He  is  a  gentleman  of  fine 
presence,  being  tall,  with  a  genteel  figure;  has  a  high,  intellectual  forehead,  with 
blue  eyes.  He  is  active  in  both  mind  and  body,  and  presides  with  an  ease,  grace 
and  dignity  equaled  by  few  judges  on  the  bench.  His  rulings  are  prompt  and 
accurate,  and  his  charges  to  the  jury  are  learned  in  the  law,  lucid  and  forcibly 
delivered.  In  his  daily  intercourse  and  upon  the  bench  Judge  Bunn  is  affable  and 
suave  in  his  manner.  He  has  the  respect  and  good  will  of  the  eminent  attorneys 
who  appear  before  him  in  court,  and  the  admiration  of  the  community  wherever 
he  is  known,  and  is  considered  one  of  the  pillars  of  the  system  of  jurisprudence 
as  established  on  the  immutable  principles  of  justice  in  this  great  republic. 


JAMES    F.   LATHAM. 

AMONG  the  younger  members  of  the  Chicago  bar  perhaps  none  is  more 
favorably  known  than  the  subject  of  this  sketch.  He  was  born  at  the  city 
of  New  Orleans,  February  17,  1850.  His  father  was  the  late  Lorenzo  Latham,  who 
was  for  many  years  a  conspicuous  figure  in  that  city,  and  well  known  as  the 
editor-in-chief  and  one  of  the  proprietors  of  the  New  Orleans  "Picayune."  His 
mother  was  a  Miss  Barfield,  of  a  prominent  southern  family.  The  intention  of 
his  parents  to  fit  their  only  son  for  the  bar  was  indicated  in  the  careful  education 
he  received  during  his  youth,  and  shortly  after  the  rebellion  he  was  sent  abroad 
to  complete  his  studies  at  Paris,  and  make  the  tour  of  the  old  word.  He  re- 
mained abroad  two  years,  and  returned  to  New  Orleans  to  begin  the  study  of  his 
chosen  profession,  under  the  tutelage  and  direction  of  Judge  E.  C.  Billings, 
United  States  district  judge  of  the  first  district  of  Louisiana.  He  was  admitted 
to  practice  in  the  spring  of  1868.  In  1869  Mr.  Latham  came  to  Chicago,  and 
entered  the  office  of  Dent  and  Black,  to  familiarize  himself  with  the  common 
law  practice  of  this  state.  A  year  later  he  hung  out  his  shingle  in  the  Bryan 
block,  and  had  reached  an  enviable  position  for  so  young  a  man  when  the  great 
fire  destroyed  the  city. 


646  THE  BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Latham  soon  became  interested  in  some  mining  matters,  which  called  him 
west,  and  while  in  San  Francisco  he  gave  some  attention  to  journalism,  and  was 
one  of  the  founders  of  the  San  Francisco  "Argonaut,"  which  is  still  in  existence, 
and  has-been  a  very  successful  journal. 

In  1877  he  returned  to  Chicago  and  gave  his  full  attention  to  his  profession, 
and  soon  attained  a  large  and  desirable  clientage,  having  considerable  business 
in  the  way  of  theatrical  litigation  and  general  practice.  In  politics  he  is  an  active 
democrat.  He  is  a  member  of  the  Iroquois  Club,  and  also  a  member  of  the 
Alpha  Delta  Phi  Fraternity,  which  was  founded  by  his  father  in  connection  with 
two  others  in  1831,  and  the  badge  now  used  by  the  society  members  was  origi- 
nated and  designed  by  his  father  in  1832.  In  religion  Mr.  Latham  was  brought 
up  in  the  Episcopalian  church,  of  which  he  is  still  an  attendant. 


HON.   KIRK    HAWES. 

KIRK  HAWES  was  born  in  Worcester  county,  Massachusetts.  He  springs 
from  an  old  New  England  family  of  considerable  note.  His  father  was  a 
prominent  actor  in  the  old  whig  party,  and  a  highly  respected  and  influential  man; 
a  brother  of  Dr  Joel  Hawes,  a  celebrated  New  England  divine,  who  was  pastor  of 
the  First  Congregational  Church, .at  Hartford,  Connecticut,  for  nearly  half  a  cen- 
tury; and  author  of  several  theological  works,  which  were  authoritative  and 
standard  works  forty  years  ago.  Kirk  Hawes  is  a  brother  of  Mrs.  Mary  J.  Holmes, 
a  gifted  authoress,  whose  voluminous  works  of  fiction  are  found  on  the  shelves  of 
every  bookstore  in  the  Union,  and  have  a  large  sale  in  other  countries.  She  ranks 
with  Harriet  Beecher  Stbwe,  and  that  galaxy  of  New  England  women  who  have 
illustrated  the  annals  of  literature  in  this  country. 

When  at  the  age  of  fourteen  years,  his  father  having  died,  being  a  robust  and 
intelligent  boy,  he  was  taken  into  the  service  of  the  noted  merchant  and  East 
India  trader,  Robert  S.  Shaw,  and  was  sent  by  him  to  the  East  Indies  in  the  inter- 
ests of  that  trade,  in  which  he  continued  for  four  or  five  years,  visiting  nearly  all 
parts  of  the  world,  and  having  an  ambition  to  obtain  an  education,  he  entered 
Munson  (Massachusetts)  Academy,  remained  three  years  and  fitted  for  college. 
In  the  fall  of  1859  he  entered  the  freshman  class  of  Williams  College,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  at  the  close  of  the  junior  year  he  enlisted  for  the  nine  months  service 
in  the  army,  there  being  an  urgent  call  for  men.  He  raised  a  company  at  and 
near  his  home,  and  was  sent  to  the  Gulf  with  Gen.  Banks  when  he  relieved 
Butler.  He  remained  in  the  service  after  his  term  of  enlistment  had  expired, 
until  the  surrender  of  Vicksburg,  when  he  returned  to  Williams  College  and 
graduated  with  honors  in  the  fall  of  1864.  After  graduating  he  entered  the  law 
office  of  Bacon  and  Aldrich,  Worcester,  Massachusetts,  where  he  remained  about 
one  year,  when  he  came  to  Chicago,  completed  his  studies,  was  admitted  to  the 
bar,  and  forming  a  partnership  with  H.  T.  Helm,  commenced  practice;  continued 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  647 

with  Mr.  Helm  until  the  fall  of  1871,  when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  A.  H. 
Lawrence,  a  former  class-mate,  under  the  firm  of  Hawes  and  Lawrence,  which 
continued  until  Mr.  Hawes'  elevation  to  the  superior  court  bench  in  1880. 

The  Chicago  "Times  "in  its  issue  of  October  31,  1880,  during  the  election 
and  just  after  Mr.  Hawes  had  been  nominated  for  superior  judge,  made  the  follow- 
ing truthful  comments: 

"Mr.  Hawes  is  one  of  the  most  widely  known  lawyers  practicing  at  this  bar. 
His  reputation  abroad  is  of  the  best.  It  is  more  than  a  merely  professional  rep- 
utation. His  elevation  to  the  bench  would  reflect  credit  upon  Chicago.  He  came 
to  Chicago  several  years  ago,  almost  immediately  after  graduating  with  honors 
from  one  of  the  'principal  universities  of  the  East.  He  entered  almost  at  once 
upon  the  practice  of  law,  in  which  within  a  very  short  time  he  took  high  rank. 
His  practice  has  been  of  the  best,  and  lucrative  enough  to  have  secured  him  a 
handsome  competence.  There  are  few  lawyers  in  this  country  more  distinguished 
for  practical  knowledge  of  the  law,  for  keen  perceptive  faculties,  fine  executive 
abilities,  or  nice  sense  of  right  and  wrong.  Mr.  Hawes  is  a  student,  a  man  of 
liberal  views  and  great  intellectual  force.  While  a  strong  republican  by  convic- 
tion he  has  never,  in  the  commonly  accepted  sense  of  the  word,  been  a  partisan. 
His  voice  has  ever  been  heard  on  the  side  of  common  sense  and  justice.  More 
than  once  it  has  been  raised  successfully  against  some  blind  fanaticism  of  his 
party.  In  local  affairs  he  has  never  tied  himself,  to  party,  but  has  chosen  rather 
to  favor  what  seemed  most  likely  to  forward  the  general  good.  In  matters  of 
principle  only  is  he  a  party  man.  As  between  men,  when  a  question  was  one 
involving  fitness  for  office,  rather  than  party  principle,  he  has  invariably  been 
found  favoring  the  best  man.  The  scope  of  his  mind  was  forcibly  shown,  during  the 
silver  craze  some  four  years  ago,  he  wrote  an  essay  on  the  metallic  question,  which 
attracted  the  admiring  attention  of  educated  men  everywhere,  and  did  as  much, 
perhaps,  as  any  other  one  thing  to  check  the  folly  of  that  dangerous  movement. 
His  independence  of  thought  and  feeling  in  political  affairs  was  illustrated  last 
spring,  when  in  the  face  of  party  power  and  machinery  he  boldly  headed  a  minor- 
ity, and  contended  against  hero  worship  that  threatened  to  overwhelm  the  repub- 
lican organization  under  the  avalanche  of  popular  feeling  against  third  termism. 
To  Mr.  Hawes  more  than  to  any  other  one  man  in  Illinois  was  due  the  success 
of  the  struggle  which  ended  in  the  admission  of  the  unpledged  delegates  from 
this  state  to  the  national  convention,  a  move  which  may  be  held  as  having  pre- 
vented the  nomination  of  Gen.  Grant.  His  fight  for  the  Farwell  Hall  delegates 
at  Springfield  enabled  his  associates  to  go  before  the  superior  tribunal  (national 
convention)  of  Chicago,  with  a  record  that  compelled  attention.  But  for  his  fore- 
sight in  forcing  that  record,  the  contestants  would  have  come  up  to  this  city  with- 
out a  case,  and  the  whole  history  of  the  national  campaign,  possibly  of  this 
nation,  might  have  been  changed  by  their  failure.  His  plea  before  the  state  con- 
vention was  a  model  of  clear,  forcible,  terse  and  eloquent  reasoning,  and  with  any 
other  than  a  packed  tribunal  it  must  have  succeeded.  In  his  private  character 


648  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

Mr.  Hawes  is  wholly  blameless.  He  is  admittedly  a  high  minded,  honorable 
gentleman.  Like  all  positive  men,  he  has  enemies,  but  the  enemies  of  Mr.  Hawes 
are  of  a  kind  that  do  him  honor.  If  he  has  a  fault,  it  is  that  he  never  hesitates 
to  speak  his  mind,  once  it  is  made  up,  but  he  is  not  hasty  in  judgment.  His 
methods  of  thought  are  concise  and  healthful.  In  every  juncture  of  doubt  he  is 
charitable,  but  once  made  up,  his  conclusions  are  procrustean.  It  would  be  a 
matter  of  profound  regret  with  every  enlightened  citizen,  if  now  that  he  is  in  nom- 
ination, Mr.  Hawes  should  fail  of  success." 

This  is  so  clear,  concise  and  accurate  an  estimate  of  Mr.  Hawes'  character,  and 
foreshadows  so  plainly  what  he  proves  to  be  as  judge  that  we  give  it  in  full. 
There  is  but  one  judge  younger  in  years  on  the  bench,  and  no'other  who  was  a 
soldier.  He  has  more  than  fulfilled  the  expectations  of  his  most  sanguine  friends, 
in  the  discharge  of  the  functions  of  his  high  position.  He  brought  to  the  bench 
learning  in  the  law,  independence  of  thought,  quickness  of  perception  and 
urbanity  in  manner,  qualities  a  judge  should  possess.  If  precedents  are  lacking, 
he  does  not  hesitate  to  make  one.  He  respects  time-honored  decisions,  of  course, 
but  he  is  progressive,  and  has  a  mind  of  his  own,  and  the  courage  to  decide  con- 
trary to  them  if  he  believes  he  is  right  on  the  foundation  principles,  with  due 
regard  to  the  equitable  side  of  the  case.  In  short  he  is  a  man  of  great  firmness 
and  independence  of  character  and  action;  in  all  of  his  tastes  and  habits  exhibits 
an  unaffected  simplicity.  He  has  so  far  proven  to  be  one  of  the  best  judges  on 
the  bench  in  this  county,  and  there  is  not  the  slightest  reason  to  think  that  he  will 
not  continue  to  preserve  the  purity  of  his  ermine. 

In  1871  he  married  Lizzie  H.  Dunham,  daughter  of  J.  H.  Dunham,  of  Chi- 
cago, and  has  by  her  three  children. 


HON.  GEORGE    GARDNER. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch,  who  is  now  one  of  the  judges  of  the  superior 
court  of  Cook  county,  was  born  April  25,  1826,  in  the  town  of  Chili,  Monroe 
county,  New  York.  His  father's  name  was  John  Gardner,  also  a  native  of  the 
same  county,  of  which  his  father,  also  named  John,  was  one  of  the  earliest  set- 
tlers, having  emigrated  with  his  father  (Benjamin)  from  Lebanon,  Connecticut, 
shortly  after  the  close  of  the  revolutionary  war.  His  mother  was  Susan  Eckler, 
a  native  of  Herkimer  county,  New  York,  whose  ancestors  were  among  the  earliest 
settlers  of  the  Mohawk  valley.  His  father  was  a  farmer,  and  his  early  education 
was  that  afforded  by  the  common  schools  of  the  neighborhood  and  a  neighbor- 
ing village,  to  which  was  added  a  considerable  term  of  study  at  the  Collegiate 
Institute  at  Brockport,  in  the  same  county. 

Leaving  home  first  in  the  fall  of  1844  he  came  around  the  lakes  to  Chicago, 
and  spent  about  ten  months  in  northern  Illinois  and  Wisconsin,  returning  home 
in  July  1845.  After  another  year  spent  at  school,  in  the  fall  of  1846  he  embarked 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  649 

on  a  whaling  voyage,  which  took  him  around  Cape  Horn  to  some  of  the  islands 
in  the  Pacific  Ocean,  into  the  North  Pacific  and  the  Japan  and  Okhotsk  Seas, 
from  which  he  returned  in  the  spring  of  1848.  After  his  return  he  spent  his  sum- 
mers upon  the  farm  and  his  winters  in  teaching  school  till  the  summer  of  1850, 
when  he  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  at  Rochester,  New  York,  with  Wm.  F. 
Cogswell,  now  one  of  the  most  eminent  members  of  the  profession  in  that  city. 
Having  passed  his  examination,  he  was  admitted  to  the  bar  at  Rochester  in 
March  1852.  He  remained  with  his  preceptor  for  a  year  thereafter,  and  then 
opened  an  office  in  the  same  city,  where  he  remained  till  January,  1854,  when  he 
removed  to  La  Fayette,  Indiana,  where  he  practiced  his  profession  successfully 
until  May,  1863,  when  he  removed  to  Chicago,  where  he  has  ever  since  resided. 

From  1866  to  1872  he  was  associated  with  Robert  Jones,  now  of  La  Fayette, 
Indiana,  the  firm  name  being  Jones  and  Gardner.  On  January  i,  1873,  he 
formed  a  partnership  with  Daniel  J.  Schuyler,  now  of  Chicago,  the  firm  name 
being  Gardner  and  Schuyler,  which  arrangement  continued  until  dissolved, 
December  i,  1880,  by  his  elevation  to  the  bench  of  the  superior  court. 

Judge  Gardner  has  been  twice  married,  first  at  La  Fayette,  Indiana,  in  June, 
1858,  to  Maria  Jones,  who  deceased  in  May,  1870,  and  again  at  Chicago,  in  No- 
vember, 1872,  to  Mary  J.  Brooks,  who  is  his  present  wife. 

Soon  after  his  removal  to  Chicago  he  established  a  large  professional  busi- 
ness, and  at  the  time  of  his  election  to  the  bench,  his  firm  was  in  the  enjoyment 
of  a  large  and  lucrative  practice,  both  in  chancery  and  at  the  common  law,  as 
well  as  in  admiralty.  He  has  never  held  any  public  office  except  the  one  he  now 
fills,  and  while  not  active  as  a  politician,  he  has  always  been  a  member  of  the 
republican  party. 

Soon  after  his  removal  to  the  West,  he  connected  himself  with  the  Masonic 
Fraternity,  in  which  he  has  held  several  prominent  official  positions.  While  a 
student  he  became  connected  with  the  Protestant  Episcopal  church,  and  still 
maintains  that  connection. 

Judge  Gardner  has  developed  marked  judicial  ability  since  his  accession  to 
the  bench:  He  has  given  general  satisfaction  to  the  members  of  the  bar  who 
practice  before  him.  They  are  unanimous  in  expressions  of  confidence  in  his 
ability,  impartiality,  and  judgment.  He  has  already  acquired  a  reputation  as  a 
model  judge. 

JAMES  M.  CLEAVER. 

JAMES  M.  CLEAVER  is  a  native  of  Chicago,  and  was  born  December  15,  1860. 
He  is  the  son  of  Edward  C.  Cleaver,  a  prominent  real-estate  dealer  in  Chi- 
cago.    His  mother  before  marriage  was  Miss  Caroline  Howe.     The  first  business 
tenerprise   that  engaged   the  attention  of  James  M.  was  in  connection  with  the 
Elgin   National   Watch   Company,  with  which   company   he  was  connected   five 
years.     He  entered  Chicago  Union  College  of  Law,  and  graduated  therefrom  in 
69 


650  THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

1882,  and  was  admitted  to  the  bar  the  same  year,  and  immediately  commenced 
practice  with  the  well  known  firm  of  Smith  and  Burgett,  Chicago. 

Mr.  Cleaver  is  a  young  lawyer  of  much  promise.  He  is  energetic,  of  fine 
ability,  well  read  in  his  profession,  discriminating  in  his  practice,  and  bids  fair 
to  attain  high  rank  in  his  profession. 


HON.    ERASTUS   SMITH    WILLIAMS. 

THE  subject  of  this  sketch  was  born  in  Salem,  New  York,  May  22,  1821.  He 
was  educated  at  the  academy  in  Salem,  New  York,  and  at  Hadley,  Massa- 
chusetts, and  was  for  a  time  a  student  in  the  University  of  Alabama.  Taking  Mr. 
Greeley's  advice,  long  before  Mr.  Greeley  thought  of  it,  he  came  west,  and  as 
early  as  1842  settled  in  Chicago  and  commenced  the  study  of  the  law  in  the  office 
of  Butterfield  and  Collins,  who  were  in  the  front  rank  of  the  lawyers  at  the  Chi- 
cago bar  at  that  time.  Mr.  Williams  was  admitted  to  the  bar  by  the  supreme 
court  in  1844,  and  so  marked  were  his  abilities  that  Mr.  Butterfield  formed  a 
copartnership  with  him,  under  the  firm  name  of  Butterfield  and  Williams,  Mr. 
Collins  retiring  from  the  firm.  The  connection  with  Mr.  Butterfield  continued 
but  a  short  time,  the  other  member  of  the  old  firm,  Mr.  Collins,  securing  the 
young  man  as  his  partner.  The  firm  of  Collins  and  Williams  continued  until  the 
death  of  its  senior  member,  which  occurred  in  1854.  After  Mr.  Collins'  death, 
Judge  Manniere,  of  the  circuit  court,  who,  too,  had  become  impressed  with  Mr. 
Williams'  ability,  appointed  him  master  of  chancery  in  his  court,  which  position 
he  retained  until  1863,  when  Judge  Manniere  died,  and  Mr.  Williams  was  nomi- 
nated and  elected  to  the  vacant  judgeship.  Judge  Williams  remained  sole  judge 
of  the  circuit  court  until  its  reorganization,  in  1870,  when  he  became  chancellor 
and  chief-justice.  He  retained  the  latter  office  for  a  short  time  only,  but  remained 
chancellor  until  he  retired  from  the  bench,  in  1879. 

The  fall  of  1879  was  a  disastrous  one  for  the  republican  party  in  Chicago.  All 
the  republican  candidates  for  the  judgeship  were  defeated  that  year,  and  Judge 
Williams  suffered  defeat  with  his  party.  No  man  enjoys  defeat,  but  the  loss  of 
his  position  was  Judge.Williams'  financial  gain.  He  immediately  entered  upon 
the  practice  of  the  law,  and  has  since  enjoyed  a  large  and  steadily  increasing 
practice. 

This  result  might  have  been  predicted.  For  over  sixteen  years  Judge  Williams 
had  enjoyed  a  reputation  for  ability  and  probity  unsurpassed  by  that  enjoyed  by 
any  lawyer  at  the  bar  or  on  the  bench.  Although  attacked  by  an  editor  whom 
he  had  the  courage  to  order  to  jail,  the  attacks  fell  harmless  from  his  unsullied 
ermine,  and  rather  served  to  show  in  a  brighter  light  his  disinterestedness  and 
courage. 

These  qualities,  indeed,  were  his  characteristics  as  a  judge,  and,  added  to 
great  legal  acquirement  and  unquestioned  forensic  ability,  make  him  one  of  the 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  651 

few  leading  members  of  the  Illinois  bar  to-day.  No  man  practicing  before  it  has 
a  greater  weight  with  judge  or  jury  than  has  Erastus  S.  Williams,  of  whom  the 
"  Legal  News  "  says: 

"As  a  lawyer  Judge  Williams  is  not  only  learned,  but  wise,  never  forgetting 
the  spirit  in  the  letter.  His  patience  is  truly  admirable.  He  can  endure  even  a 
tedious  and  pointless  argument,  and  such  is  his  uniform  courtesy  that  the  young- 
est lawyer  approaches  the  bench  without  fear.  He  is  exceedingly  tolerant  of  the 
mistakes  of  the  inexperienced.  He  does  not  descend  to  unseemly  disputes  with 
counsel.  He  presides  with  dignity  and  decides  without  fear.  He  is  singularly 
impartial.  Neither  friendship  nor  enmity  can  sway  his  judgment.  No  man  can 
cast  a  blot  on  his  unsullied  reputation.  His  career  is  a  shining  example  for  the 
young.  The  treasures  of  intellect  glitter  and  attract,  but  they  are  valueless  unless 
truth  and  justice  stand  guard  over  them.  Judge  Williams  is  wise,  but  he  is  also 
good,  and  this  two-fold  cord  is  not  quickly  broken.  Long  may  he  live  to  illus- 
trate and  adorn  his  high  station." 


HON.  WILLIAM    H.    BARNUM. 

WILLIAM  H.  BARNUM,  one  of  the  five  judges  of  the  circuit  court  of  Cook 
county,  was  elected  to  that  position  June  2,  1879,  for  a  term  of  six  years. 
He  was  born  in  Onondaga  county,  New  York,  February  15,  1840,  but  has  been 
an  Illinoisan  for  upward  of  forty  years,  his  parents  and  relatives  having  removed 
to  this  state  with  him  in  1842,  and  located  at  Belleville,  in  St.  Clair  county.  There 
he  passed  his  boyhood  and  youth,  receiving  such  educational  advantages  as  the 
private  schools  afforded,  until,  in  his  sixteenth  year,  he  was  sent  to  the  State  Nor- 
mal University  at  Ypsilanti,  Michigan.  He  attended  that  institution  altogether 
about  two  years  and  a  half,  devoting,  however,  some  considerable  intervals  of 
time  to  teaching  at  Belleville,  and  thereby  contributed  materially  to  his  college 
expenses  at  the  Normal,  and  subsequently  at  Michigan  University,  Ann  Arbor, 
where  he  was  admitted  as  sophomore,  in  the  fall  of  1858,  in  the  classical  depart- 
ment. His  class  was  graduated  in  1861,  but  he  remained  with  them  no  longer 
than  the  commencement  of  the  junior  year.  Nevertheless,  within  a  few  years 
past,  his  alma  mater  conferred  upon  him,  unsolicited,  its  honorary  degree  of  M.A., 
with  complimentary  allusions  to  his  college  record  for  scholarship. 

On  leaving  the  university,  he  resumed  teaching  at  Belleville,  keeping  on  with 
his  classical,  literary  and  historical  studies,  employing  competent  professors  to 
further  instruct  him  in  Latin,  Greek  and  German.  At  twenty  years  of  age,  in 
July,  1860,  he  was  there  married  to  a  companion  of  his  childhood,  Miss  Clara 
Hyde,  a  young  lady  of  respectable  family,  the  sister  of  William  Hyde,  editor 
of  the  Saint  Louis  "  Republican "  newspaper.  At  the  same  time,  he  began  an 
assiduous  study  of  the  law,  to  which  he  had  all  along  been  paying  some  atten- 
tion, that  profession  having  been  to  him  a  manifest  destiny  from  childhood.  This 


652  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

special  bent  of  his  mind  was  doubtless  due  to  his  very  early  and  constant  contact 
with  the  members  of  perhaps  as  brilliant  a  bar  as  any  in  the  West, —  men  then 
and  since  distinguished  for  their  great  forensic  powers  and  juridical  learning, 
many  of  whom  were  exalted  by  sheer  force  of  their  merits  to  positions  of  dignity 
in  the  service  of  the  state  and  nation.  Among  them  may  be  enumerated  Gov. 
John  Reynolds,  Gen.  James  Shields,  late  Chief-Justice  Sidney  Breese,  Senator 
Lyman  Trumbull,  Hon.  Don.  Morrison,  Gov.  Gustavus  Koerner,  Hon.  William  H. 
Underwood.  Gov.  William  H.  Bissel.  Hon.  William  H.  Snyder,  still  a  circuit  judge, 
Hon.  Jehu  Baker,  M.C.,  and  now  United  States  minister  to  Venezuela,  Judge 
Nathaniel  Niles,  Hon.  Philip  B.  Fonke,  M.C.,  Hon.  John  Hay,  M.C.,  Hon.  Charles 
P.  Johnson,  afterward  lieutenant-governor  of  Missouri,  and  Hon.  George  Trum- 
bull, brother  of  the  senator,  in  whose  office  at  Belleville  the  subject  of  this  sketch 
began  and  pursued  the  regular  study  of  the  law  until  admitted  to  practice,  in  the 
fall  of  1862. 

At  this  time,  also,  the  Belleville  bar  was  graced  by  a  talented  group  of  younger 
men,  most  of  whom  have  achieved  success  and  honors  in  the  same  community. 
Immediately  after  his  admission,  Mr.  Barnum  removed  to  Randolph  county,  Illi- 
nois, where  he  was  a  total  stranger,  and  opened  a  law  office  at  Chester,  the  county' 
seat,  situated  on  the  Mississippi  river,  about  eighty  miles  below  Saint  Louis. 
Originally  intending  to  remain  there  only  two  years,  and  then  to  go  to  Saint 
Louis  or  Chicago,  he  met  with  such  success  in  the  Randolph  circuit,  which  em- 
braced five  counties,  that  he  practiced  there  five  years.  He  had  no  partner.  His 
practice  was  general,  embracing  common  law,  chancery  and  probate  matters,  as 
well  as  criminal  law.  The  land  suits  and  criminal  trials  which  he  conducted 
were  many  of  them  quite  remarkable,  and  gave  him  very  considerable  local  prom- 
inence. He,  also,  during  the  same  period,  practiced  in  the  supreme  court  at 
Springfield.  During  the  first  three  years  of  his  stay  at  Chester  he  held  two  terms 
of  appointment  as  master  in  chancery,  but  retired  from  the  position  when  his 
practice  became  more  lucrative.  In  the  autumn  of  1867  he  accepted  an  invitation 
to  come  to  Chicago  and  form  a  copartnership  with  Lawrence  J.  J.  Nissen,  a  well 
known  attorney  of  this  city,  who  had  previously  been  in  partnership  with  Gen. 
Hasbrouck  Davis,  and  afterward  with  Francis  Adams,  the  present  corporation 
counsel.  The  connection  thus  formed  continued  for  ten  years,  until  the  summer 
of  1877.  January  i,  1876,  however,  the  new  firm  of  Harding,  Nissen  and  Barnum 
was  formed,  Hon.  George  F.  Harding  becoming  senior  member. 

During  those  ten  years  Mr.  Barnum  attended  almost  exclusively  to  the  court 
practice,  and  acquired  very  considerable  distinction  as  a  trial  lawyer,  as  well  as 
for  his  legal  arguments  and  briefs  in  the  supreme  court.  His  forensic  success 
was  greatly  promoted  by  the  happy  taste  and  talent  of  Mr.  Nissen  for  office  busi- 
ness, and  by  his  invaluable  aid  in  the  preparation  of  cases.  In  Mr.  Harding's 
magnificent  law  library  Mr.  Barnum  found  a  long  coveted  arsenal  of  principles 
and  precedents,  which  he  often  used  with  telling  effect. 

In  the  summer  of  1877  the  firm  was  amicably  dissolved,  Mr.  Harding's  large 


THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  653 

private  and  property  interests  demanding  his  almost  exclusive  attention,  and  pre- 
cluding the  possibility  of  his  taking  much  part  in  general  practice.  Thereupon, 
Mr.  Barnum  and  Mr.  Cornelius  Van  Schaack  entered  into  a  copartnership,  which 
was  pleasantly  and  profitably  continued  until  the  promotion  of  the  former  to  the 
bench,  in  the  summer  of  1879.  The  rank  and  estimation  in  which  he  was  then 
generally  held  will  appear  from  an  editorial  sketch  published  in  the  Chicago 
"  Times  "  of  April  27,  1879,  and  substantially  indorsed  by  the  other  papers  of  the 
city  both  before  and  after  the  election: 

"Mr.  William  H.  Barnum,  at  the  age  of  forty,  has  achieved  a  leading  position  at  the  Chicago 
bar.  His  mind  is  eminently  judicial.  He  has  practiced  at  the  bar  for  seventeen  years,  and  in 
Chicago  for  twelve  years.  For  a  man  in  middle  life,  Mr.  Barnum  has  handled  an  unusual  number 
of  exceedingly  important  cases,  and  always  with  consummate  ability.  He  won  especial  prominence 
in  the  famous  Turner  lorgery  cases,  the  most  remarkable  litigation  ever  before  a  court  in  this  city. 
In  these  cases,  which  he  fought  single-handed,  he  was  opposed  by  Messrs.  Swett,  Storrs,  Ketchum, 
of  Jacksonville,  and  other  attorneys.  He  was  also  associated  with  Judge  McAllister  in  the  great 
Uhtich-Muhlke  case,  involving  nearly  two  millions  of  property.  He  argued  a  case  gratuitously 
which  broke  up  the  old  reform-school  outrage.  Mr.  Barnum  is  receiving  a  powerful  backing  from 
the  bar,  many  leading  members  of  which  are  interesting  themselves  in  pushing  him  to  the  front. 
Politically  Mr.  Barnum  has  been  a  life-long  democrat,  though  never  a  violent  partisan.  He  is  a 
lawyer,  and  not  a  politician." 

Judge  Barnum's  judicial  career  is  matter  of  public  record.  By  arrangement 
with  his  colleagues,  he  took  the  chancery  bench  and  held  it  for  three  years,  dis- 
posing of  a  vast  amount  of  business  in  that  time.  The  docket  was  loaded  down 
with  arrearages  from  former  years  to  the  extent  of  some  twelve  hundred  cases, 
many  of  them  known  as  "snags,"  and  terrors  to  both  bar  and  bench.  Some  of 
these  unavoidably  consumed  in  their  hearing  a  month  apiece  of  Judge  Barnum's 
time.  The  bar  generally  appreciated  the  cause  of  the  delay,  and  credited  the 
judge  for  the  promptness  with  which  cases  were  brought  to  trial  and  decided. 
By  means  of  general  calls  and  studied  acceleration  of  the  docket,  and  his  inva- 
riably speedy  decision  of  causes  and  motions,  his  chancery  calendar  was  reduced 
to  comparatively  small  and  quite  manageable  proportions  at  the  time  it  was 
turned  over  in  September,  1882,  to  his  able  successor,  Judge  Moran.  Judge  Bar- 
num left  nothing  undecided  which  had  ever  been  submitted  to  him.  He  then 
took  a  common  law  docket,  pursuant  to  the  arrangement  mentioned,  not  because 
of  any  preference  for  it,  but  from  a  desire  to  keep  abreast  with  the  bar  and  with 
the  progress  of  legal  questions  through  the  courts.  He  has  held  his  terms  of  the 
criminal  court  also,  and  presided  there  at  many  important  trials.  In  the  course 
of  his  judicial  duties  in  the  several  departments  mentioned,  Judge  Barnum  has 
been  called  upon  to  decide  causes  of  great  magnitude,  of  both  public  and  private 
concern,  and  questions  of  unusual  difficulty  and  delicacy.  How  well  and  cor- 
rectly he  has  decided  them,  appears  in  part  from  the  published  reports  of 
appealed  cases  in  the  supreme  and  appellate  court  reports,  and  otherwise  by  the 
general  acquiescence  of  the  bar.  His  decrees  and  judgments  have  been  almost 
uniformly  affirmed.  He  has  sometimes  had  occasion  in  the  discharge  of  his 


654  THE   BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

duties  to  go  counter  to  some  temporary  phases  of  general  or  local  public  senti- 
ment, but  has  not  hesitated  to  act  upon  his  convictions  of  law  and  justice,  regard- 
less of  consequences.  Judge  Barnum  doubtless  feels  that  his  stake  in  the  com- 
munity is  as  great  as  any  man's  can  be  who  has  a  wife  and  five  promising  children. 


NEWTON  C.  WHEELER. 

NEWTON  CALVIN  WHEELER,  son  of  Calvin  and  Sarah  J.  (Hoyt)  Wheeler, 
was  born  at  Bristol,  Kendall  county,  Illinois,  August  21,  1849.  His  father 
was  a  native  of  New  Hampshire  and  his  mother  of  Connecticut.  They  after- 
ward resided  and  were  married  in  the  state  of  New  York,  whence  they  removed 
in  1834  to  Kendall  county,  Illinois,  where  the  former  was  a  prominent  physician 
and  honored  citizen  until  his  death,  which  occurred  in  1876,  and  where  the  latter 
still  resides  on  the  old  homestead  at  Bristol. 

At  the  age  of  sixteen  after  the  usual  attendance  at  the  public  school  of  his 
native  village,  Mr.  Wheeler  entered  Clark's  Seminary,  at  Aurora,  to  prepare  for 
college.  He  subsequently  completed  his  preparatory  studies  at  Beloit  College, 
which  he  entered  in  the  fall  of  1867.  The  fall  and  winter  1868-69  he  spent  in 
teaching  near  his  home,  and,  although  but  a  boy,  was  highly  successful,  and 
evinced  a  peculiar  talent  in  that  direction.  His  intention  had  been  to  return  to 
Beloit  and  pursue  his  college  course,  but  yielding  to  the  solicitations  of  friends, 
he  changed  his  purpose,  and  in  the  fall  of  1869  joined  the  freshman  class  of  the 
University  of  Chicago.  Here  he  continued  his  studies  uninterruptedly  until  after 
the  great  fire  of  October,  1871,  when  he  discontinued  them  for  a  time,  to  take  a 
position  as  tutor  in  Washington  University,  at  St.  Louis,  Missouri.  As  a  teacher 
he  achieved  a  decided  success,  and  declined  an  invitation  to  continue  his  services 
at  that  institution  at  an  advanced  salary,  in  order  to  return  to  college  and  finish 
his  course. 

Resuming  his  studies  at  the  university  in  the  fall  of  1872,  he  again  abandoned 
them  temporarily,  at  the  urgent  request  of  the  president  of  the  college,  to  take 
charge  of  the  Winnetka  Academy,  then  a  branch  of  the  university,  but  refused  a 
permanent  engagement  in  that  capacity,  and,  returning  to  college,  graduated  in 
the  classical  course  with  the  class  of  1873,  a  class  noted  in  the  annals  of  the  uni- 
versity for  scholarship  and  oratorical  ability.  As  a  writer  and  speaker,  Mr. 
Wheeler  was  counted  among  the  first  of  his  class,  his  graduating  oration  receiv- 
ing the  highest  encomiums  of  the  local  press. 

In  college  he  was  a  commanding  spirit,  an  earnest  student  and  an  excellent 
scholar.  He  was  at  the  same  time  a  leader  in  college  sports,  and  a  whole-souled, 
generous  companion,  meriting  and  obtaining  the  highest  regard  of  both  teachers 
and  college  mates.  He  was  an  enthusiastic  member  of  the  Psi  Upsilon  Fraternity, 
and  in  his  senior  year  was  elected  president  of  his  class. 

The  year  following  his  graduation  Mr.  Wheeler  spent  at  the  Union  College  of 


THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF   CHICAGO.  655 

Law  at  Chicago,  and  subsequently  continued  his  legal  studies  in  the  law  office  of 
Lyman  and  Jackson,  and  upon  examination  before  the  supreme  court  of  Ottawa, 
in  September,  1875,  was  admitted  to  the  bar  of  Illinois.  Called  home  by  the 
the  serious  illness  of  his  father  whose  death  occurred  in  May  1876,  he  was 
engaged  during  the  remainder  of  that  year  in  settling  up  his  father's  estate,  and 
subsequently  spent  a  year  traveling  on  business  through  the  central  and  southern 
states.  Upon  his  return  to  Chicago  he  spent  six  months  assisting  H.  W.  Jackson, 
receiver  of  the  Third  National  Bank  of  Chicago,  in  settling  up  the  business 
of  that  institution,  and  in  the  fall  of  1878  opened  an  office  and  began  the  practice 
of  law  on  his  own  account.  In  May,  1881,  he  formed,  with  Col.  D.  W.  Munn, 
under  the  firm  name  of  Munn  and  Wheeler,  a  partnership,  which  has  proved  in 
all  respects  eminently  successful. 

As  a  lawyer  Mr.  Wheeler  possesses  rare  good  judgment,  is  purely  practical, 
and  brings  to  his  profession  a  full  and  varied  fund  of  classical  and  legal  learning ; 
is  able  to  present  his  thoughts  in  consultation  or  argument  clearly,  intelligently, 
forcibly  and  confidently,  and  without  waste  of  words.  As  a  business  man  and  in 
his  private  life  Mr.  Wheeler  sustains  a  manly,  upright  character,  and  is  universally 
esteemed  for  his  frank,  honorable  and  generous  dealing.  He  is  a  man  of  culti- 
vated and  refined  tastes,  courteous  in  his  deportment,  a  true  gentleman,  and  a 
friend  always  to  be  relied  upon.  He  was  married  November  12,  1881,  to  Miss 
Lizzie  M.,  a  daughter  of  Richard  Stiles,  of  Chicago. 


CHARLES  W.   COOPER. 

THE  following  facts  are  mostly  extracts  from  "  Bibliotheca  Canadensis." 
Charles  W.  Cooper  was  born  in  England  in  1842.  He  founded  the  Literary 
and  Historical  Society  of  Toronto,  and  has  long  been  a  frequent  contributor  to 
the  newspaper  and  periodical  press  of  Canada,  on  miscellaneous  subjects.  Was 
secretary  in  1849  of  the  central  committee  of  the  British  American  League,  and 
contributed  what  was  known  as  the  League  articles  in  the  Toronto  "Patriot," 
and  other  newspapers;  contributed  to  the  "  Maple  Leaf  Magazine,"  during  its 
existence.  Is  legal  editor  and  reporter  to  the  Toronto  "  Globe,"  author  of 
"  Remarks  on  the  Proposed  Abolition  of  the  Court  of  Chancery:  Kingston,  1851." 
"The  writer  has  treated  the  subject  in  an  upright,  honorable  and  candid  manner. 
— 'Sun,  Pictou.'"  "A  prize  Essay  on  the  Features  and  Resources  of  the  United 
Counties  of  Frontenac,  Lennox  and  Addington:  Kingston,  1856."  Several  public 
spirited  inhabitants  of  the  counties  above  named  having  offered  a  prize  of  ^100 
(one  hundred  pounds)  for  the  best  essay  on  the  above  subject,  Mr.  Cooper  was 
declared  the  successful  competitor,  and  in  addition  to  the  prize  awarded,  received 
a  vote  of  thanks  from  the  corporation  of  Kingston,  together  with  a  present  of 
^25.  "Canadian  Tales,  from  a  Canadian  Pen.  French  Words,  or  Twice  Mar- 
ried: Toronto  '  Colonist,'  1859."  "  Equity  Digest:  Toronto,  1866." 


656  THE  BENCH  AND  BAR   OF  CHICAGO. 

\ 
Mr.  Cooper  has  published  a  supplement  to  the  above  work,  the  two  books 

making  a  volume  of  some  1300  octavo  pages;  also  two  volumes  of  reports  for  the 
law  society  of  Ontario,  entitled  "  Chancery  Chamber  Reports,"  and  was  connected 
with  other  literary  enterprises,  until  his  leaving  Canada  a  few  years  ago.  Since 
his  arrival  here  he  has  not  published  anything,  contributing  only  occasional  arti- 
cles to  literary  and  legal  journals,  but  is  understood  to  be  engaged  on  a  law  work 
of  some  magnitude,  for  one  of  the  largest  law  publishing  houses  of  the  West,  for 
which,  from  the  standing  of  author  and  publisher,  we  may  safely  bespeak  success. 


DANIEL  J.  SCHUYLER. 

DANIEL  J.  SCHUYLER  was  born  in  the  town  of  Florida,  Montgomery 
county,  New  York,  February  16,  1839.  His  father,  Jacob  D.  Schuyler,  was 
a  farmer,  and  was  a  descendant  of  one  of  the  oldest  and  best  known  Knicker- 
bocker families,  so  prominent  in  the  history  of  the  state  of  New  York.  Gen. 
Philip  Schuyler,  of  revolutionary  fame,  was  of  the  same  family.  The  subject  of 
this  mention  was  educated  in  the  schools  of  the  section  where  he  was  born,  and 
finally  in  Union  College.  Soon  after  leaving  college,  and  in  1861,  he  entered  the 
law  office  of  Hon.  Francis  Kernan,  Utica,  New  York,  the  late  United  States  sen- 
ator from  that  state.  After  completing  his  course  of  study,  he  was  admitted  to 
the  bar  in  January,  1864,  and  came  to  Chicago  the  same  month,  and  has  been 
engaged  in  practice  here  since.  He  was  alone  in  practice  until  January,  1873, 
when  he  formed  a  partnership  with  Hon.  George  Gardner,  which  continued  until 
the  latter  was  elected  to  the  bench  of  the  superior  court  in  1880,  when  he  formed 
a  partnership  with  George  A.  Follansbee,  which  firm,  Schuyler  and  Follansbee, 
is  now  doing  a  successful  law  business,  and  is  one  of  the  most  reliable  in  this 
city.  As  a  lawyer  he  is  thorough  and  painstaking.  He  is  especially  accurate  in 
the  preparation  of  his  case,  and  never  goes  into  court  without  knowing  all  about 
it,  and  makes  so  clear  a  presentation  that  judge  and  jury  understand  it  as  well  as 
himself.  His  success  in  his  practice  is  the  result  of  fine  mental  endowments,  lit- 
erary acquirements,  industry,  application  and  the  most  scrupulous  honor  and 
integrity.  He  has  niceness  of  perception,  breadth  of  comprehension;  is  energetic, 
persevering,  practical,  and  has  none  of  the  meteoric  in  his  composition  ;  he  is 
progressive,  but  conservative  and  well  balanced. 

As  an  advocate  before  a  jury  he  is  one  of  the  most  effective  speakers  at  this 
bar.  In  manner  he  is  pleasing,  in  matter  logical  and  convincing.  He  is  candid, 
sincere  and  fair,  and  his  integrity  and  honor  being  known,  he  carries  conviction 
to  the  minds  of  an  honest  jury.  He  is  quiet,  dignified,  decided,  and  has  great 
firmness  of  character.  He  has  the  mien,  bearing  and  make-up  of  the  educated 
and  well  bred  gentleman  that  he  is.  He  is  in  the  front  rank  in  the  profession,  and 
has  the  respect  and  esteem  of  his  brother  lawyers.  Mr.  Schuyler  was  united  in 
marriage,  in  September,  1865,  with  Mary,  daughter  of  William  H.  Byford,  a  well 
known  physician  of  this  city.  They  have  had  four  children,  two  of  whom  survive. 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR   OF  CHICAGO.  657 

HON.    JOSEPH    M.    BAILEY. 

HON.  JOSEPH  MEAD  BAILEY  was  born  in  the  town  of  Middlebury, 
Wyoming  county,  New  York|  June  22,  1833.  Judge  Bailey  spent  his  boy- 
hood on  his  father's  farm,  at  the  place  of  his  birth,  and  attended  the  district 
school  near  his  father's  residence  until  he  was  about  thirteen  or  fourteen  years 
old.  He  then  entered  Middlebury  Academy,  in  the  village  of  Wyoming,  Wyo- 
ming county,  New  York,  and  there  fitted  for  college.  He  stood  well  in  his 
studies,  doing  his  work,  as  has  been  his  practice  ever  since,  faithfully,  conscien- 
tiously and  accurately.  During  his  preparation  for  college  he  was  out  of  school 
for  one  year  by  reason  of  severe  sickness,  but  in  September,  1851,  at  the  age  of 
eighteen  years,  he  entered  the  sophomore  class  of  the  University  of  Rochester. 
For  the  means  of  pursuing  his  studies  he  was  obliged  to  rely  entirely  upon  his 
own  exertions,  with  the  exception  of  a  small  sum  of  money  borrowed  from  a 
friend,  which  was  repaid  after  graduation.  In  1854  he  graduated,  among  the 
highest  in  his  class,  and  entered  the  law  office  of  Ethan  A.  Hopkins,  of  Rochester, 
New  York,  a  preceptor  of  whom  he  often  speaks  in  the  highest  terms.  He  was 
admitted  to  the  bar  in  November,  1855,  and  remained  in  Rochester  until  the  fol- 
lowing August,  when  he  came  to  Freeport,  Stephenson  county,  Illinois,  where  he 
has  since  resided.  He  took  a  prominent  position  among  the  lawyers  who  consti- 
tuted the  early  bar  of  Stephenson  county,  and  established  a  profitable  practice. 

In  1866  Judge  Bailey  was  elected  a  member  of  the  house  of  representatives  of 
the  general  assembly  of  the  state  of  Illinois.  He  was  chairman  of  the  joint  select 
committee  which  investigated  the  affairs  of  the  penitentiary,  after  it  was  thrown 
by  the  lessees  upon  the  hands  of  the  state,  and  drew  the  bill  which  afterward 
became  a  law,  and  which  is  substantially  the  one  upon  which  the  institution  has 
run  ever  since.  During  this  term  he  also  took  a  prominent  part  in  advocating 
restrictive  legislation  upon  railroads.  He  was  reelected  in  1868,  continued  his 
war  upon  railroad  abuses,  and  was  made  chairman  of  the  committee  on  railroads. 
In  1876  he  was  one  of  the  presidential  electors  for  the  state  of  Illinois.  In  1877 
he  was  elected  one  of  the  judges  of  the  thirteenth  judicial  circuit  of  the  state  of 
Illinois,  which  circuit  included  the  county  of  Stephenson.  In  January  following, 
upon  the  death  of  Judge  Heaton,  he  was  assigned  by  the  supreme  court  to  duty 
as  a  member  of  the  appellate  court  of  the  first  district,  sitting  in  Chicago.  In 
1879  he  was  reelected  circuit  judge,  without  opposition,  and  in  that  year,  and 
again  in  1881,  was  reassigned  to  duty  upon  the  appellate  court,  in  Chicago.  He 
was  presiding  justice  of  that  court  for  the  year  beginning  June  i,  1879,  and  again 
for  the  year  beginning  June  i,  1882.  In  the  summer  of  1879  he  received  the 
degree  of  LL.D.  from  the  universities  of  both  Rochester  and  Chicago. 

As  a  presiding  officer,   Judge   Bailey  has   few  superiors.      His   deportment, 
though  suave,  is  dignified  and  impressive.     He  is  quick  to  catch  a  point  and  see 
all  its  bearings.     His  decisions  are  prompt,  and  so  well  sustained  that  they  are 
generally  acquiesced  in  by  all  parties. 
70 


INDEX. 


Abbott,  Edwin  F.    335 

Abbott,  Wade 504 

Adams,  Cornelius  R 388 

Adams,  Hon.  George  E.  . .   528 

Aldis,  Owen  F      354 

Allen,  C.  L      578 

Allen,  James  L 355 

Allen,  Luman 348 

Anthony,  Hon.  Elliot 633 

Appleton,  Samuel  .......    560  ! 

Armstrong,  William    260  j 

Arnd,  Charles. 299 

Asay,  Edward  G 636 

Austin,  Hon.  Henry  S   . . .   364  | 

Avery,  Daniel  J  ." 333  j 

Aver,  Benjamin  F 551 

Bacon.  Roswell  B 248 

Bailey,  George  F 578 

Bailey,  Hon.  Joseph  M  . . .   657 

Baker,  Frank 453 

Baker,  Frederick  S 470 

Barnum,  Hon.  William  H.   651 

Bates,  Thomas   609 

Baldwin,  Algernon  B    ....   459 
Banning  and  Banning  ....   346 

Barber,  Edward  L 561 

Barker,  John  C     563 

Barker,  Joseph  N 598 

Barnard,  Philip 374 

Barnett,  Ferdinand  L. . . .     419 

Barton,  Jesse  B    501 

Batten,  Jr.,  John  H   402 

Bayley,  Edwin  F 410 

Beale,  William  G 439 

Beattie,  C.  Stuart 480 

Beck,  Marshall    627 

Beckington,  Robert   511 

Beckwith,  Hon.  Corydon  .  .    530 

Bellows,  George  G 342 

Bennett,  Horace  C  ......   513 

Bennett,  John  I    244 

Bennett,  Col.  John  W  ...     300 

Beverly,  John  M 502 

Bisbee,  Hon.  Lewis  H  . . . .     60 

Bissell,  Josiah  H 378 

Black,  William  P   206 

Blanchard,  Marvin 398 

Bliss,  E.  Raymond 113 

Blodgett,  Hon.  Henry  W  .      13 

Blume,  Jarvis   328 

Bond,  Hon.  Lester  L    ....      70 

Bonney,  Charles  C 53 

Booth,  Hon.  Henry 495 


Bowen,  Moses  S       

Boyden,  Noel  B 

Bradford,  William  B   

Brady,  Matthew  P 

Brandt,  George  W     

Brawley,  Francis  W.  S. . . . 

Brookins,  Arba 

Brown,  Charles  T 

Brown,  Moses  D   

Brown,  Capt.  Stephen  F  . . 

Brown,  Thomas  B 

Buell,  George  C 

Buell,  Ira  W    

Bunn,  Hon.  Romanzo 

Burgett,  John  M.  H    

Byam,  John  W 

Campbell,  George  C 

Canavan.  Austin  A 

Cartnichael,  Daniel  L   . . . . 

Carroll,  Robert  S 

Carter.  A.   D 

Caruthers,  Hon.  J.  P 

Cass,  George  W    

Caton,  Hon.  John  D 

Cavanaugh, Joseph  A 

Chesbrough,  Jr.,  Ellis  S.  . . 

Christian,  George  C 

Chumasero,  Hon.  John  C. 

Clarke,  Henry  W   

Cleaver,  James  M    

Coburn,  Lewis  L 

Cody,  Hon.  Hiram  H  . . .  . 

Collins,  Jr.,  Lorin  C   

Compton,  Frank 

Comstock,  Levi  M     

Condee,  Hon.  Leander  D  . 

Cook,  Hon.  Burton  C 

Cook,  Frank  O 

Cooper,  Charles  W 

Cornell,  Paul 

Cothran,  Geo.  W.,  LL.D'.  . 

Coy,  Hon.  Irus       

Crafts,  Clayton  E 

Cratty,  Thomas 

Crawford,  Maj.  Frank  1 .  .  . 

Crawford,  Henry 

Culver,  Washington  I 

Cummins,  Benjamin  F.  . .  . 

Cunning,  Hugh 

Cunningham,  Hon.  W.  B  . 

Custer,  Jacob  R 

Cuthbertson,  John 

Cutting,  Charles  S   


339  ]  Dale,  John  T     203 

158      Dalton,  John  E '. .  .    396 

485     Danforth,  George  C     512 

341     Dannecker,  Frederick  G  .  .   496 

464     Davis,  Hon.  David    8 

239     Dawson,  George  E 221 

473     Deane,  Maj.  Charles  W.  . .   625 

402  :  Decker,  Henry          391 

403  I  Decker,  Myron  A     200 

120  .  De  Lany,  Martin  A   173 

411      Demars,  Gustave 640 

469  j  Dent,  Thomas 89 

579  j  De  Wolf,  Calvin 145 

6^4     Dexter,  Wirt. .'. 578 

343  |  Dibble,  Charles  A 283 

238  i  Dickey,  Hon.  T.  Lyle 534 

317     Donahoe,  Daniel    589 

371  i  Donlin,  William  J 381 

459  I  Doolittle,   Hon.  James  R..     84 
250  |  Doolittle,  Jr.,  James  R    . . .      88 

438  I  Douglas,  Stephen  A 215 

533     Dow,  Hon.  Samuel  K  . . . .    274 

456  [  Drandorff,  Charles 386 

488     Driggs,  George   222 

510     Drummond,   Hon.  Thomas       5 

274     Dunne,  Michael  J 375 

399     Dupee,  Charles  A 542 

170     Eberhardt,  Maximilian.  ...   440 
302     Edsall,  Hon.  James  K  .  . . .    524 
649     Eldridge,  Gen.  Hamilton  N  232 
616     Elvig,  Albert  J 419 

24  English,  William  J 114 

316  !  Ennis,  James  471 

433  Ennis,  Lawrence  M 294 

307  Everett,  William  S 416 

139  Fairchild,  James  H  409 

336  Farwell,  William .  "W 517 

269  Fassett,  Milo  M 287 

655  Fay,  James  E 144 

590  Felch,  James  H 344 

218  Fellows,  Eugene  J 536 

322  Ferris,  L.  Vernon 331 

453  Flower,  James  M  554 

116  Flower,  John  F 281 

289  Follansbee,  George  A  ....  564 
643  Folsom,  Charles  A 431 

66  Forrest,  William  S 186 

331  Forrester,  Robert  H  . , ....  95 

552  I" rake,  James 288 

361  Freeman,  Capt.  Henry  V.  249 

481  French,  Samuel  A 311 

223  Freshwaters,  Milton  R  ...  312 
304  \  Fuller,  Hon.  Melville  W  .  .  262 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF   CHICAGO. 


659 


Furher,  Henry  I 506 

Gallup,  Benjamin  E  ......   623 

Gardner,  Hon.  George. .  .  .  ((48 

Gartside,  John  M 168 

Gary,  Hon.  Elbert  H 50 

Gary,  Hon.  Joseph  E 627 

Gary,  Noah  E 157 

Gates,  William  D 281 

Gault,  Thomas  H 345 

Gibbons,  John 243 

Gibbs,  Edward  A 597 

Gibbs'.  George  A 332 

Glover,  Joseph  O   234 

Goldsmith,  Henry  S    486 

Gooding,  Duncan  S 269 

Goodrich,  Hon.  Grant  ....    575 

Goodrich,  Henry  K    262 

Gookins,  Samuel  B   637 

Goudy,  Hon.  William  C...    519 

Green,  Adolphus  W 390 

Greene,  Loren 258 

Gregory,  Stephen  S 259 

Grinnell,  Julius  S. 161 

Groh,  Andrew  . 447 

Grover,  Alonzo  J 434 

Gurley,  William  W 574 

Hamline,  John  H 358 

Hammer,  D.  Harry 308 

Hanecy,  Elbridge 391 

Harkness,  Edson  J       268 

Harlan,  Hon.  John  M  .    .  .        7 

Harper,  Edgar  V 497 

Harper,  William   H 528 

Harris,  Charles  M 628 

Harris,  Graham  H    .......    541 

Harris,  Hon.   Madison  R  .   455 

Harrison,  Harry     392 

Haskell,  Benjamin 389 

Haskell,  Pliny   N   321 

Hatch,  Azel  F     377 

Hawes,  Hon.  Kirk 646 

Hawley,  George  A 315 

Helm,  Henry  T 382 

Helm,  Lynn 549 

Henderson,  Howard    405 

Herrick,  John  J    578 

Herring,  Frederick  A      .    .    227 

Hervey,  Robert 119 

Hibbard,  Homer  N    48 

Higgins,  Hon.  Van  H     .        580 

Hill,  Edward  J 478 

Hill.   Lysander 512 

Hillis,  David   M 199 

Hitchcock,  Charles    406 

Hoch,  James  I         479 

Hoffman,  Hon.  Francis  A .   4(15 

Holbrook,  Edmund  S 428 

Holmes,-  Israel 108 

Hood,  Thomas  H 548 

Hopkins,   Jr.   Ervin 456 

Horton,  Oliver  H 264 

Hosmer,  Charles  B 375 

Hoyne,  Philip  A 474 


Hoyne,  Hon.  Thomas  ....      16 

Hudson,    Henry 615 

Hull,  Perry  A 479 

Hurd,  Hon.  Harvey  B....  loo 
Huszagh,  Rudolph  D  .  ...  377 
Hynes,  Hon.  William  J  ...  531 

Ingham,  George  C 271 

Ingledew,  Maj.  L 175 

[ackson,  Huntington  W...     64 

Jackson,  Walter  M 293 

Jameson,  Hon.  John  A  ...      30 

Jayne,  Edgar  L 224 

t  Jetnison,  John  N 457 

Jenkins,  Robert  E 319 
enks,  Anson  B 431 

Jewett,  Hon.  John  N     ....   622 

.  Johnson,  Herbert  B    303 

Johnson,  William  S 330 

Johnston,  Jr.,  John 287 

Jones,  Gen.  J.  Blackburn  .    527 

JudaJi,  Noble  B     565 

Judd,  Hon.  S.  C 483 

Jussen,  Col.  Edmund 15 

Kales,  Francis  H    630 

Kendall,  Robert  B 573 

Keogh,  Sylvester  R   568 

Kerr,  Samuel      259 

Kettelle,  George  H      267 

King,  John  L 58 

King,  Rufus 282 

King,  Simeon  W 176 

King,  Hon.  William  H  . . .       40 

Kin'kaid,  William  H 485 

Kinney ,  Chester 305 

Kistler,  Louis    ...   327 

Knott,  E.  L 279 

Knickerbocker,  Hon.  J.  C.      32 

Knight,  G.  Rockliffe   482 

Knight,  Milton  L     445 

Knight,  Stephen  C 635 

Kretzinger,  George  W  .  .  .     284 

Landis,  Roland  R 623 

Latham,  James  F 645 

Law,  Jr.,  William  . .  .  .  584 
Lawrence,  Hon.  Charles  B  252 

Lawrence,  Charles  H 505 

Leake,  Hon.  Joseph  B  .  35 
Leffingwell,  William  E  . .  614 

Legro,  Otto  E   530 

Leman,  Henry  W 252 

Lincoln,  Hon.  Robert  T  .  .    503 

Ling,  John     400 

Loomis,  Hon.  Mason  B.  .  .   292 

Low,  Wolfred  N   326 

Lund,  Adolph 458 

Lyman,  David  B 600 

Lyon,  David  J  499 

Lynns,  Robert  L 515 

McAllister,  Hon.  Wm.  K  .    525 

McCagg,  Ezra  B 510 

McClanahan,  Edmund  B..   51') 

I  McClellan,  John  J 383 

i  McClory,  Henry 539 


McConnell,  Samuel  P  . . . . 

McCoy,  Alexander 

McCune,  Eugene  C 

McElroy,  James  P 

McKeough,  John 

McKey,  Henry     

Manchester,  Daniel  W .  . . 

Manning,  Williams  J 

Marsh,  John  W  ....    

Martin,  Capt.  Player  ...    . 

Mason,  Hugh  L 

Mason,  Hon.  William   E.. 

Matson,  Capt.  C.  R     

Matthews,  Henry  M 

Matthews,  Wick 

Mattocks,  John 

Meech,  George  A     

Merriam,  Joseph  W 

Metcalf,  Edwin  L 

Miller,  Henry  G   

Miller,  Michael  M 

Mills,  Luther  L 

Mills,  William  

Mitchell,  William  L 

Moffett,   Frederick  S 

Monroe,  Charles  W 

Monroe,  Henry  S   

Montgomery,  William  A.  . 

Moore,  Charles  E 

Moore,  Will  H 

Morris,  Edward  H    

Morrison,  Robert  E 

Moran,  Daniel     .    

Moran,  Hon.  Thomas  A  .  . 

Moses,  Adolph 

Munn,  Benjamin  M   

Munn,  Hon.  Daniel  W.... 

Newman,  Jacob 

Nicholes,  Charles  W 

Nicholes,  Daniel  C 

North,  T.  Holmes 

Norton,  James  S 

Norton,  Hon.  Jesse  O  .  . .  . 

Noyes,  Henry  C 

O'Brien,  Hon.  William  W. 

O'Callaghan,  William  I 

Offield    Charles  K 

Olney,  John       

Otis,  Arthur  G 

Otis,  Hon.  E.   A    

Otis,  Lucius  B 

Osborne,  H.  S.  and  F.  S.  . 

Parker,  John  R 

Parker,  Jr..  Thomas 

Paul,  Harrison  D 

Payne,  Eugene  B 

Pay  son,  George 

Pedrick,  Isaac  H 

Pence,  Abram  M 

Pfirshing,  Joseph 

Phelps,  William  A 

Piper,  Charles  W 

Plotke,  Nathan   M 


212 
57" 
503 
389 
5«9 
172 

444 
196 

293 
349 
388 
555 
214 
163 
53<> 
433 
231 

134 
343 
515 
410 

67 
361 
167 
251 
39f> 
4M 
38i 
500 
312 
529 
335 
552 

93 
184 
138 
152 
230 
306 
3°5 
549 
387 
460 

325 
354 
539 
3»4 
621 

228 

135 
566 

138 

497 
432 
428 

233 

3«>3 
55° 
413 
463 
539 
53* 


66o 


THE   BENCH  AND   BAR    OF  CHICAGO. 


Plummer,  George  W 494 

Pope,  Charles  E 371 

Pratt,  Chester  D 439 

Pratt,  Lorin  G ,. .   350 

Prendergast,  Hon.  Richard  605 

Prentice,  David  K 359 

Prescott,  William 213 

Quick,  John  H.  S 157 

Quigg,  Col.  David...    . ...    174 

Rae,  Robert 150 

Rainey,  William  G 516 

Raymond^  James  H  ...  519 
Remick,  Charles  F  .......  641 

Remy,    Curtis  H 347 

Rexford,  Henry  L 386 

Reynolds,  Frank  P 492  i 

Reynolds,  Gen.  Joseph  S. .   420  • 

Rich,  Arthur  D no 

Richardson,  William  H  ...  362 
Richolson,  Benjamin  F  .  . .  446 
'Riddle,  Hon.  Francis  A.  . .  607 

Roberts,  Richard  B 279 

Robinson,  Michael  W 291 

Roby,  Edward 68 

Rogers,  George  M 212 

Rogers,  Hon.  John  G 78 

Rountree,  John  M 205 

Rubens,  Harry 610 

Runyan,  Eben  F 216 

Salomon,  Moses 491 

Sawin,  George 298 

Scammon,  Jonathan  Y. . .  .    537 

Scales,  Hon.  Walter  B 585 

Schuyler,  Daniel  J      -.   656 

Scoville,  George 562 

Sears  and  Foster 239 

Seelye,  Henry  E     452 

Sexton,  Austin  O 482 

.Shaffner,  Benjamin  M  . . . .   498 

Sheridan,  William  A 613 

Sherman,  Hon.  Elijah  B  .  .      80 

Sherman,  Penoyer  L.' 604 

Shirland,  William  H 599 

Shirley,  Thomas 520 

Shissler,  Louis 359 

Shorey,  Daniel  L 492 

Shreve,  Luther  M 147 


Simons,  Franklin  P 228 

Skelly,  William  H 597 

Smith,  Abner 350 

Smith,  Edwin  K  .    373 

Smith,  Hon.  Joseph  E  .  .  .  .  185 

Smith,  Jr.,  Perry  H 106 

Smith,  Gen.  Robert  W. . .  .  372 

Smith,  Hon.  Sidney 37 

Smith,  Uzziel  P 290 

Smith,  Wallace 137 

Soreng,  Ole  D 425 

Sparling,  George 629 

Stanford,  George  W 360 

Starrett,  William  A 412 

Steele,  Henry  T 320 

Stewart,  William  W 368 

Stiles,  Gen.  Israel  N 194 

Storer,  John  D 340 

Storrs,  Emery  A 448 

Story,  Allan  C 130 

Stout,  Gen.  Alexander  M  .  426 

Straus,  Simeon 395 

Swett,  Hon.  Leonard 38 

Swift,  William  H 273 

Tagert,  Alfred  N 533 

Taylor,  Capt.  John  L 404 

Thacher,  Hon.  John  M  ...  153 

Thomas,  J.  B ....  363 

Thomas    Sidney 254 

Thompson,  John  H 486 

Thompson,  John  L 109 

Thompson,  John  S 639 

Thompson,  Hon.  Richards  45 

Thornton,  Charles  S 90 

Tourtellotte,  F.  W 1^6 

Towle,  Henry  S 574 

Trude,  Alfred  S 164 

Trumbull,  Hon.  Lyman...  546 

Tuley,  Hon.  Murray  F. . . .  44 

Turner,  Oren  W 405 

Turnes,  Jacob  C 444 

Tuthill,  Richard  S   140 

Twiss,  Richard  B 603 

Valentine,  Ezra  G 540 

Vallette,  Henry  F 397 

Van  Arman,  John 556 

Van  Buren,  Augustus 75 


Van  Buren,  Hon.  Evert..  501 

Van  Schaack,  Cornelius.  .  .  190 

Vary,  Bennett  H 385 

Vocke,  Capt.  William    ....  494 

Voss,  Col.  Arno 548 

Wachop,  I.  S 457 

Walker,  Alexander  J    541 

Walker,  Francis  W 329 

Wallace,  Gen.  Martin  R.  M  606 

Waller,  Henry 316 

Wait,  Horatio  L 560 

Waite,  Hon.  Charles  B  .  . .  240 

Waite,  Hon.  Horace  F. . . .  76 

Wakeman,  Hon.  T.  B     . .  .  260 

Ward,  James  H 427 

Waterman,  Arba  M  . . .    .  .  156 

Waterman,  Richard 314 

Waughop,  John  W 395 

Weigley,  Fillmore 470 

Weigley,  Frank  S 330 

West,  Hon.  Edmund  A  ...  469 

West,  James 447 

Westover,  J.  Henry 547 

Wheeler,  Newton  C 654 

White,  Charles  F 399 

Whiteside,  Thomas  C 642 

Whitney,  Col.  Loren  H  .  . .  182 

Wilder,  Henry  A 443 

Wilkinson,  Frederick 357 

Willard,  Gardner  G 347 

Willard,  George 202 

Willett,  Hon.  Consider  H.  587 

Williams,  Charles    442 

Williams,  Hon.  .Erastus  S.  650 

Williamson,  Hon.  Rollin  S  526 

Willits,  George  S 140 

Wilson,  Hon.  Isaac  G  . . . .  417 

Wilson,  William  C 332 

Windes,  Thomas  G 567 

Wolseley,  Henry  W 356 

Woodle,  Edward  R 374 

Woodman,  Charles  W 487 

Wyman,  Gilbert   498 

Young,  Kimball 271 

Young,  William  H 625 

Zook,  David  L 454 


UNIVERSITY  OF  ILLINOIS-URBANA 


